We provide the first empirical evidence that differences in government ideology play an
important role in the choice of cross-border migration destinations. In absence of first-hand
experience, immigrants rely on information about the political landscape of the origin and host
countries to form expectations about the context of reception in the host society. We use
data on bilateral migration and government ideology for 36 OECD countries between 1990 and
2016. Our analysis shows that bilateral migration flows are higher when the government at the
destination is more left-wing than the government at the origin, especially when we consider
proximate countries
