New York has elected a mayor who was born abroad for the very first time. Zohran Mamdani is a practising Muslim who became a US citizen just eight years ago. His opponents accuse him of antisemitism, while Donald Trump went so far as to brand him a ‘communist lunatic’. Nonetheless, Mamdani was convincingly elected, despite the attacks.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been re-elected to a third term. His parents came to Britain from Pakistan. Elsewhere in Britain, the city of Sheffield is led by Safiya Saeed, a politician of Somali origin, while Rotherham has selected Rukhsana Ismail, the daughter of Pakistani immigrants, as its new leader. At the same time, the head of the UK Home Office, herself the descendant of immigrants, is calling for tougher migration rules, a stance increasingly echoed by politicians across Europe.
Are Mamdani’s and Khan’s victories exceptions to the rule or signs of a new political reality? And do countries that have widely opened their doors to migrants risk losing their national identity? We discuss these questions with Anastasia Kramarenko, Research Fellow at the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics, and Aleksandra Voitolovksaya, Senior Research Fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Centre for North American Studies at the National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations.
