According to a study, the number of MPs with a migration background in German parliaments has increased steadily since 1990. According to a study by researchers at Munich University of Applied Sciences published on Monday in Berlin by Mediendienst Integration, their proportion is still significantly underrepresented compared to the population with a migration background. In the Bundestag at the end of 2021, 83 members and thus 11.3 percent, in the state parliaments 136 and thus 7.2 percent of the deputies had a migration background. According to figures from the microcensus, the proportion of the population in Germany with a migration background was 27.3 percent in 2021.
While the city states of Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen have a high proportion of MPs with a migration background, this is slightly below average in the eastern German states. The proportion of MPs with a migration background is particularly low in Bavaria, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia. In the Saarland state parliament, no member had a migration biography as of the study date, it said.
Looking at the parties, the proportion of immigrants is particularly low in the Union (2.1 percent in the federal states, 4.1 percent in the federal government) and the FDP (3.1 percent in the federal states, 5.4 percent in the federal government), while more than one in four (28.2 percent) of left-wing MPs in the federal government have a migration background and at state level about one in ten (10.2 percent). In the SPD, about every sixth member of the Bundestag and every tenth member of the state parliament has a migration background. In the AfD, 7.2 percent of the members of the Bundestag and 4.5 percent of the members of the state parliament have an immigrant biography.
The proportion of members of the state parliament with a migration background is behind that of the members of the Bundestag in all parties, with the exception of the Greens. Here, 15.9 percent of the members of the state parliament and 14.4 percent of the members of the Bundestag have a migration background. According to the study, the proportion of women with a migration background in parliament is an average of ten percentage points higher than the proportion of women in all members of parliament. The elected officials in the Union and on the left are particularly decisive for this, it said.