Previous studies have found that political parties play a crucial role in explaining why certain minoritised groups are largely excluded from the parliamentary sphere. However, researchers still know relatively little about the specific challenges surrounding the selection of immigrant-origin candidates. There is some understanding of the demand dimension (e.g. aspiring migrants’ lack of political resources), but not much has been discovered about the selection dimension thus far. This paper provides insights into party gatekeepers’ attitudes toward the migration issue in candidate selection. Our work focuses on Germany, where over a quarter of the population has a ‘migration background,’ but these groups are significantly underrepresented in parliaments. Our findings draw from large-scale survey data collected at seven parties’ nomination conferences for the 2017 Bundestag election. We conducted binary-logistical regressions to analyse how selecting party members’ attitudes and social characteristics affect their support for balancing state lists. Our results show that the gatekeepers’ hierarchical position within their parties (as grassroots or members of the party elite) has no impact on their support for increasing diversity. It is rather gatekeepers’ ideological self-positioning, gender and general sensitivity toward politically marginalised groups that have a significant impact on their support for the migration issue.