Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

What drives the propensity to vote for ethnic-minority-interest parties?

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Acta Politica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In the study of ethnic-minorities’ voting preferences it is evidenced that ethnic minorities have favoured social-democratic parties in most European countries. In the Netherlands, however, a part of them has divided from the social-democrats in 2017 and voted a new ethnic-minority-interest party into parliament. In the 2021 election, multiple ethnic-minority-interest parties arose in the Dutch political landscape, raising the question how they compete over ethnic-minority voters, who form an increasing share of the electorate but remain marginalized in politics. Using the Dutch Ethnic Minority Election Survey 2021, we shed light on the propensity to vote (PTV) for three ethnic-minority-interest parties: DENK, BIJ1 and NIDA. First, since the parties differ in which ethnic communities their candidates are rooted, we test ethnic community-based differences in their party preferences. Second, we disentangle the role of economic positions from the role of cultural (e.g., migration and group discrimination) and moral (e.g. religiosity and conservative-authoritarian) explanations. Our findings show that explanations of the PTVs for DENK and NIDA do not differ substantially and are higher among religious Muslim voters who support multiculturalism and who perceive discrimination. Among migrant-background citizens, the more radical BIJ1-party particularly scores higher among manual workers, those who have left-wing economic views and moral-progressive values. Strikingly, East-Asian-Dutch and Latin-American-Dutch (other than Surinamese-Dutch) hardly express a propensity to vote the ethnic-minority-interest parties.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Given the geographic concentration of the ethnic-minority electorate—these parties can win seats under a FPTP system, like RESPECT did.

  2. The Surinamese-Dutch community in the Netherlands is diverse: 37% are Afro-Surinamese (often Christian; their ancestors were brought to America as slaves), 27% are Hindustani (often Hindu; their ancestors immigrated from India as indentured labourers) and 16% are Javanese (often Muslim; their ancestors immigrated from Indonesia as indentured labourers) Source: CIA world factbook.

  3. Indonesia and Japan are noteworthily excluded. This was geopolitical with Japan being an industrialized capitalist country and ally of ‘the West’, and Indonesian migrants are mainly descendants of Dutch colonial settlers who migrated back after Indonesia's independence (Yanow and Van der Haar, 2013).

  4. The right to vote in national elections comes with Dutch nationality, which can generally be obtained after having lived for five years in the country.

  5. For comparison, the 2010 Ethnic Minority British Election Survey had a total response rate of 23% after a face-to-face survey (49%), followed by their mail back questionnaire (Howat et al., 2011).

  6. Beyond this there is good representation of respondents based on ethnic background; see Appendix Table 3. There is however an underrepresentation of the first generation. It makes up 61% of the migrant-background population eligible to vote and 55% of the data.

  7. Extrapolating to vote shares among DEMES for BIJ1 show a lower vote share, but BIJ1 also taps the progressive part of the ethnic-majority population and part of the Black Dutch-Caribbean community is not categorized having a migrant background in the Dutch government’s classification scheme as Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba were considered Dutch until 2020, when they became a separate country for migration statistics.

References

  • Aarts, K., and J. Thomassen. 2008. Dutch voters and the changing party space 1989–2006. Acta Politica 43 (2): 203–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anwar, M. 2001. The participation of ethnic minorities in British Politics. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 27 (3): 533–549.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bale, T., C. Green-Pedersen, A. Krouwel, K.R. Luther, and N. Sitter. 2010. If you can’t beat them, join them? Explaining social democratic responses to the challenge from the populist radical right in Western Europe. Political Studies 58 (3): 410–426.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bergh, J., and T. Bjørklund. 2011. The revival of group voting: Explaining the voting preferences of immigrants in Norway. Political Studies 59 (2): 308–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bird, K., T. Saalfeld, and A.M. Wüst. 2011. Ethnic Diversity, Political Participation and Representation. In The Political Representation of Immigrants and Minorities: Voters, Parties and Parliaments in Liberal Democracies, ed. K. Bird, T. Saalfeld, and A.M. Wüst, 1–17. Oxon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bloemraad, I., and K. Schönwälder. 2013. Immigrant and ethnic minority representation in Europe. Conceptual challenges and theoretical approaches. West European Politics 36 (3): 564–579.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bloemraad, I., and F. Vermeulen. 2014. Immigrants’ Political Incorporation. In An Introduction to Immigrant Incorporation Studies: European Perspectives, ed. M. Martiniello and J. Rath, 227–249. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cain, B.E., D.R. Kiewart, and C.J. Uhlaner. 1991. The acquisition of partisanship by Latinos and Asian-Americans: Immigrants and native born citizens. American Journal of Political Science 35 (2): 390–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fennema, M., and J. Tillie. 1999. Political participation and political trust in Amsterdam: Civic communities and ethnic networks. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 25 (4): 703–726.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, S.D., A.F. Heath, D. Sanders, and M. Sobolewska. 2015. Candidate ethnicity and vote choice in Britain. British Journal of Political Science 45 (4): 883–905.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Immerzeel, T., M. Lubbers, and H. Coffé. 2016. Competing with the radical right: Distances between the European radical right and other parties on typical radical right issues. Party Politics 22 (6): 823–834.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jamal, A. 2005. The political participation and engagement of Muslim Americans: Mosque involvement and group consciousness. American Politics Research 33 (4): 521–544.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kappelhof, J. 2015. Surveying Ethnic Minorities. The Hague: SCP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kranendonk, M., F. Vermeulen, and A. van Heelsum. 2018. “Unpacking” the identity-to-politics link: The effects of social identification on voting among Muslim immigrants in Western Europe. Political Psychology 39 (1): 43–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kriesi, H., E. Grande, R. Lachat, M. Dolezal, S. Bornschier, and T. Frey. 2006. Globalization and the transformation of the national political space: Six European countries compared. European Journal of Political Research 45 (6): 921–956.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lubbers, M. 2021. Kiesgerechtigden met een migratieachtergrond. Demos, Bulletin Over Bevolking en Samenleving 37 (1): 5–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lubbers, M., T. Sipma, and N. Spierings. 2021. Dutch Ethnic Minority Election Study 2021 (DEMES 2021). Nijmegen: RSCR/SKON.

  • Maliepaard, M., and R. Alba. 2016. Cultural integration in the Muslim second generation in the Netherlands: The case of gender ideology. International Migration Review 50 (1): 70–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, N.S. 2016. Do ethnic minority candidates mobilise ethnic minority voters? Evidence from the 2010 UK general election. Parliamentary Affairs 69 (1): 159–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Messina, A.M., and Lahav, G. (Eds.). (2006) The migration reader: exploring politics and policies. Lynne Rienner.

  • Michon, L., and Tillie, J. (2011) Party Choice Among Immigrants and Visible Minorities in Comparative Perspective: The Netherlands. In: The Political Representation of Immigrants and Minorities: Voters, Parties and Parliaments in Liberal Democracies, edited by K. Bird, T. Saalfeld, and A. M. Wüst, 33–36. Routledge.

  • Middendorp, C.P. 1978. Progressiveness and Conservatism. The fundamental Dimensions of Ideological Controversy and Their Relationship to Social Class. The Hague: Mouton.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ognibene, M., and E. Paulis. 2021. Hybrid voters: How the politics in the home and the new country influences external voters. Representation. https://doi.org/10.1080/00344893.2021.1978531.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Otjes, S., and A. Krouwel. 2019. Why do newcomers vote for a newcomer? Support for an immigrant party. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 45 (7): 1148–1167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • See Lim, P., C. Barry-Goodman, and D. Branham. 2006. Discrimination that travels: How ethnicity affects party identification for southeast Asian immigrants. Social Science Quarterly 87 (5): 1158–1170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sipma, T., M. Lubbers, and N. Spierings. 2021. Dutch Ethnic Minority Election Study 2021 (DEMES 2021): Research description and codebook. Nijmegen: RSCR/SKON.

  • Sobolewska, M., J. Mellon, S. Fisher, E. Fieldhouse, and N. Martin. 2022. Ethnic Minority British Election Study pilot. Online source, 23 August 2022. https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FV014145%2F1. Accessed 16 Sept 2022

  • Spierings, N. 2018. Popular opposition to economic gender equality and homosexual lifestyles. In: Varieties of opposition to gender equality in Europe (pp. 172–194). Routledge

  • Spierings, N., and F. Vermeulen. 2023. Minding the political engagement gap: how discrimination and religion impact Dutch voters with an immigrant background. Acta Politica. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41269-023-00286-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tillie, J. 2004. Social capital of organizations and their members: Explaining the political integration of immigrants in Amsterdam. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 30 (3): 529–541.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van de Wardt, M., and S. Otjes. 2021. Mind the gap: How party–voter incongruence fuels the entry and support of new parties. European Journal of Political Research.

  • Van der Eijk, C., and B. Niemoeller. 1984. Het potentiële electoraat van de Nederlandse politieke partijen. Beleid En Maatschappij 11 (7–8): 192–204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Eijk, C., W. Van der Brug, M. Kroh, and M. Franklin. 2006. Rethinking the dependent variable in voting behavior: On the measurement and analysis of electoral utilities. Electoral Studies 25 (3): 424–447.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van der Zwan, R., P. Bles, and M. Lubbers. 2017. Perceived migrant threat among migrants in Europe. European Sociological Review 33 (4): 518–533.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van der Zwan, R., M. Lubbers, and R. Eisinga. 2019. The political representation of ethnic minorities in the Netherlands: Ethnic minority candidates and the role of party characteristics. Acta Politica 54 (2): 245–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van der Zwan, R., J. Tolsma, and M. Lubbers. 2020. Under what conditions do ethnic minority candidates attract the ethnic minority vote? How neighbourhood and candidate characteristics affected ethnic affinity voting in the Dutch 2017 parliamentary elections. Political Geography 77: 102098.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Heelsum, A., L. Michon, J. Tillie, and J. 2016. New Voters, Different Votes? A Look at the Political Participation of Immigrants in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. In Just Ordinary Citizens? Towards a Comparative Portrait of the Political Immigrant, ed. A. Bilodeau, 29–45. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vermeulen, F., E. Harteveld, A. van Heelsum, and A. van der Veen. 2020. The potential of immigrant parties: Insights from the Dutch case. Acta Politica 55 (3): 432–453.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ERCOMER/Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science, Utrecht University, PO Box 80140, 3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Marcel Lubbers

  2. Department of Political Science, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Simon Otjes

  3. Department of Sociology, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Niels Spierings

Authors
  1. Marcel Lubbers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Simon Otjes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Niels Spierings
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marcel Lubbers.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

Table 2 Ethnic-minority-interest parties in Western Europe
Full size table
Table 3 Sample and population composition by background
Full size table
Table 4 Descriptives table (weighted)
Full size table
Table 5 Predictions of the propensity to vote (PTV) for DENK, NIDA and BIJ1(unweighted) (1247 observations nested in 558 respondents)
Full size table
Table 6 Effects from perceived group discrimination and personal experienced discrimination on PTVs, when the latter added to Appendix 5
Full size table
Table 7 Effects from moral dimension on PTVs, when estimated on selection of respondents who participat ed in the post-election questionnaire and including a measurement of euthanasia (unweighted)(733 observations nested in 328 respondents)
Full size table
Table 8 Predictions of the Propensity to Vote (PTV) for DENK, NIDA and BIJ1 with don’t know answers as missing versus don’t know answers coded as 1. (1690 observations nested in 600 respondents)
Full size table
Table 9 Likelihood to have a PTV of 8 or higher (unweighted)
Full size table
Table 10 Likelihood to have ever expressed a vote (intention) for DENK, NIDA and BIJ1 (unweighted)(n = 735)
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lubbers, M., Otjes, S. & Spierings, N. What drives the propensity to vote for ethnic-minority-interest parties?. Acta Polit (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41269-023-00309-3

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41269-023-00309-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation