The Political Participation of Immigrant Youth in Belgium

Abstract

Research on the political participation of ethnic minorities routinely reveals that immigrants have lower levels of participation, mainly due to their lower socio-economic status. This article investigates whether younger immigrants also display lower levels of political participation. It is based on a representative survey of 6,330 16-year-olds in Belgium. The results demonstrate that, while young immigrant people do not have lower levels of political participation, there are clear differences: participation is influenced by gender, socio-economic situation, mother tongue and sense of group identity, not by citizenship status, television or religion.

Keywords:

• Political Participation
• Young People
• Immigrants
• Ethnic Minority
• Group Identity
• Belgium

Notes

1. I cannot control for this, however, but 76 per cent of the immigrants themselves were born in Belgium.

2. ‘Vandaag kampioen in wiskunde, morgen ook in gelijke kansen’ (2004–09) (Vandenbroucke 2004).

3. ‘Gelijke Onderwijskansen’-decreet (2002) http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/EDULEX/database/document/document.asp?docid=13298.

4. For further information see http://www.contrateducation.be/index.asp.

5. This is 0.2 per cent of the total voting population. Of the European residents, 20.9 per cent registered; see http://www.registrenational.fgov.be/rrn_fr/statelecpotentiels/statistiques/zsc612MV_310706_010806_c14.pdf.

6. Once one member of the family is born outside the European Union, they will be referred to as ‘non-European’ immigrants, even when the other parent is Belgian or European.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ellen Quintelier

Ellen Quintelier is a PhD student in Political Science at the Catholic University of Leuven