Internal migration dramatically transforms urban populations in democracies like India, yet newcomers often face service access barriers.

Innovative nationwide field experiments revealed that merely signaling a voter's migrant status—whether as an 'outsider' or 'newcomer' vs. long-term resident—instantly reduced incumbent responsiveness by about 40%, even when voters requested help directly.

This discovery challenged conventional nativist explanations, showing discrimination persists without overt ethnic animosity. We traced this effect to politicians' strategic calculus: recognizing migrants are structurally less likely to return electoral support next cycle in India's complex system, they deliberately neglect their needs now.

🌍 Findings:

▶️ Incumbents drop service responsiveness by 40% when aware of voter migration status

🤔 Why It Matters:

This represents an election-time 'demographic discount' for migrants—a subtle form of political exclusion that operates even without explicit nativism. Such discrimination likely stems from the perception that catering to immediate migrant concerns is strategically unwise.

💡 Implications:

These results suggest similar dynamics may occur in other fast-urbanizing democracies like China, Brazil, or Nigeria. The findings have direct relevance for immigration politics globally—not just ethnic exclusion but structural electoral calculus underlies service gaps for mobile populations.