Unlikely Allies – Exploring migrant involvement in radical right populism in Germany: A case study of the ‘Neudeutsche Alternative’

In recent years, the Alternative for Germany’s anti-immigrant agenda and increasingly overt racism has shaped the party’s image. Despite this, the AfD has successfully garnered voter support among those marginalized groups and achieved a relatively high number of parliament members with immigrant backgrounds (7,2% in 2021). Additionally, in 2017 an ‘ally group’ was formed by PoC and immigrant party members, calling themselves New-German Alternative (formerly The New-Germans – Migrants in the AfD and Una Aquila – New-German Carriers of Hope). Based on a multi-methods approach, this paper explores the sense-making processes of this ‘unlikely allyship’ on both sides. First, a qualitative discourse analysis (Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse) of 196 Twitter accounts from party and organization members was carried out to understand how and why the Alternative for Germany incorporate immigrant and PoC persons into their collective identity building, and what motivations the ‘New-German Alternative’ presents publicly. For further insight into the subjective sense-making processes of individual members, semi-structured interviews were conducted with three, first and ‘1.75 generation immigrant’ AfD politicians, who belong to the New-German Alternative. The analysis reveals a key frame, with which the interviewees position themselves in relation to the discursive constructs of otherness and belonging communicated by the AfD. In it, the immigrant members and ‘allies’ of the AfD inhabit the role of ‘experts,’ who hold ‘authentic knowledge’ about migration and Islam. The same frame emerges in the general discourse and is implemented by the AfD to enforce and legitimize the demarcations from those groups as ‘foreign’ and ‘dangerous Others’.