Publications

Black, Red, Green: What are the Party Preferences of Immigrants?

Policy Brief l October 2016

17 million people with a migration background live in Germany; the portion of the population made up by immigrants will continue to further increase in the next few years. For the political parties, this represents a pool of potential voters, members and leaders that has yet to be tapped into. The Policy Brief analyses the party preferences of immigrants in more detail by key groups of origin. In addition to Spät-/Aussiedler, or repatriated ethnic Germans, and people of Turkish descent, a distinction was also made between EU immigrants who came to Germany before the end of 2000, new EU immigrants who arrived in 2001 or later and people from the "rest of the world". The most important finding was that the party affiliations of immigrants have, in part, undergone a significant transformation. The Policy Brief recommends that the political parties target the needs of immigrants more effectively to encourage their political involvement.