UK leads Europe in immigrant-origin MPs: Report

Britain leads Europe in the number of immigrant-origin MPs, including 10 India-origin lawmakers in the current parliament, according to anew study released here today.
The report studies the political representation of immigrant MPs in the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.
Professor Laura Morales of University of Leicester, who is part of the study, said: "The study is the first of its kind to compare in a systematic way the political representation of citizens of immigrant origin across European countries.
"Our findings show that migrants and their native-born offspring are under-represented in national parliaments in all countries, but they are much more likely to be elected to the national office in the Netherlands and the UK."

The study also shows that centre-left wing parties are, in most countries, still the most permeable to citizens of immigrant origin.
The May 2015 general election in Britain threw up the maximum number of ethnic minority, or "immigrant-origin" MPs as classified by the new report, at 42.

Of that, 10 are of Indian-origin including first-timers like Infosys chief Narayana Murthy's son-in-law Rishi Sunak.
The project titled 'Pathways to Power: The Political Representation of Citizens of Immigrant Origin in Eight European Democracies' is an international collaborative and comparative project led by four European Universities.
The study covers the period from 1990 to the most recent complete national legislatures and also includes data on the most recent legislative terms of regional assemblies in the eight countries.

The project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche.