Political participation is a human right!

On Sunday, February 12.02.2023, XNUMX, the election will be repeated in Berlin. Shortly before that, a look at the statistics shows how many people in Berlin will not be allowed to have a say in who will govern in their Senate and their city due to discriminatory laws and a lack of regulations.

Berlin, February 10.02.2023, XNUMX. Voting or being elected means being able to have a say in decision-making, shaping democracy and taking part in political and social processes. But it is not only in Berlin that hundreds of thousands of people are denied the right to vote, even though democracy in a society of immigrants is only truly representative and inclusive if the political participation and representation of migrants is also made possible and actively promoted.

Berlin will now re-elect the district assemblies and the House of Representatives on Sunday. Statistics show that almost 750.000 people in Berlin are not allowed to vote in these elections because they do not have German citizenship - this corresponds to about 23% of the population. Regardless of their social, economic and cultural participation in this country, they are denied political participation. And that, although the basic requirement of a democracy is political co-determination - a lack of participation, that is nothing more and nothing less than a democratic deficit.

For women, the situation around political participation and co-determination is even bleaker: even more than a hundred years after the introduction of women's suffrage and seventy years after the passage of the equal rights article in the Basic Law, a look at the statistics shows that women are still significantly underrepresented in parliaments, especially in Germany at the municipal level. This under-representation becomes even more massive when both gender and migration biography or flight history are taken into account, because the proportion of MPs with a migration or flight history does not come close to corresponding to their proportion of the population at the federal, state and local level. This indicates that social diversity is not reflected in our parliaments, and low opportunities for participation indicate a lack of legitimacy of the political system and the elected parliamentarians.

“Political participation actually means quite simply: equal voice, equal rights! And a democracy is only truly alive, diverse and sustainable if it gives equal consideration to every vote!” according to Dr. Soraya Moket, Deputy Managing Director of DaMigra eV

We call on the German federal government to live up to the promises it made in the coalition agreement regarding participation, citizenship and naturalization and to remedy the clear democratic deficit. In concrete terms, this means actively supporting the right to vote in local elections for all migrants and, in particular, the equal political participation of migrant and refugee women, for example by extending voting rights for third-country nationals (at least at local level).

More about our work on political and social participation here.

Has an overview of the numbers on political participation, migration and repeat elections in Berlin Media service integration summarized on their website.

DaMigra eV represents the interests of women migrant organizations and their concerns and advocates equal opportunities, equal participation and the equality of women with a history of migration and refugee experience in Germany. DaMigra follows the approach of anti-racist feminism.