Political and Civic Participation among Ethnic Majority and Minority Youth

Abstract

This chapter focuses on civic and political participation among youth, primarily in Europe although the review also draws on evidence from non-European countries in areas where European research is limited. Political science and political sociology only started to show an interest in youth participation in the post-Cold War era due to the emergence of new political forces (Youniss et al., 2002). Political psychology and social and community psychology took even longer to show an interest in youth participation. Initially, social researchers examined the political participation of national majority youth either for country-specific reasons (e.g. immigrants were viewed primarily in economic rather than civic terms in Germany due to the Gastarbeiter scheme) or because immigrant numbers were negligible (e.g. in southern European countries, which have traditionally been countries of emigration, not immigration). However, as immigrant numbers have risen over the past 20 years, the focus of social scientists studying youth political participation has shifted. Political participation has gradually come to be recognised as an essential aspect of the acculturation of minority youth and their adaptation and integration into their societies of residence (Berry et al., 2006).