Candidate Supply Is Not a Barrier to Immigrant Representation: A Case–Control Study

Abstract

Immigrants are underrepresented in most democratic parliaments. To explain the immigrant-native representation gap, existing research emphasizes party gatekeepers and structural conditions. But a more complete account must consider the possibility that the representation gap begins at the supply stage. Are immigrants simply less interested in elected office? To test this explanation, we carried out an innovative case-control survey in Sweden. We surveyed elected politicians, candidates for local office, and residents who have not run; stratified these samples by immigrant status; and linked all respondents to local political opportunity structures. We find that differences in political ambition, interest, and efficacy do not help explain immigrants' underrepresentation. Instead, the major hurdles lie in securing a candidate nomination and being placed on an electable list position. We conclude that there is a sufficient supply of potential immigrant candidates, but immigrants' ambition is thwarted by political elites.

Electoral Opportunism: Disentangling Myopia and Moderation

“…Substantial left-right di erences in regards to taxation are also evident in individual-level data from a survey conducted by Dancygier et al (2020) in 2017. This survey is particularly useful for our validation purposes because it includes a sample of people eligible to vote (N = 2, 931) as well as a sample of local politicians (N = 3, 455).…”

“…6 Both samples were randomly drawn from population-wide registers and weights are used to adjust for systematic non-response. See Dancygier et al (2020) for details. 7 Since the Sweden Democrats were not included in any governing coalition before the 2018 election, we omit the party from this discussion.…”

Political parties and campaign resource allocation: Gender gaps in Brazilian elections

“…Party elites may also hinder ethnic, racial, and religious minorities from winning office by withholding resources. While several studies explore this possibility in developed democracies (Dancygier et al, 2020; Fraga and Hassell, 2018; Hassell and Visalvanich, 2019), it has received comparatively little attention in developing democracies.…”

Wanderlust to wonderland? : Exploring key issues in expatriate careers: Individual, organizational, and societal insights

“…The number of elected representatives with immigrant origin in parliaments is largely influenced by the number of candidates with immigrant origin and moreover the number of winnable seats citizens with immigrant origin compete for (Burchianti & Zapata-Barrero, 2017;Dancygier et al, 2021). Hence the recruitment and candidate selection strategies political parties use are crucial organizational factors shaping the opportunities immigrants have to be elected.…”

“…Despite improvements in past 20-30 years, the limited pool of eligible candidates on the "supply side" of political recruitment remains a problem contributing to the underrepresentation of immigrants (Noris & Lovenduski, 1995), although some studies demonstrate that progress has been made in some countries and the severity of the problem varies by country (Dancygier, 2021). Recruitment through channels from outside the parties is one strategy parties have used to attract a broader pool of eligible candidates with immigrant origin (Sobolewska, 2013).…”