The rising number of immigrant-origin populations across European democracies makes the question about their political representation increasingly important. Previous research however suggests that ethnic minority populations remain politically underrepresented. Scholars have argued that immigrants' political underrepresentation is mainly a direct consequence of political parties' procedures of candidacy nomination: political parties have acted as gatekeepers and decisively influenced the representation of minority groups. Under what conditions do political parties nominate ethnic-minority candidates?

Maintaining that parties' primary objective is to maximize vote shares, I argue in this paper that the public policy context defining immigrants’ political rights influences parties’ nomination strategy of minority candidates. Using data from Switzerland, I provide evidence that political parties’ selection of immigrant-origin candidates is indeed a product of strategic calculations regarding parties’ net electoral gains when reaching out to immigrant voters. These strategies are heavily constrained by the political and economic context. I show that policies which define immigrants’ political rights through alien enfranchisement and access to citizenship are important incentive mechanisms for political parties to nominate minority candidates. Moreover, I present evidence that positive effects of immigrant enfranchisement and liberal naturalization policies on minority nomination are offset in contexts of economic insecurity where political parties consider a potential native backlash.