The intersectional tightrope: experiences and strategies of MPs with a migration background

Women and citizens with a migration background are slowly but surely entering parliaments in Europe. In West-European countries, women MPs with a migration background enjoy a ‘complimentary advantage’, where they are selected more often than their male counterparts - mostly because of electoral lists centred around a white male leader. Though they are relatively numerous, we know women politicians and politicians with a migration background have a hard time staying in office. There are multiple barriers that prevent them to stay in the game, like violence, racism, sexism and islamophobia, intra-party competition and combinations thereof. They face challenges with building expertise and ultimately, to achieve the higher powerful political position. To understand the pathways to political power of minoritized groups we ask: How do MPs with a migration background experience and navigate their multiple identities during their time in office? Taking the Netherlands as its case, this study is based on over 50 in-depth interviews with MPs with a migration background who were in office between 1986 – 2024. Our data covers all generations of MPs with a migration background, men and women, and all parties. In this study, we investigate the whole term in office of politicians with a migration background, from being elected up to their departure. When they leave, we show how they make strategic choices, beyond the current literature of ‘voluntary’ versus ‘involuntary’ departures, based on gauging their chances of re-election. Especially for women the representation of gender, race/ethnicity and sometimes religion is a complex balancing act. The intersectional analysis will lead to a typology of strategies that minoritized politicians develop and try to survive and succeed in politics.