A majority of foreign-born Germans and their offspring now support center-right parties, a development showing how decades of immigration into Europe has transformed the continent’s demographics and is reshaping politics in unexpected ways. My @WSJ report https://www.wsj.com/articles/immigrants-and-their-children-shift-toward-center-right-in-germany-11612872336?reflink=desktopwebshare_twitter
Germans with foreign roots are increasingly voting for the center-right, providing a new pool of voters for Merkel's conservatives as the country’s social fabric becomes increasingly diverse & traditional political allegiances dissolve with integration https://www.wsj.com/articles/immigrants-and-their-children-shift-toward-center-right-in-germany-11612872336?st=4wbgbsgw3ikra86&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
“We are seeing a process of normalization,” said Viola Neu, the author of the study. As migrants become economically & culturally more integrated, get naturalized & gain the right to vote, they tend to shift support from the center-left to the center-right https://www.wsj.com/articles/immigrants-and-their-children-shift-toward-center-right-in-germany-11612872336?st=4wbgbsgw3ikra86&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
In Germany, 53% of Turkish-origin voters said they would support conservative parties in 2019, up sharply from 17% in 2015 and closer to the parties’ popularity among the broader electorate. https://www.wsj.com/articles/immigrants-and-their-children-shift-toward-center-right-in-germany-11612872336?st=4wbgbsgw3ikra86&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
The Conservatives leader in Berlin's progressive bastion Kreuzberg @TimurHusein battled an initiative to rename streets dedicated to Prussian generals who fought against Napoleon as part of an effort to remove references to wars from public spaces https://www.wsj.com/articles/immigrants-and-their-children-shift-toward-center-right-in-germany-11612872336?st=4wbgbsgw3ikra86&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
When @TimurHusein joined the CDU in 1998 there were three members with immigrant roots in his district. Now migrants and their children make up a third of party members there. They celebrate both Christmas and Iftar https://www.wsj.com/articles/immigrants-and-their-children-shift-toward-center-right-in-germany-11612872336?st=4wbgbsgw3ikra86&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
People of foreign background are natural conservative voters, said @SerapGueler, a conservative politician. Many of them, she said, reject favorite progressive issues such as drug legalization, criminal-justice reform and nontraditional family models https://www.wsj.com/articles/immigrants-and-their-children-shift-toward-center-right-in-germany-11612872336?st=hi36welj3968122&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
“Migrant entrepreneurs, like the majority of entrepreneurs, want low taxes, while working people want to go up the social ladder and have less time for identity politics or progressive themes,” Ms. Güler said. https://www.wsj.com/articles/immigrants-and-their-children-shift-toward-center-right-in-germany-11612872336?st=hi36welj3968122&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Immigrants have previously sided with progressive parties not for ideological reasons but because they hoped for more support and protection, said Prof. Haci-Halil Uslucan. That pattern is breaking down because immigrants are becoming better integrated https://www.wsj.com/articles/immigrants-and-their-children-shift-toward-center-right-in-germany-11612872336?st=hi36welj3968122&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
In a recent essay titled “The @CDU Is the People’s Party of a Diverse Nation,” Health Minister @jensspahn, and @DuezenTekkal an award-winning filmmaker of Yazidi origin, call for a “cosmopolitan patriotism” embracing all of Germany’s ethnic groups https://www.wsj.com/articles/immigrants-and-their-children-shift-toward-center-right-in-germany-11612872336?st=hi36welj3968122&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
This is the @KASonline study (In German) about, free to download https://www.kas.de/de/analysen-und-argumente/detail/-/content/demokratische-einstellungen-und-wahlverhalten
In Germany's federal politics, one of the most prominent people of immigrant background is the spokesman for the conservative bloc in parliament @buelend, who was born in Turkey https://www.wsj.com/articles/immigrants-and-their-children-shift-toward-center-right-in-germany-11612872336?st=mzljbrx6s4bvq2u&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
How Germans with and without migration background would vote: 2015 vs 2019 (study by @KASonline)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/immigrants-and-their-children-shift-toward-center-right-in-germany-11612872336?st=agtr7c460av5dvf&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
https://www.wsj.com/articles/immigrants-and-their-children-shift-toward-center-right-in-germany-11612872336?st=agtr7c460av5dvf&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink