How German Parties Select Candidates of Immigrant Origin

This book analyzes the threshold candidates of immigrant background need to overcome to run for legislative office. Understanding whether political parties are able to adapt their selection criteria helps to assess their ability to respond to the underrepresentation of citizens of immigrant origin in parliament.
Although Germany's ethnic diversity is on a steady rise, citizens of immigrant origin remain descriptively underrepresented. Despite the pivotal role the intra-party candidate selection plays in shaping who runs for election, the question of how candidates of immigrant background fare in political parties' candidate selection in comparison to native-born candidates remained a blind spot of research. Therefore, the author presents in-depth empirical evidence on the selection of candidates of immigrant background in German political parties.
The book addresses scholars of political science interested in electoral studiesas well as policy-makers and party officials interested in a balanced representation of their political representatives.

Presents empirical evidence on the selection of candidates of immigrant background Analyzes the thresholds candidates of immigrant background need to overcome to run for legislative office Offers insights on how political parties can select candidates of immigrant origin

Auteur

Sara Ceyhan received her doctorate from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Goethe University of Frankfurt (Germany). After years of research focused on the selection of parliamentary candidates, she started working in the field of strategic communication analysis for EU institutions.

Contenu
The Relevance of Party Candidate Selection for Immigrant Representation.- The Political Representation of Immigrant Origin Citizens in Germany.- Candidate Selection as a Bottleneck on the Way to Parliament.- Party Selection Behavior Towards Immigrant Origin Candidates A Framework of Analysis.- Variances in Party Selection Behavior Towards Immigrant Origin Candidates.- Research Design.- Are Immigrant Origin Candidates Any Different?.- Requirements for the Nomination of Immigrant Origin Candidates.- How Political Parties Support the Nomination of Immigrant Origin Candidates.- Variances in Party Selection Behavior.- Conclusion.- Appendix.