Introduction: setting the stage

The 2009 local council elections in the German State of North-Rhine-Westphalia brought about a significant innovation: for the first time citizens with a migration background came to the fore as founders of local voter associations. Among these newly founded voter associations, the Bündnis für Frieden und Fairness (Confederation for peace and fairness, BFF) stands out for two reasons: first of all, because it immediately won two seats on the city council, although it was founded only two months prior to the elections. Secondly, it is unusual because it was founded exclusively by Muslims. This fact triggered attention by media far beyond the local scope and raised fierce debates about the legitimacy of such a political organisation.

This chapter argues that while the emergence of these new political actors can be explained by looking at political and social structures and discourses, the astonishing success of the BFF can only be explained if we take into account both structures and individual agency, considering both as forces for change in a reciprocal and iterative process (Moser 2006: 69). A structurationist approach has therefore been chosen for the analysis at hand. It will be presented in detail in the following section. A third section then outlines the main characteristics of the German political field which frame immigrants' political participation on the one hand and Muslims' political participation on the other hand.