Hesitancy to form party attachments

With just a few weeks to go before Bundestag elections, Germany’s political parties are canvassing for votes. They are also interested in gaining long-term supporters. As an analysis of data from the study “Living in Germany” shows, people with an immigrant background tend to have a weaker party identification than non-immigrants. According to the study, half of immigrants report no long-term partisan attachments, whereas this is true for just one-third of the population overall. According to the SOEP research team, one reason could lie in the fact that immigrants first have to gather experience with the different political parties before developing stronger party attachments over time.

Among immigrants, long-term party attachment differs by country of origin. Immigrants from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union tend to identify more with the CDU/CSU, while immigrants from Southern Europe and Turkey tend to identify more with the SPD. A disproportionately large number of immigrants from Western countries (USA, Switzerland, Netherlands, France) identify with Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, and immigrants from Serbia identify more with Die Linke.

Further information

Spiegel: Wie Zugewanderte die Wahl mitentscheiden könnten

DIW Berlin: Eingewanderte bauen zögerlich Bindungen an Parteien in Deutschland auf

All results in the overview