Migrants and Natives in German City Politics

This paper investigates whether the priorities of native and immigrant-origin sections of the electorate are shared by their political representatives.  We draw on data from population surveys from 2009 (n=1027) and 2014 (n=1003), and a recent survey of political candidates (n=711) in the same German cities.  Prior research on immigrant representation has tended to focus on national politics.  Studying cities allows us to include new issues and to capture variation in the scope and style of conflict over immigration and social diversity. Systematic comparisons of local political candidates and voters, especially voters with a migrant background, remain rare.  Our results provide a number of surprises.  Residents with immigrant and non-immigrant backgrounds share many priorities.  For instance, they produce very similar rankings of the importance of local policies such as school funding, new housing or care for the elderly.  We also find certain differences.  For example, we find remarkably strong support among native and immigrant residents, and among immigrant politicians, for affirmative action policies, but less support among native political candidates.  The paper discusses explanations for these similarities and differences, and the implications of the findings for our view of immigrant political incorporation in Europe.