http://www.nrc.nl/international/Features/article2108135.ece/Immigrant_mayors_are_thinly_spread_in_Europe
Immigrant mayors are thinly spread in Europe
Published: 30 December 2008 16:46 | Changed: 30 December 2008 23:44
Rotterdam's new mayor, Ahmed Aboutaleb, illustrates the Netherlands' forward
position when it comes to the participation of immigrants in politics.
By Marc Leijendekker
Ahmed Aboutaleb, born in Morocco in 1961, will be the next mayor of
Rotterdam.
Photo Hollandse Hoogte
a.. Background - First Muslim mayor of Rotterdam will need to find
allies
b.. News - Rotterdam chooses Dutch Moroccan mayor
It is almost impossible to overestimate the symbolic value of Ahmed Aboutaleb's
career: born in Morocco, moved to the Netherlands as an adolescent, local
councillor in Amsterdam, junior minister and, from January 5, mayor of the
country's second biggest city Rotterdam (population 583,000).
For many immigrants the Aboutaleb success story must amount to a modest 'Yes we
can'. "His position speaks to the imagination," says Andreas Wüst, political
researcher at Mannheim University in Germany. "He has to be an example to many
immigrants, and not just in the Netherlands."
Aboutaleb will be the first ethnic minority mayor of a major European city, a
position which shows the relative openness of the Netherlands' political system
for newcomers. In Holland people with an immigrant background are better
represented in elected political and management functions than in most other
European states. This may be because mayors in the Netherlands are not elected
but appointed and because of the system of proportional representation and
party lists.
"The smooth political emancipation of immigrants is one of the success stories
of the Dutch political system," says Mark Bovens, professor of management at
Utrecht University. "The social-economic integration may limp along for some
groups, but the political integration is dynamic. Within one generation,
immigrants and their children have penetrated all the important political
arenas."
Little representation
Immigrant mayors are thinly spread in Europe. There are a number of mayors and
lord mayors in Britain with an ethnic minority background but they have largely
a ceremonial role. In Germany there is a village with an engineer from India as
mayor. In Belgium the socialist politician Emir Kir, who is of Turkish descent,
may become mayor of Sint-Joost-Ten-Node. But countries like Sweden and Norway,
which have welcomed immigrants for years, have no immigrant mayors.
France is a modest exception. Of the roughly 36,000 local councils, around ten
have a mayor of immigrant descent. Most of these are villages of a few hundred
souls. The most important is the left-wing politician Eddy Aït, with Berber
parents and openly homosexual, who has been mayor of the Parisian suburb of
Yvelines-sous-Poissy (population 14,000) since March 2008.
"France's singular position has to do with the fact that its mayors are
directly elected," says Laure Michon, who researches the political
representation of immigrants at Amsterdam University. "Half of the councils
have fewer than 3,000 inhabitants and it's easier to become mayor on the basis
of a personal network."
In general the Netherlands is in the vanguard of political participation by
newcomers. Bovens says that the 12 immigrant members of parliament, 8 percent
of the total, is "a fairly faithful reflection of the population". Most
national parliaments in Europe lag behind. Certainly in Britain, Germany,
France, Italy and Norway people with an immigrant background are heavily under
represented in parliament.
"Political participation by immigrants in Norway is a failure at a national
level, but a success at a local level," says political scientist Tor Bjorlund.
The electoral system plays an important role in this. Preference votes can be
cast at a local level in Norway and this is done far more often by newcomers
than by native Norwegians, Bjorlund says.
Local success
Another effect can be seen in Germany, says Edda Currle, a political scientist
at Bamberg University. Many immigrants are not eligible to vote at local level
because they do not have German citizenship, even though they have lived in a
city for years. Dual nationality is forbidden and about half of the newcomers
have chosen to keep their original nationality. "Immigrants are under
represented at all levels - local, federal and national," Currle says.
There is still too little systematic research into the political participation
of immigrants in Europe. Wüst, a leader in this area, does see some general
tendencies. Immigrants are more likely to be elected as a member of a left-wing
party, if they stand as a candidate in an election where multiple candidates
are being chosen and if the electorate has many other immigrants.
Wüst: "Nearly all politicians with an immigrant background pay a great deal of
attention to immigration affairs in the beginning. As they progress, the
difference with other politicians gradually disappears."
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