Service Delivery or Political Mobilization? Explaining Migrant Engagement in Voluntary Organizations Across European Cities

Abstract

This paper analyzes migrant organizational engagement by focusing on involvement in political and service-delivery organizations in several European cities. Do organizational involvement patterns show a common trait by which migrants are mostly engaged in service delivery organizations rather than organized in associations active in politics? Or do differing political contexts across Europe affect migrants’ organizational engagement in political and non-political organizations? In order to analyze these questions, we draw from – and bridge – several strands of literature on the nonprofit sector, interest groups, political behavior and social movements. Past research has demonstrated that contextual factors are critical in understanding the varying patterns of involvement in political organizations across countries. In this paper, we specifically focus on the effect of policies adopted at the local and national level to integrate migrants in the settlement countries across European societies. We examine whether two dimensions of the political context – one concerning policies and legislation on migrants’ individual rights, the other relating to the group/collective rights granted to migrants – shape the types of organizations in which migrants engage. The empirical analysis focuses on engagement in organizations by migrants in 9 European cities (Barcelona, Budapest, Geneva, London, Lyon, Madrid, Milan, Stockholm, Zurich). We use data collected between 2004 and 2008 on random comparable samples of between 600 and 1,000 migrants in each city. We employ negative binomial regressions and multinomial logistic regressions to analyze the distribution of migrant affiliations in 18 different types of nonprofit organizations (including both political and non-political types) using individual and group/city level predictors.