How do perceived discrimination and national identification condition the political participation of young immigrants compared to the native-born majority? Hoffmann and Benoit (2025) investigate the mechanisms of youth political socialization in Germany—where nearly one-third of the population possesses a migration background—to evaluate why established predictors of civic action operate differently among diverse young adults aged 18 to 30.
While adult immigrants consistently display lower participation rates than majority populations, findings among youth remain contradictory, largely because conventional determinants such as socioeconomic resources, political efficacy, and political interest are still actively forming during early adult transitions.Using the Civic Voluntarism Model as their theoretical baseline, the authors analyze data from Wave 5 of the German branch of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU-DE).
Through linear regression models, the study examines both conventional political participation (such as formal institutional voting or party-affiliated action) and unconventional participation (such as demonstrations and grassroots activism), testing whether personal experiences of discrimination and feelings of national identification moderate the classic relationship between resources, psychological engagement, recruitment networks, and political action.The findings reveal that perceived discrimination exerts diametrically opposed effects on recruitment networks and unconventional participation across groups, acting as a mobilizing catalyst for young adults with a migration background while depressing unconventional engagement among youth without a migration background.
Furthermore, strong national identification functions as an unexpected dampener, weakening the positive effect of political interest among majority youth and diluting the mobilizing power of recruitment networks among immigrant youth. In contrast, neither discrimination nor national identification moderates socioeconomic resources or conventional political participation in either group. The study concludes that immigrant youth mobilization is shaped by distinct cognitive and relational negotiations of belonging and institutional exclusion, demonstrating that experienced discrimination frequently redirects marginalized youth toward unconventional political arenas rather than inducing civic apathy.
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Hoffmann, P., & Benoit, V. (2025). Political Participation of Young Immigrants: Do National Identification and Discrimination Moderate the Relationship? Politics and Governance, 13, 9253. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.9253
