Abstract

The main argument of this chapter is that the political participation of migrants as well as their protest need to be studied by putting more emphasis on the characteristics of the political context within which they settle. We argue that this political context is made of a number of strands that cut across the national and local levels referring to the role of 1) political opportunities in general, impacting upon the behaviour of all individuals, 2) field opportunities in terms of individual and group rights, and 3) discourse. We then show that the overall participation by migrants varies considerably across different cities and so does their involvement in protest activities. Lastly, we assess the extent to which different types of political opportunities play a key role for explaining political participation of migrants vis-à-vis the role of other micro- and meso- level variables that are usually employed in the literature.