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Migration Policy Group

Migrant Voices – Mainstreaming Diversity in Political Parties

PRESENTATION

MPG recently undertook a pilot project funded by the European Programme on Integration and Migration (EPIM) to assess the extent to which migrants’ voices are successfully heard at all levels of interaction with political parties (constituents, voters, activists, employees, and political candidates). A major output will be the development of benchmarks to help parties “practice what they preach” by mainstreaming diversity practices into party processes across the political spectrum

France, Germany, UK and beyond

Scheduled to run from December 2010 to December 2011, the project brought together senior strategists from the primary political groupings in France, Germany and the United Kingdom to share good practice and formulate experience-based recommendations for action.

The target countries have some of the largest migrant populations in the European Union, long histories of immigration and sizeable electorates. They are valuable testing grounds to pilot the project for future extension to other EU countries.

Advisory Council

MPG worked with an Advisory Council made up of one individual from each of the three target countries with access to cross-party political networks and extensive experience in diversity mainstreaming to engage national-level stakeholders, contribute expertise to the comparative analysis and benchmarking process, as well as to disseminate the findings of the project within civil society organisations at a national level.

Toolkit & Results

PoliticalParties_OnlineDiverstyTool_web

Visit the Benchmarking Tool

The project produced a ‘toolkit’ for mainstreaming diversity in political parties including:

  • The results of the comparative analysis
  • Concrete proposals on effective multi-level diversity mainstreaming
  • Examples of good practice
  • Benchmarks and indicators for evaluating strategies.

The toolkit is designed for use by parties across the political spectrum as well as for use by immigrants and civil society actors working towards the better representation of migrants’ voices in politics.

The findings of the project were presented and discussed at an expert meeting at the European Parliament hosted by the EP Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup.

To learn more about the European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM), click here.

LATEST PRODUCTS

Migrant Voices - Mainstreaming Diversity in Political Parties WORK IN USE

Head of the Estonian Human Rights Centre uses MPG’s benchmarking tool to press for more diversity within Estonian political parties

November 13, 2013
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estonianHRcentreThe head of the Estonian Human Rights Centre published a column in Postimees, Estonia’s first daily newspaper, in which he refers to MPG’s benchmarking tool for political parties to press for more diversity on Estonia’s political scene.

With its large Russian-speaking minority, politics in Estonia has been divided across ethnic lines since the country’s independence. In his column, Kari Käsper states that “election results show that [Estonia’s four major political parties] cannot or do not want to represent society’s diversity“. He looks at the composition of the parties’ executive boards and notes that in the Social Democratic Party only three members out of 23 are of Russian origin; one out of 16 in the Estonian Centre Party; and none in the Reform Party and in the Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica.

MPG’s toolkit on Becoming a Party of choice includes a benchmarking tool to help parties opening to diversity and equality, from voters and candidates to staff and suppliers. The benchmarks looks at at the following questions, for instance:

  • Are equality data used to map the party’s electorate?
  • Are candidates with a migrant background allocated as many winnable constituencies or winnable seats as other candidates?
  • To what extent does the composition of party leadership and executive structure reflects society’s diversity?

A new project, DivPol, was launched earlier this year and will use MPG’s tool with political parties across the political spectrum in seven European countries.

MPG’s toolkit on diversity in political parties used across the political spectrum

October 15, 2013
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pes-transOn 11 October, the Party of European Socialists (PES) adopted the declaration “Striving for a fair representation of people with an ethnic or a migrant background” to promote European diversity. The declaration has been adopted on the basis of the report “Involvement of people with a migrant or an ethnic background within PES Parties’ structures” presented to the PES presidency by Emine Bozkurt MEP. Ahead of the European elections in 2014, the declaration contains statements such as:

We commit to undertake concrete measures in order for our Parties to be more inclusive and representative of the population, such as adapting our structures, rules and methods, recruiting members from a more diverse background, empowering candidates from all backgrounds or engaging effectively with communities.

We will strive to ensure a fair representation of people with an ethnic and migrant background on our lists for the upcoming European elections and reaffirm our pledge to have a parliamentary Group that is a more accurate reflection of the society.

Bozkurt’s report draws extensively on MPG’s toolkit on Becoming a Party of choice and uses MPG’s benchmarking tool to help parties opening to diversity and equality, from voters and candidates to staff and suppliers. The benchmarks looks at at the following questions, for instance:

  • Are equality data used to map the party’s electorate?
  • Are candidates with a migrant background allocated as many winnable constituencies or winnable seats as other candidates?
  • To what extent does the composition of party leadership and executive structure reflects society’s diversity?

A new project, DivPol, was launched earlier this year and will use MPG’s tool with political parties across the political spectrum in seven European countries.

The PES declaration follows the use last year by the Centre for European Studies – the European People’s Party think-tank – of MPG’s benchmarking tool for its policy brief on Migrating Towards Participation: Immigrants and Their Descendants in the Political Process, in which the think-tank stressed that “strategically, contributing to the political integration of immigrants would help distinguish the European centre-right from populist and extremist political alternatives. Following their anti-immigrant rhetoric would only alienate the traditional centre-right electorate and cost the mainstream centre-right some credibility”.

This shows that the need to better reflect society’s diversity is becoming a mainstream concern for political parties across the political spectrum.

Migrant Voices - Mainstreaming Diversity in Political Parties WORK IN CONTEXT

Upcoming Decision of the Bremen Constitutional Court on Voting Rights for Third Country Nationals

December 17, 2013
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MIPEX III Germany_Turkey_by_Mohamed-Yahyashows us that third country nationals do not enjoy voting rights anywhere in Germany.  This could change  in the near future if the Bremen Constitutional Court gives the green light to the Bremen Parliament to adopt legislation allowing third country nationals to  vote in local council elections in a decision to be taken on 31st January 2014.  The draft law has already passed the first reading but Parliament has asked for a judicial review before moving onto the second reading.

Previous rulings of both the German Federal Constitutional Court (notably the ruling of 31 October 1990) and the Bremen Constitutional Court (1991) have found the extension of voting rights to third country nationals to be unconstitutional.  Consequently, MIPEX III and the MIPEX blog “Voting rights for Immigrants: Next stop Berlin?” noted that constitutional change is a pre-requisite for allowing third country nationals to vote in Germany.  However, the consultation process for Bremen’s draft law has highlighted the view held by some experts that the objections posed by the courts in the past are no longer valid and that the draft law does not require amendment of the constitution.   We will have to wait until 31st January to find out if the constitutional court of Bremen agrees!

MIPEX III, the OSCE background paper on Migration and Democracy: Migrant Participation in Public Affairs (prepared by MPG) and the Special Feature on Migrant Political Integration (prepared by MPG for the European Web Site on Integration) provide useful analysis of the voting rights afforded to third country nationals by EU Member States and beyond.  While voting rights in national elections are very rare (in the UK and Portugal only, and only for nationals of certain third countries), were Bremen to pass the proposed law it would join 16 other Member States which currently allow third country nationals to vote in local elections (although the conditions for exercising this right differ widely among these countries).  These examples have allowed researchers to conclude that once granted, electoral rights are not revoked or seriously challenged.  In practice, letting immigrants participate in elections before their naturalisation has few implementation and maintenance costs, and few of the supposedly negative effects often raised play out in practice (foreign influence, ethnic parties, radical overturn of the status quo).

In the lead up to this important decision, Bremen should keep in mind that the challenge of involving immigrants in the democratic process does not end with the extension of voting rights.  Research has found that critical follow-up steps include outreach by political parties.  In this respect, we urge Germany’s political parties to use the benchmarking tool developed by MPG to help them mainstream diversity throughout their processes, including outreach to voters.

More MPs with a migrant background in new German parliament

September 26, 2013
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The recent national elections in Germany have brought 34 MPs with a migrant background in the Bundestag – about 5.5% of all MPs, up from 3.4% in the previous legislature. In particular, the of MPs with Turkish roots doubled. Karamba Diaby, a Senegal-born chemist, became Germany’s first Black MP.

Germany-candidatesAlthough 8.2% of Germany’s 80 million people are immigrants, or the children or grandchildren of immigrants, relatively few have made it into the federal legislature. Until now there were no black lawmakers in Parliament, despite more than 500,000 people of recent African origin believed to be living in Germany.

A closer look at party lists indicates that left-wing parties (SPD, Greens, Die Linke) put forward more candidates with a migrant background than right-wing parties (CDU and CSU). This follows several calls.

MPG’s toolkit on Becoming a Party of choice includes a benchmarking tool to help parties opening to diversity and equality, from voters and candidates to staff and suppliers. The benchmarks looks at at the following questions, for instance:

  • Are equality data used to map the party’s electorate?
  • Are candidates with a migrant background allocated as many winnable constituencies or winnable seats as other candidates?
  • To what extent does the composition of party leadership and executive structure reflects society’s diversity?

The toolkit also includes a comparative analysis of various initiatives initiated in this field by political parties in France, Germany and the UK.

A new project, DivPol, was launched earlier this year and will use MPG’s tool.

EVENTS