Political elites, migration and democratic diffusion: Returnee MPs’ attitudes to gender and immigration in Romania and Turkey

While recent years have seen a growing body of research on the political impact of migration on the country of origin, the literature on the nexus between migration and political elites is still rather limited. The existing literature is, thematically, mostly focused on the impact of foreign educated heads of state on their countries’ democratisation and, methodologically, overwhelmingly quantitative. Hence, there is a gap with regards to the processes of (re)socialisation and diffusion that may lie behind the political activities of a broader segment of the political elite such as returnee members of parliament (RMPs). Drawing on documentary research and qualitative interviews, we compare the democratic diffusion performed by RMPs from two countries with mass emigration to Western democracies but with different political systems and migration patterns – Romania and Turkey. More specifically, we contrast RMPs to non-RMPs in terms of their profile (party affiliation, gender, level of education) as well as the shares and content of their parliamentary questions on two democracy-related and highly topical themes: gender and immigration. The paper argues that RMPs are more concerned with these themes and that their respective views have been influenced by their migration experience. This is the case for RMPs in both Turkey and Romania, despite the notable differences between the two national contexts.