Visible, Elected, but Effectively Nominal: Visibility as a Barrier Maintaining the Political Underrepresentation of Britain’s Immigrant Origin Communities

Abstract

Ethnic minority groups have been and remain underrepresented in the British political system. However, we know little about how white immigrant origin groups—who share outgroup status based on non-native history, but differ to ethnic minority groups in terms of not having minority status—compare. Further, contemporary representational study also must concern itself with the quality, not just presence, of representation provided. This research therefore longitudinally compares the access to parliamentary roles for ethnic minority, white immigrant, and white British MPs. It finds that visibility of non-native status holds back descriptive representation—based on both appearance and non-British sounding names.