Research shows national parliaments in the UK and the Netherlands host highest number of MPs of immigrant origin
Key research findings about the political representation of citizens of immigrant origin (IO) in European national parliaments have been announced at an event in central London on Monday 15 February.
The findings, announced at an event today organised by Professor Laura Morales from the Department of Politics and International Relations in collaboration with the Political Studies Association, are from the ‘Pathways to Power’ project, which studies the political representation of IO MPs in the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.
Professor Morales (pictured) said: “The study is the first of its kind to compare in a systematic way the political representation of citizens of immigrant origin across European countries. Our findings show that migrants and their native-born offspring are under-represented in national parliaments in all countries, but they are much more likely to gain elected national office in the Netherlands and the UK.
“The study also shows that centre-left wing parties are, in most countries, still the most permeable to citizens of immigrant origin and are the ones contributing more to including this sector of our populations to the national political arena.”
The project ‘Pathways to Power: The Political Representation of Citizens of Immigrant Origin in Eight European Democracies’ is an international collaborative and comparative project led by four universities: the University of Leicester (United Kingdom), the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), the University of Bamberg (Germany), and SciencesPo (France).