Civic Participation of immigrants in Europe POLITIS key ideas and results European Parliament, 16 May 2007 POLITIS: Building Europe with New Citizens? An inquiry into civic participation of naturalized citizens and foreign residents in 25 countries; Supported by European Commission, 6th research framework, Citizens and governance in a knowledge-based society, 2004-2007 Contact: dita.vogel@uni-oldenburg.de Starting points 1. Normative assumption: Democratic societies need active citizens from all groups of the population, including foreign born. 2. Projection: Due to aging societies and changing labour market needs, Europe will experience more immigration in the future. 3. Empirical observation: Immigrants are underrepresented in responsible positions of organisations of the receiving society (e.g. parties, NGOs). 4. Conclusion: There could be more participation, and this would be better for the societies. 1
Theoretical considerations Societal opportunity structures of receiving country shape civic activism (laws, institutions, subsidies, discourses on immigration and on civic activism) Culture of country of origin shapes civic activism (civic culture, religion, role of women etc.) Migration process shapes civic activism (Interruption of activation chains, informal participation barriers) Research Objective To get a better understanding of the processes how immigrants become active and stay active in the receiving societies To understand encouraging and discouraging conditions for civic activation of immigrants in these processes 2
Focus of the study First generation: Born abroad, moved as youth or adult Social and political activities: give a voice to general societal concerns or to specific concerns of immigrant groups, or organise solidarity and self-help High-intensity participants: persons who continuously and substantially devote time and energy to social and political activities Research Design 1. Migration and participation framework and state of art in 25 EU countries (2005) 2. Recruitment and training of international students and PhD-researchers as interviewers 3. Creation of European multifunctional database of qualitative interviews with highly active immigrants 4. Interview Analysis 3
Framework: Diverse Migration Situations Importance of immigration High importance and changing patterns for several decades Increasing importance of immigration since the 1980s Increasing importance of immigration since the 1990s Low importance except for minorities resulting from recent nation state building Country Former colonial countries and recruitment countries in the North and West Southern European former sending countries for recruited workers, Ireland and Finland Central European States, Malta and Cyprus Baltic States, Slovenia and Slovakia More: POLITIS state of art report, country reports, Gropas/ Triandafyllidou (ed.) Who are Europe s immigrants, forthcoming 2007 Framework: Diverse participation situations High variation of participation rates of natives Immigrant participation tends to be higher were natives are more active. Immigrants tend to be less active in the civil society, at least in majority associations and in responsible positions. Immigrant have less participation rights than natives. Different country of origin groups have different participation rates. More: Country reports and Mariya Aleksynksa in Vogel (ed.) Highly Active Immigrants forthcoming 2007 4
International Interviewers Three interviews each (political, ethnic, diversify) Open questions on individual activity history Database: Information about Interviewees 176 translations of qualitative interviews (Not representative) 24 European countries of residence and 54 Non- EU countries of origin 60 % men, 40% women most active in migrant or ethnic organisations citizenship of the receiving country (91), secure status (43), insecure status (29) high educational background (139 with college or academic education) 5
Interview analysis Researchers in Germany, Greece, and Italy analysed interviews systematically under different questions. Database was used to get an idea of patterns and a pool for horizontal dissimilarity sampling. Interviewer s footnotes and country reports provided knowledge about context conditions. Tentative generalisations about the logic of processes are possible, but no quantitative assessments. Key results of interview analysis Individual factors: Motivation, education Activation process: organisational actors Trajectories between immigrant and party activities Impact of naturalisation Interviewee s policy proposals European dimension 6
Individual Factors Highly active immigrants are not so different from highly active natives. Activism is often part of self-concept. Education and language competences are important for immigrant activism, but language competences are potentially overestimated. More: Ankica Kosic in Vogel (ed.) Highly Active Immigrants forthcoming 2007 An example Naturalised Immigrant of Arabian origin He looks back on years of successful professional activities as teacher in Sweden Is encouraged by friends to participate politically Evaluates party programmes and decides to take up contact with a party 7
Communication problems at a first party meeting At the beginning, I could not understand them and I was wondering if that was because of a limit in my language? One time I got very upset and told them that you are using these special abbreviations that I could not understand; could you please explain them to me? You are asking all the time why immigrants do not participate in party activities? This is why! Foreigners usually come to meet you one to two times, they understand nothing so they quit and if you are going to continue in this way I am going to quit too. Criticism prompted coaching They took my critics into consideration and they organized lectures to explain to us [three immigrants] the entire thing that we did not understand about the party, its stages and institutions. We met three hours every week. From 1991 to 1994 I met some of the political leadership of the party either of the municipality or members of parliament. One of them asked me to be with him in the new vote round. We won! 8
Role of organisational actors There are numerous stories of contact initiation in public events, during business hours etc. Organisational actors may overlook the interest, if it is offered in a shy and reluctant way or in the form of critique. Organisational actors transform abstract participation opportunities into individual options. Therefore their behaviour is crucial. If they discriminate newcomers in general or immigrants in particular, the person is not likely to become active in the organisation. Organisational policies of welcoming all newcomers favour immigrants. Organisations need to provide initial tasks and the opportunity to learn. More: Dita Vogel in Vogel (ed.) Highly Active Immigrants forthcoming 2007 From migration-specific to political party participation? Combinations of political and migration-specific commitments are the rule for immigrant politicians. Immigrant organisations first: Political participation may be a continuation of migration-specific participation. Political participation is functional to achieve migrationspecific aims. Party participation first: Migration-specific participation may be a functional reaction to expectations of the party and immigrant communities. If the political context suppresses these functionalities, they appear in a hidden way (French example). Participation in politics encourages immigrants to maintain double loyalties and identities. More: Norbert Cyrus in Vogel (ed.) Highly Active Immigrants forthcoming 2007 9
Naturalisation Civic activists discussed similar issues like other immigrants. Naturalisation as a means to gain more rights mostly not related to participation. Naturalisation as a means to express the belonging to the receiving society (in addition to the country of origin) Naturalisation is not discussed as a prerequisite for civic participation, but it broadens the scope of opportunities and adds legitimacy. More: Ruby Gropas in Vogel (ed.) Highly Active Immigrants forthcoming 2007 Interviewee s policy proposals Immigrants do not speak about immigration issues only: Policy proposals were often highly country specific, addressing fields as immigration, education, social security, labour market, support for organisations. Immigrants should be consulted in immigration and integration issues: Consultative bodies and processes were generally appreciated, unless interviewees felt that they were not taken seriously. Consultation is no substitute but complement for voting rights. Discrimination: Immigrants highlight unjustified differentiations between groups, slow and inefficient bureaucratic procedures in immigration authorities, and other practices that are seen as disrespectful towards immigrants. More: Carol Brown in Vogel (ed.) Highly Active Immigrants forthcoming 2007 10
Patterns of reference to the EU The EU is mentioned as important legislator, but national implementation problems are deplored. EU is financial support for social and immigrant activities is appreciated. Unity in diversity is appreciated as identity dimension of the EU. The EU is recognised as new political arena within which to form transnational associations, to raise claims in front of European institutions and audiences and generally to share information and coordinate actions to achieve goals. More: Anna Triandafyllidou in Vogel (ed.) Highly Active Immigrants forthcoming 2007 Research-teaching project as part of POLITIS: International students about Europe Basis: application essays of interviewers about meaning of Europe, group discussion at first summer school. Analysis with students of University of Oldenburg. Europe is often associated with hopes for peaceful and democratic developments and the appreciation of diversity, and rarely with aspects such as heavy bureaucracy that are often found in internal studies. European realities often lead to dissillusionment, either because reality does not match an ideal, or because of discriminating experiences. Because of many positive preconceptions of Europe, we hypothesize that immigrant integration is not only an additional challenge to European integration, but also a chance for European identification. More: Dita Vogel POLITIS Working paper No. 4 11
Contact Thank you for your attention! More information about the project: www.uni-oldenburg.de/politis-europe 12