Intra-Party Dynamics and Policy-Making Constraints on Immigration: The Case of German Social Democrats

The rightward shift, or whether this is a potentially successful strategy, for left-wing political parties on immigration in Europe garnered much debate in the last years, highlighting the political dilemma of these parties. This paper focuses on the intra-party dynamics of left-wing parties and investigates the conditions of this shift (or rather lack of it). The presentation focuses on the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and their intra-party actors, namely the activists and the party elite, evaluating the effect of these dynamics on the policy- and decision-making processes on immigration. The research utilises party congresses, manifestos and official documents as its data to establish, compare and discuss the approaches of the intra-party actors and the official party line from a qualitative content analysis perspective. Also, the research employs qualitative interviews with the SPD party elite and policy advisors to understand their perception of the influence, expectations and demands of the party activists and how the activists affect these processes and the immigration policies of the party. Through the assessment of documents and interviews, the aim is to establish the official and unofficial networks of influence within the party over immigration policy and positions. These influence networks would illustrate how the party elite perceives the activists forwarding their expectations and demands on immigration, allowing or constraining the party elite, and to what extent this influence can change the party policy. Furthermore, the results should also illustrate how the party elite perceives potential conditions (such as electoral defeat, economic crisis, or far-right becoming stronger) where activists and the party would tolerate considerable shifts in immigration policy.