After the election: Green politician Khan: Too little diversity in the Bundestag

Green MP Misbah Khan is disappointed that the proportion of people with a migration background in the new Bundestag is still far below their proportion of the population. "I don't believe in a migrant quota, but more permeability and a different approach would be good," says the Bundestag MP from Rhineland-Palatinate before the publication of current data on people with an immigration background in the newly elected parliament by the Integration Media Service.

The organization had published a proportion of people with a migration background of 11.3 percent for the Bundestag elected in 2021, after 8.2 percent in the previous electoral period. In the Green parliamentary group in the Bundestag in 2021, the proportion was 13.6 percent, above the average at the time.

"With the Greens, I never had the feeling that it was a problem to have a migrant background," says Khan, who is a Muslim of Pakistani origin. With Muslims in the CDU , on the other hand, she has the impression that "it's a completely different battle." According to research by the media service, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag in 2021 was the group with the smallest proportion of people with a migrant background, at 4.6 percent.

The recent proposal from the Union to take away the German passport of immigrants with dual nationality who commit crimes has caused great uncertainty among people with an immigration history, says Khan - especially since the dual passport is not a voluntary decision for some naturalized citizens, since some states do not release their citizens from their citizenship at all.

According to the microcensus, in 2023, around 29.7 percent of the population had a migration background. Almost half of them were German citizens. People with a migration background are those who did not have German citizenship at birth, as well as people who have at least one parent to whom this applies.

When she became a member of the Bundestag, she considered whether or not she should state her religious affiliation in the publicly accessible list of members of the Bundestag, says Khan, who was previously the state chair of the Green Party in Rhineland-Palatinate . She asked herself whether faith was information that concerned other people or not, and also whether it might make her an even greater target for right-wing groups. She then decided to do so, "and it was the right decision," the MP concludes. Firstly, it is important to make diversity visible. And secondly, it meant that some people who have a similar background turned to her with their concerns.