Naturalized Citizens and Muslims as Voters

A number of recent scientific studies indicate that circa five percent of those eligible to vote in Germany were not born as German citizens, but became citizens later in life. About half of these "new citizens" are ethnic Germans from the former Soviet Union, Poland or Rumania. The other half consists of former foreign guest workers and their descendents, above all former Turkish citizens.

Among the naturalized Turks there are many Muslims; of those eligible to vote who have been naturalized and still live in Germany (circa three million), around 400,000 are Muslim. This gives naturalized citizens quite a considerable voting potential, for it is quite possible that five percent of the electorate could decide an election. This can be said only to a very limited extent of the much smaller number of Muslims (circa 0.7 percent of those eligible to vote).

A look at the new citizens as a whole shows that this highly heterogeneous group votes approximately the same way as other Germans do. They participate in elections at a slightly lower rate, but they heavily favor the CDU/CSU and the SPD; they would put the Greens and the FDP into the Bundestag as well. Before being renamed as the "Linkspartei", the PDS also performed at an average level among new citizens.

Turks' preference of SPD and Greens

The picture is completely different when the different groups are looked at more closely: ethnic German immigrants overwhelmingly choose the CDU/CSU, while naturalized foreigners mainly vote for the SPD. Among naturalized Turks, the preference for the SPD and the Greens is quite pronounced; studies from 1999, 2001 and 2002 show a preference of over 80 percent for Red-Green. Muslims, most of whom are naturalized Turks, also prefer the SPD and the Greens: in the run-up to the Bundestag election in 2002, 60% of Muslims said that they would vote for the SPD, while 19% would choose the Greens and 14% the CDU/CSU.

All in all, the issues that concern naturalized Turks and Muslims do not differ greatly from the issues of German-born citizens. For these groups, too, unemployment is the dominant issue, often followed by social and economic issues. However, looking more closely, it is striking that in recent years naturalized Turks and Muslims were more concerned about issues of citizenship law and right-wing extremism than Germans by birth. This is quite logical given that naturalization is an important event with which new citizens have spent a great deal of time coping and which they do not share with native Germans.

And it is more than understandable that naturalized foreigners should be concerned about right-wing extremism and extremists who are unwilling to accept them as citizens of equal standing, make them into scapegoats for all kinds of problems and sometimes threaten or even use violence to further their reactionary goals.

Without exception, the democratic parties distance themselves from xenophobic slogans, but there are major differences between the immigration and integration policies of the individual parties. Naturalized citizens are quite aware of these differences in party platforms, in the statements of the parties' representatives and in their actions.

Migrants' affiliation with the working class and unions

Left-wing parties are traditionally opener and more tolerant with regard to the integration of foreigners, while the CDU/CSU has long shown a strong interest in ethnic German immigrants. Some of these affinities between parties and groups of naturalized citizens are also reflected in the organizations which feed into the parties such as the unions and the churches.

For example, the preference which Germans of Turkish descent have for the SPD is reinforced by their affiliation with the working class and unions. And Muslims are not among the clientele of the Christian churches and cannot be wooed by the CDU/CSU through this channel. Instead, conservative attitudes and socio-economic success, for example as self-employed businesspeople, can bring naturalized Muslims closer to the CDU/CSU. However, the studies to date have shown that this rarely happens.

Recruiting naturalized foreigners into party ranks

Though the partisan preferences of naturalized foreigners appear to be quite rigid, there are definitely ways in which parties can woo this group as a whole, or parts of it. Apart from the stance on political issues, the acceptance of different ethnic groups and their integration into society and the parties is important. Parties which welcome or even recruit naturalized foreigners as members and as candidates make persuasive integration parties, especially in the long term.

Here too, as an international comparison shows, left-wing parties are more active and more successful. It is not enough to put forward symbolic naturalized foreigners as candidates, especially far down on the party list – the party must also look out for the interests of the new citizens in its own ranks. Here the more conservative camp lags behind Red-Green, even though a liberal position on immigration policy would lend itself especially to the FDP. It has not yet adequately addressed the issue, which does not have as high a priority in the FDP platform as it does, for example, in the Greens' platform.

Thus the parties still have a great deal of work to do if they are to attract the votes of naturalized foreigners, including many Turkish-born and Muslim Germans, and gain their long-term loyalty. Given the fact that birthrates are dropping among those who are German citizens by birth, the group of new citizens will probably continue to gain in importance for the parties. On the other hand, new citizens, and above all their descendents, will differ less from mainstream society than they do today.

In this respect, groups with an immigrant background will be politically accessible to all the parties in the long term. However, it would be a serious political mistake to wait for this Day X rather than actively addressing the social and political integration of the new citizens.

People have a longer political memory than many politicians think, and experiences with parties, politics and the actions of the government are passed down to the next generation. This new generation will have its own political experiences, make its own political decisions, and will also try to emancipate itself from its parents' generation. Yet the experience of their mothers and fathers will live on in the background, continuing to influence the political decisions of people with immigrant backgrounds on into the future.

Andreas M. Wüst

© Qantara.de 2005

Translation from German: Isabel Cole

Qantara.de

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