This book analyzes the threshold candidates of immigrant background need to overcome to run for legislative office. Understanding whether political parties are able to adapt their selection criteria helps to assess their ability to respond to the underrepresentation of citizens of immigrant origin in parliament. Although Germany's ethnic diversity is on a steady rise, citizens of immigrant origin remain descriptively underrepresented. Despite the pivotal role the intra-party candidate selection plays in shaping who runs for election, the question of how candidates of immigrant background fare in political parties' candidate selection in comparison to native-born candidates remained a blind spot of research. Therefore, the author presents in-depth empirical evidence on the selection of candidates of immigrant background in German political parties. The book addresses scholars of political science interested in electoral studies as well as policy-makers and party officials interested in a balanced representation of their political representatives.

Autorentext
Sara Ceyhan received her doctorate from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Goethe University of Frankfurt (Germany). After years of research focused on the selection of parliamentary candidates, she started working in the field of strategic communication analysis for EU institutions.

Inhalt
1 The Relevance of Party Candidate Selection for Immigrant Representation 2 The Political Representation of Immigrant Origin Citizens in Germany2.1 Definition of Immigrant Origin2.2 Immigration and Immigrant Political Representation in Germany2.3 Immigrants as a Representational Group3 Candidate Selection as a Bottleneck on the Way to Parliament3.1 Context: Legislative Recruitment3.2 Setting the Stage: Reasons for Studying Parliamentary Candidates3.3 Critical Success Factors in Candidate Selection3.3.1 General Requirements for Nomination 4 Party Selection Behavior Towards Immigrant Origin Candidates A Framework of Analysis4.1 The Present State of Research 4.2 How to Select Immigrant Origin Candidates Neutrality, Opening and Closure4.2.1 Neutrality Want You Just Like We Want Any Other 4.2.2 Opening Want You at Any4.2.3 Closure Must Work Twice as5 Variances in Party Selection Behavior Towards Immigrant Origin Candidates5.1 Differences across Political Parties5.2 Differences across the Mode of Candidacy5.3 Differences across the Level of Ethnic Concentration in Single-Member Districts5.4 Differences across the Level of Social Deprivation in Single-Member Districts6 Research Design6.1 Why Germany?6.2 How to Measure Candidate Selection Behavior?6.2.1 Quantitative Approach6.2.1.1 German Candidate Study 20136.2.1.2 Candidate Surveys at State Level6.2.2 Qualitative Approach6.3 Operationalization6.3.1 Immigrant Origin6.3.2 Dependent Variables6.3.3 Conditioning Factors6.3.4 Controls7 Are Immigrant Origin Candidates Any Different?7.1 Exploring the Socio-Demographic Background7.2 Exploring Immigrant Origin7.3 Exploring Political Backgrounds8 Requirements for the Nomination of Immigrant Origin Candidates8.1 Years of Party Membership8.2 The Role of Political Office Experience8.3 The Role of Localness in Single-Member Districts9 How Political Parties Support the Nomination of Immigrant Origin Candidates9.1 The Role of Encouragement9.2 The Role of Competition in Candidate Selection9.3 The Role of Support in the Candidate Selection Process9.4 The Role of Electoral Viability9.5 Interim Conclusion: Selection Behavior?10 Variances in Party Selection Behavior10.1 Do Immigrant Subgroups Matter?10.2 Do Political Parties Matter?10.3 Does the Mode of Candidacy Matter?10.4 Does the SMD Context Matter?11 ConclusionAppendix