How Xenophobia Shapes Political Party Support: Evidence from COVID-19 in Canada

Area of Science:

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Ethnic Studies

Background:

• Racialized and ethnically marginalized groups often exhibit strong political party loyalties.
• The potential for group-specific political discourse to alter these established loyalties remains an area of investigation.
• The COVID-19 pandemic heightened anti-Asian sentiment, providing a unique context to study its impact on political behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if racist, group-specific political discourse can undermine political party loyalties among panethnic groups.
• To examine the impact of anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic on political party support among various Asian ethnic groups in Canada.
• To explore whether shared vulnerability to discrimination can activate or, conversely, undermine a sense of linked fate.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Canadian Election Study data within a quasi-experimental research design.
• Analyzed changes in political party support among different Asian ethnic groups.
• Compared shifts in party support relative to a control group during the pandemic.

Main Results:

• Conservative Party support declined more significantly among Chinese respondents compared to other Asian ethnic groups post-pandemic.
• This decline occurred despite Chinese Canadians being the most likely to vote Conservative pre-pandemic.
• The study found that not all racialized individuals within the Asian panethnic identity rejected the Conservative Party, indicating a potential undermining of linked fate.

Conclusions:

• Periods of widespread discrimination can prompt marginalized groups to reject exclusionary political parties.
• Racially hostile but group-specific language may not uniformly activate a sense of linked fate or collective political action.
• The findings suggest that the impact of discrimination on political loyalty is complex and can vary within panethnic groups.