Abstimmen wie Zuhause. Wahlverhalten türkischer StaatsbürgerInnen in Deutschland

The paper presents the results of an empirical analysis of voting behavior of Turkish citizens in Germany using the case of the Turkish parliamentary election in 2018. Starting point is the controversial debate about the differing results of the electorate in Turkey compared to Turkish voters in Germany. With reference to the literature on plurilocal political orientations of transnational migrants, the authors pursue the argument that their voting behavior (concerning the country of origin) is significantly determined by origin-specific factors. For decades, the political landscape has been forged by two decisive political cleavages: between secular and religious orientations and ethnic affiliations. On an aggregate level, these cleavages are reflected in persistent regional patterns in the electoral behavior. Therefore, the place of birth (in Turkey) of Turkish immigrants is used as a proxy for the origin-related orientation. The study is based on an initial coding of data from the Central Foreigners Register and related to election data from the Turkish consulates.