Understanding the Descriptive Representation of Citizens of Immigrant Origin in Regional Assemblies in Europe

This paper examines how regional legislative powers, political features (e.g. party that has dominated regional politics, contestability, etc.) and socio-demographic characteristics shape the descriptive representation of citizens of immigrant origin (CIOs) across regional parliaments in Europe. The regional level is of particular importance, as it provides an opportunity for CIOs to win political office more easily and where barriers for getting elected should be easier to overcome. This paper addresses the following question: to what extent does the variation in the legislative powers of regional assemblies shape access to regional MP office for CIOs? We argue that there is reason to expect that it is ‘easier’ for CIOs to get access to elected positions at the regional level because competition for these offices is less fierce than for national level MP positions. Thus, CIO representation at the regional level should vary depending on the actual 'power' that regional assemblies/parliaments have. We use data on (1) institutional regional settings (regional autonomy – shared-rule and self-rule -, legislative powers, etc.), based on indicators from secondary sources; (2) political and party variables in a multi-level context (type of government, congruence of the regional government with the national one, presence of a regionalist party in government, the left-right position of the regional cabinet, etc.), based on indicators from secondary sources and on party rules and documents; and (3) the socio-demographic regional context (size of the region, number of migrants, presence of a regional language different from the national one, etc.), based on official statistics and surveys.