MIGRANTS’ POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN COMPARATIVE

PERSPECTIVE: THE LOCALMULTIDEM PROJECT

Dr. Laura Morales

(University of Murcia &

University of Manchester)

Sponsored by:

The Research TeamsProject coordinator: Dr. Laura Morales (ISC, University

of Manchester).

Institutional coordinator: University of Murcia (Spain).

Partners:

- Dr. Manlio Cinalli (CEVIPOF-FNSP, France)

- Prof. Mario Diani (University of Trento, Italy)

- Dr. Marco Giugni (University of Geneva, Switzerland)

- Prof. Endre Sik (MTAKI, Hungary)

- Prof. Paul Statham (University of Bristol, United Kingdom)

Studying immigrants’ political integration in Europe: an overview of the project

• Research questions:

• To what extent are immigrants from different ethnic groups politically integrated in the local life of their cities?, and

• what explains the variations in the degree of political integration from one ethnic group to another?

• Defining political integration:

(a)the socio-political participation, and

(b)the political trust and acceptance of the immigrant/ethnic population with regard to the political values, elites, and institutions of the polity in which they live.

• The concept of political integration is operationalised in this project through the consideration of two different dimensions:

• Political orientations: political trust, interest in politics, political knowledge and information, feelings of identity and belonging, feelings of political efficacy, democratic values, social tolerance, concepts of citizenship, etc.

• Socio-political behaviour: involvement in different kinds of associations (ethnic, political parties, trade unions, cultural groups, NGOs, etc.) and various forms of political action (electoral behaviour, and non-electoral behaviour).

• Main hypotheses: the degree of civic and political integration of migrant/ethnic groups is dependent on:

(1)the individual characteristics of immigrants;

(2)the ethnic and non-ethnic character of organisation formation (i.e. the structure of organisational networks);

(3)the institutional and discursive opportunity structure; and

(4)the characteristics of the ethnic group in the host society (demographic composition, size, position in the socio-economic structure).

• Three levels of analysis:

• Contextual or macro: Political opportunities structures & socio-economic indicators

• Organizational: survey to organisations.

• Individual: survey to representative samples of local populations, stratified by ethnic/national origin. 1,200 individuals in each city, 900 of three different migrant origins, and 300 autochthonous.

• Research design and structure of project:

Organisational structures and networks

WORKPACKAGE 3: Organisational survey

Political and discursive opportunity structures (host society)

- Local policies towards immigrants’ associations.- Openness of public authorities.- Openness of formal institutions. - Configuration of local power.- General policies towards immigrants.- Prevailing discourse on immigration and immigrants.

WORKPACKAGE 1: Analysis of documents, decisions, and structures.

Characteristics of the ethnic group (in host society)

- Socio-demographic composition and size- Migration history of the ethnic group.- Socio-economic status.- Relevant aspects of the political culture of the ethnic group.

WORKPACKAGE 2: Collection of statistics and official data

Individual characteristics of immigrants

Social, political and economic resources.

POLITICAL INTEGRATION

Socioeconomic integration

Power inequalities

WORKPACKAGE 4Population survey

• The project focuses on the local level.

• The LOCALMULTIDEM project includes 6 European cities: Budapest (Hungary), London (UK), Lyon (France), Madrid (Spain), Milan (Italy), and Zurich (Switzerland).

• The LOCALMULTIDEM project is coordinated with the Multicultural Democracy in Europe (MDE) network of researchers which have carried (or are carrying) out similar projects in: Berlin (Germany), Brussels (Belgium), Barcelona and Murcia (Spain), Oslo (Norway), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Lisbon (Portugal), Stockholm (Sweden), & Geneva and Neuchâtel (Switzerland).

SETTING THE SCENE: THE CONTEXT OF MIGRATION

• We have selected cities with different concentrations of migrant groups.

• The cities also differ in the timing of migration flows.Some are cities of long-standing migration and others are ‘newcomers’ to large migration flows.

51

49

30

70

18

82

13

87

9

91

3

97

0

20

40

60

80

100

London Zurich Madrid Milan Lyon Budapest

Note: Figures are for 2005, except London & Lyon that are for 2000.

Percentage of immigrants in the six cities

Immigrant Non-immigrant

Change in the size of the immigrant population between 1995 and 2005 in percentages*

438.9

152.9

16.1 9.3 -17.7

121.8

-100.0

0.0

100.0

200.0

300.0

400.0

500.0

Madrid Milan London Budapest Zürich Lyon

• Groups in each city were selected guided by various criteria:

• Substantial size of the group within the migrant communities in the city.

• At least one group of ‘long-standing’ migrant groups and one of more recent arrival.

• At least one group of Muslim background in each city.

• To the extent possible, we tried to have some groups in common across cities (also with the non-LOCALMULTIDEM studies).

The project will disseminate its results in various ways, among which:

• Various reports and a policy blueprint for the European Commission.

• This conference for all stakeholders in Brussels.

• An edited volume to be published in 2009-2010.

• A special issue in a journal to be published in 2010-2011.

MORE INFORMATION AT

http://www.um.es/localmultidem

Join the e-newsletter of the project through the website