Inklusion durch politische Selbstvertretung?

What chances and risks are offered by the descriptive representation of migrants? Does this form of political self-representation lead to a better inclusion of disadvantaged groups, their interests and perspectives into the political process?
These are the main questions of the qualitative examination of four local Auslaender- and Integrations(bei)raete. The study is based on a critical discussion of the theory of descriptive representation referring among others to Iris Marion Young, Jane Mansbridge and Anne Phillips.
It is shown that these boards, which exist parallel to the general structures of local affairs and raise the claim to promote political inclusion, at the same time generate forms of exclusion that foil the expected inclusion. Above all group representation fosters problematic ‘we’-‘them’-constructions of collective identity.
Christiane Bausch is working on political representation, modern democratic theory, migration and integration.