Who's Your Candidate? Migration Edition

Grace Fortson, Hannah Garcia, Gabriella  Petrossi-Baugham

Directed by Dr. Lara-Zuzan Golesorkhi

Our “Who’s Your Candidate – Migration Edition” voting guide provides an interactive platform to learn about the presidential candidates’ past and current views on migration. The guide addresses five main areas: immigration reform, refugees and asylum, citizenship, borders, and irregular migration. With this voting guide, we hope to raise awareness about the significance of migration and migrant rights in contemporary elections.

Migrants constitute a population that is bound by laws and policies over which they have limited control. Since the enactment of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, federal law has prohibited non-citizens from voting in federal elections. Non-citizens have not been allowed to vote in state elections since 1926 and presently only eleven local governments allow non-citizens to vote.

Our voting guide is based on the premise that those subject to the law should be able to have a say in it. Because non-citizens are not allowed to vote in federal elections, our guide calls on the agency of those that can vote - citizens. The guide was conceived in the context of the University of Portland’s Public Research Fellowship Program. In speaking to the program’s inaugural theme “Women’s Suffrage” and to celebrate 100 years of voting rights for women (with exceptions), our voting guide uses strategies of the suffragists to raise awareness about an issue that is highly debated, yet highly contested. Education was a key strategy in the suffrage movement. Our guide furthers knowledge on the presidential candidates’ past and current views on migration and allows voters to make informed decisions come election day.

See the quiz prototype and find out more about where different political figures stand on issues related to immigration.