A Citizen-centred Framework to Studying Political Representation: Exploring Flemish Muslims’ Feelings of (not) Being Represented

Despite anti-immigrant political rhetoric, parties across Europe have increasingly selected ethnic minority politicians in an attempt to broaden their electoral base. The question remains, however, whether voters in ethnic groups employ the issue of ethnicity when casting their ballots and whether the presence of ethnic minority representatives strengthens their inclusion in the political process and incites their feelings of being politically represented. This paper examines how Flemish Muslims perceive and assess their political representation and addresses whether and how they feel politically represented in the context of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric. To date, studies on group representation predominantly centre on the descriptive representation of social groups (e.g., their numeric presence in parliament) and/or their substantive representation (i.e. the representation of their interests). Insufficient attention is devoted to the interplay of Pitkin’s (1967) four dimensions of representation. This is particularly the case when investigating how ethno-cultural minorities evaluate the representations made about them and on their behalf. This paper, secondly, aims to move beyond reductionist approaches to the relationship between citizens and their representatives, often conceived as a static incongruence, and allows the receptive side of representation and the exchanges that occur between representatives and citizens to take centre stage. Promoting a multi-faceted and cyclical approach to political representation, this paper presents focus groups as an innovative way to research social groups’ feelings of ‘being represented’. Alongside other components of ethnic minority representation, attention is given to the extent descriptive similarities between representatives and the represented are important for the citizens to feel represented at the intersection along the axes of ethnicity, religion, and gender. This paper presents data from focus groups where Flemish Muslims reflect on the representation they receive as a politically salient group.