Political Participation and Representation of Immigrants in the European Union

Research question/goal: 

 

The aim of this project is to carry out cross-national analyses of the electoral behaviour and political representation of immigrants and citizens with a migratory background in European democracies.
The project deals with the following questions:

  1. Electoral Behaviour: Does immigrant participation correlate with their level of inclusion into the political, social, economic and/or cultural life? What are the effects of institutional arrangements and policies developed to foster the participation of immigrants in elections? To what degree is the party choice affected by the migratory background, the degree of integration, and party policies?
  2. Representation: How well are immigrants and citizens with a migratory background represented in parliaments? Are there differences in the POS by party family? What are the effects of minority representation on discourse and policy? And does the representation of immigrants and citizens with a migratory background require their presence?

 

Current stage: 

 

A review of theories and of the most important empirical findings on the topic is about to being completed. The research design for a comparative study on the UK, France and Germany has been drafted which includes indicators and potential variables. At present, fieldwork consisting of elite interviews, the collection of constituency data and voting behaviour, and on MPs’ parliamentary behaviour has been launched for France.

In the Eight Research Programme the project moved to  "Marie Curie Initial Training Network in Electoral Democracy (ELECDEM)"