Migrants in leadership positions within German political parties

The political underrepresentation of migrants has attracted much scholarly attention in recent years. Studies have demonstrated that parties are often hesitant to field migrants as candidates, and substantial evidence exists that highlights the low proportion of migrants serving as members of parliament. An important blind spot in the literature remains the representation of migrants in leadership roles within political parties. Addressing this gap is crucial because party leaders play a pivotal role as gatekeepers in the candidate recruitment process. Studying the inclusion of migrants within party organizations offers new insights into how parties contribute to the underrepresentation of migrants on election ballots and parliaments. This paper aims to contribute to these discussions by investigating the presence of migrants in leadership positions within German parties. The analysis relies on a unique dataset that covers all executive regional party boards in Germany between 2013 and 2023. To this end, the migration background and role of all board members was manually coded. First, the paper offers original evidence regarding the presence of migrants on regional executive party boards. Second, it assesses their position within the party board power hierarchy. Third, the analysis explores various party-level factors such as ideology, incumbency status, and past electoral success in explaining variations and convergence in migrant inclusion across different parties and time. In doing so, this paper bridges and enhances our understanding of three distinct areas of literature: migrants' political inclusion, party organizations, and political career trajectories.