Incorporation beyond Cleavages? Parties, Candidates and Germany's Immigrant-Origin Electorate

Abstract

This article is an attempt to shed more light on the relationship between parties and immigrants. The focus of the empirical analyses is on candidates and issues as linkage mechanisms between parties and voter groups. The results do not only point to some changes in this relationship, but also to a few elements that indicate a specific representational bond between the immigrant-origin electorate and immigrant-origin politicians. This finding corroborates the 'politics of presence' hypothesis by Anne Phillips, but rather as a complementary element of political representation than as a substitute. There are significant differences in some migration-related policy positions of native politicians and of those of immigrant origin -in all parties. Irrespective of the specific voter -candidate relationship among the immigrant-origin population, the analyses in this article strongly support the traditional, party-centred 'politics of ideas' approach. Consequently, the political integration of immigrants and their descendants can be characterised as a more general process across parties, and this process is expected to linger on.

When Politicians Feel Pressure to Represent: Evidence from South Africa

“…Other non-electoral incentives also apply to women who are by definition spread across districts (Htun 2004): They may be concerned with political reputation if they do not represent certain positions, but representatives may also have intrinsic motivation or conform to specific roles in line with group membership. What is more, minority groups and interest groups may lobby representatives to represent the interests of 'their' group (Broockman 2013;McClendon 2016;Wüst 2010). Here we refer to minorities of power, who need not necessarily form a numerical minority in the population.…”

“…We expect the underlining influences to be the same, although the weight of the different channels may be different. Starting with the population at the bottom of Figure 1, voters and other members of the population may address a representative to lobby for purported group interests (Wüst 2016;Dinesen, Dahl, and Schiøler 2021), such as when local businesses lobby for the exclusion of competitors, as is often the case in South African townships where business activities of foreign nationals are restricted (Piper and Charman 2016). Such lobbying may be more successful when the representatives are members of the business community.…”

Germany in Transition? An Appraisal of Immigration Trends and Identity Debates in the Context of the 2015–2016 Refugee Crisis

“…Christian Wülff, of the CDU, who had served a short term as President of Germany, proclaimed in 2010, that immigrant-origin Muslims and Islam itself should now be viewed as an essential component of German society. These changes signalled the transition from the Ausländerpolitik prevalent under the chancellorship of Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl, to that of Integrationspolitik , whose foundation was laid by Gerhard Schröder and later consolidated by Angela Merkel (Wüst, 2016).…”

Nomination trade-offs: How context affects political parties’ strategies to nominate immigrant-origin candidates

“…Indeed, this suggests a general trend of increasing immigrant-origin candidacies. Like in other European democracies (Martin, 2016;Wu ¨st, 2016), also in Switzerland right parties appear to increase their share of immigrant-origin candidates. Switzerland therefore constitutes a relevant case to study the factors underlying this increased interest in immigrant-origin candidates.…”