Transnational and Host-Country Political Participation: A Study of Turkish Origin Immigrants and their Descendants in Germany and the Netherlands

This paper presents preliminary findings from the first empirical chapter of a mixed-methods dissertation titled "Transnational Political Practices of Second-Generation Immigrants in Europe: A Comparative Mixed Methods Analysis." The dissertation, which consists of two quantitative chapters and one qualitative chapter, examines the formal and informal transnational and host-country political practices of first- and second-generation Turkish immigrants in Germany and the Netherlands. Using secondary survey data from Dutch and German electoral surveys, the first quantitative chapter examines activities such as voting, participation in political organizations, and contact with politicians. The study examines the impact of individual characteristics - gender, immigrant generation, socioeconomic resources, perceptions of discrimination - on political practices in both host and home countries. Grounded in a socially oriented rational actor theory that emphasizes multi-sited embeddedness, the research aims to elucidate the mechanisms that link discrimination, identity formation, and immigrant political participation. This framework provides a nuanced understanding of immigrants' transnational political behavior and contributes to the broader discourse on immigrant integration and political engagement in Europe.