Candidates of Immigrant Origin on Party Lists in Local Elections: The Case of left Parties in Belgium

Political representation of immigrants is viewed in the literature as one dimension of their political integration in the host country. Based on the case of Belgium we explore the determinants of the incorporation of non-Western immigrant candidates in the party system at the local level. Nomination of candidates of non-Western immigrant backgrounds on party lists is partly determined by the strategic calculations of parties to gain electoral advantage and minimize electoral costs: “immigrant support may help win elections, it may also result in the loss of native support” (Fonseca 2011: 110). We examine variation in the nomination of non-Western immigrant candidates across major political parties of the Left in the 2006 local elections in Belgium taking into account the different political opportunity structures for different political parties of the Left, including electoral, economic, and sociocultural contexts that may affect the magnitude of expected tradeoffs between native and immigrant support. We expect socialist parties to face higher risks in mobilizing the immigrant vote than green parties as they may risk the defection of native voters to parties of the Right; green parties, on the other hand, in addition to a strong ideological basis for immigrants’ mobilization, are supported by “a post-materialist electorate strongly inclined toward multiculturalism” (Fonseca 2010: 117). Thus in Belgium the PS and SP.A would be less likely to nominate candidates of immigrant origin on their party lists than the Ecolo and Groen. However, we expect these effects to be conditioned by income inequality, unemployment, electoral competition, and Volk (Flanders) vs. NonVolk (Wallonia) ethno-cultural context across municipalities in Belgium.