The party-political integration of members with migrant backgrounds

Abstract

Members with a migrant background (MMB) are underrepresented in political parties. So far, most research on this issue only scrutinises the representation of elite-level politicians with migrant backgrounds. To enhance this literature, I survey approaches toward the party-political integration of MMB at the rank-and-file level. The paper is centred around the following question; are local party leaders committed to the party-political integration of MMB or are they biased against them? In two original studies in Germany, including a field experiment and a conjoint experiment, I show that local party leaders are equally willing to engage in public discourse about the recruitment of MMB and general member recruitment and that many of them declare a commitment toward increasing the share of MMB. However, this declared commitment is in large part driven by social-desirability bias: when asked to declare preferences based on multiple attributes of potential members, the commitment to increase the share of MMB disappears for most parties. Much more than their migration background, the age and gender of potential members dictate preferences: young people and women are most often mentioned as preferred new members.