SE UPP FÖR GAPET : En jämförande fallstudie och scoping study om utlandsföddas deltagande i kommunala val

Sammanfattning: Migration is not a new phenomenon, although last decades of migration and the reasons behind why people migrate might differ from previous years. This has brought a problem to light, a problem which might put the whole legitimacy aspect of representative democracy out of play. Studies have shown that immigrants in different places around have less activity in electoral participation compared to native citizens. Recently researchers and theorists with Ann Phillips being the front figure of politics of presence, have argued for descriptive representation to increase the electoral participation among immigrants. Thus, this study aims to examine the relation of electoral participation among immigrants and the descriptive representation of immigrants in municipal level by implementing a comparative case study. Furthermore, this study examines what existing literature presents as evidence which can explain the results found in the comparative case study. This study finds that although there is a correlation between descriptive representation and voter turnout among immigrants, it cannot alone explain the difference in the variation found. The results of the case study show a variety of answers that explains the variation of electoral participation. Ranging from politics, citizenship, and native country as an answer, to descriptive representation. In conclusion the results of the scoping study finds that substantial representation as an answer is rarely found in research papers, and that further studies need to take that factor in the calculation when examining which reasons might lie behind promoting immigrants’ electoral participation.