In Germany, political parties have less than a month to convince voters to support their platform in February's federal election. There's one electoral group in particular that might offer lagging parties an opportunity to make up lost ground: people with an immigration background.

An estimated 7.1 million eligible voters, or one in eight German voters, have an immigrant background — meaning they, or at least one of their parents, migrated to Germany.

This demographic tends to vote less frequently than people who do not have an immigration background. And sociologist Friederike Römer said they're also less committed to voting for a particular party than they used to be.

Römer is an expert at the German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM) and co-authored a study for the institute that investigates the everyday worries and party preferences of citizens with a history of migration.

"Among all the groups examined, the party with the highest potential is the [center-left Social Democratic Party]," she said. "About 20% of the voters who have a migrant background could see themselves voting for the [far-right Alternative for Germany]. But when we ask immigrant voters which party they believe has the expertise to solve current problems, they answer 'none' more frequently than people without an immigrant background."

Another trend she's found is that the newly formed populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) and the Left Party commonly have higher approval ratings among this demographic, while the

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