Political parties and immigrant-origin candidates: Insights from the autonomous province of Bolzano

In recent years, local migrant integration has evolved. On the one hand, scholars' focus has shifted on local areas, trying to understand how immigrant-origin people are included in local politics (Ireland 1994; Fennema/Tillie 1999). On the other, there has been a greater commitment at the local level to integrate new citizens through associations and cultural activities (Pilati/Morales 2018). For citizens of immigrant origin, who hold the Italian citizenship, there are many opportunities for political participation. Among which participation and representation in political parties. Until 2020, the participation of people with an immigrant background was very low in the autonomous province of Bolzano, partly due to the integration policies of the different parties. In fact, left-wing parties have always strived for immigrants’ integration, whereas right-wing parties for assimilation or non-integration (Medda-Windischer/Carlà 2015). In the South Tyrolean municipal elections of 2020, however, 45 people with an immigrant background run for office and out of these 45 candidates, five were elected, marking the highest number ever in the province. Given the very high number of candidates of immigrant-origin running for office, this article aims to analyze how the issue of migration is addressed by political parties and whether they consciously recruit candidates of immigrant-origin. Through the analysis of party manifestos and qualitative interviews with representatives of parties, we aim to shed light on the process of political recruitment of immigrant-origin candidates from the perspective of parties in the autonomous province of Bolzano.