MIGRANTS’ POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE: THE LOCALMULTIDEM PROJECT Dr. Laura Morales (University of Murcia & University of Manchester) Sponsored by:

The Research Teams Project 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 4 Population 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.

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 A special issue in a journal to be published in

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