"A Nation of Immigrants: Ethnic Identity and Political Incorporation"
A Two-day Conference

The question of dual citizenship has long been a contentious one, raising concerns about divided allegiances that threaten the sovereignty of states. For much of its history, the United States displayed great hostility toward dual nationality, viewing it as the political equivalent of bigamy. In recent years, however, increasing global interdependence and the subsiding tensions of the Cold War have contributed to waning opposition to dual citizenship in both the United States and other countries. The growing willingness of other countries to allow their nationals to retain their original citizenship has contributed to the recent wave of naturalizations in the U.S., spurred by anti-alien sentiment and policies in the 1990s.

While much has been written about the legal rights of dual citizens, there has been little empirical work examining how they exercise those rights and how their conceptions of identity are shaped. Our goal is to collect and analyze survey data to examine questions of identity, political activity, and national sovereignty. To what extent do dual citizens exercise their voting rights in both countries? Do they hold conflicting conceptions of their identity? In an era in which many immigrants remain deeply connected to their homeland while establishing strong ties to their new home, we hope to address these relevant and timely questions.

Dennis Chong (Northwestern University) and Reuel Rogers (Northwestern University)
“Reviving Group Consciousness”

Scholars have long regarded group consciousness as a psychological resource with the potential to promote political participation, particularly among racial minorities. Studies conducted in the 1960s and 1970s generally confirmed that racial consciousness increased rates of participation. But more recent research has tended to conclude that the effects of group identity among blacks and others minorities appear to have moderated, if not faded entirely. This paper examines this research and explores the reasons behind the inconsistent findings. We offer evidence from large data sets including samples of racial minority groups that the influence of group consciousness may depend critically on how the concept is defined and measured and on which types of political participation are studied. In so doing, we elaborate on a theory of group solidarity that might be applied to future research on the effects of group consciousness on participation patterns among blacks, Latinos, Asians, and other minorities.

Jack Citrin (University of California, Berkeley) see below with Kathryn Pearson

Louis DeSipio (University of California, Irvine)
“Transnational Politics and U.S. Citizenship: Do Home Country Political Ties Limit Latino Immigrant Pursuit of U.S. Civic Engagement and Citizenship?”

This project seeks to measure and test the impact on U.S. politics of transnational political behaviors among Latino immigrants. While much has been claimed about transnational political behavior, there is little empirical research on the depth of transnational engagement among immigrants. How common are these types of behaviors? And do they persist over time? The broad objective of this project is to test the impact of having been involved in transnational politics on a range of U.S. political behaviors (including ones that non-citizens can engage in). Some would hypothesize that this sort of political involvement would discourage U.S. political engagement. My expectation is that, on the contrary, having been involved transnationally will increase engagement in U.S. politics. The data that I analyze come from a survey of 1,600 immigrants from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador, and migrants from Puerto Rico.

Brendan Doherty (University of California, Berkeley) (see above with Bruce E. Cain)

Lisa Garcia Bedolla (University of California, Irvine)
“Democracy, Power and Consent: Immigrants, Citizenship and Political Engagement in the United States”

Since September 11, 2001, there has been much public debate regarding the rights that should be accorded both citizens and non-citizens living in the United States. The trend seems to be a move towards an erosion of the civil liberties of both groups in the name of protecting our national security. This paper attempts to provide a justification for a move in the opposite direction by exploring the question of the rights of non-citizens within the context of our representative government. Currently, there are large numbers of non-citizens who work, live and pay taxes in the U.S., yet have no formal voice in our representative government. Political scientists rarely discuss what issues of non-citizenship mean for American democracy. This paper is a theoretical exploration of these questions, and what they mean specifically for the exercise of citizenship rights in immigrant communities. Using the work of Locke as a starting point, the paper begins by grappling with the theoretical question of consent. What does it really mean? How can we determine whether or not a community has given its consent? And, more concretely, what does it mean for democracy if a community has not given its consent (at least by voting), especially when the government is making important decisions that affect the everyday lives of both immigrants and their children? I then explore the avenues available to non-citizens to express their policy preferences and discuss how effective those avenues are relative to those available to citizens. I argue that these issues affect both the development of political coalitions and the ability of immigrant communities to address their political problems. Finally, given the large number of non-citizens that will be present in the United States for the foreseeable future, I discuss the normative issues that are raised for our democracy as a result of this, and provide suggestions for alternative institutional mechanisms that could lead to a more just and egalitarian political system for citizens and non-citizens alike.

Zoltan Hajnal (University of California, San Diego) and Taeku Lee (University of California, Berkeley)
“Beyond the Middle: Latinos and the Multiple Dimensions of Political Independents”

This paper challenges the basic account of political Independence as a linear ideological continuum with Independents occupying the middle or center either as a result of their ideological moderation or political apathy. As an alternative, we propose a multi-dimensional theory of party identification. We examine several tensions in the unidimensional view of partisanship vis-a-vis the partisanship choices of Latinos in the U.S. We view partisanship acquisition and the dynamics of political Independence to be more multidimensional for several reasons.

First, the existing literature assumes a broad familiarity with American politics and partisan choices. However, for largely immigrant groups like Latinos this knowledge is often lacking. The choice of which party to favor is likely to be preceded by a prior choice of whether or not to think in partisan terms. Second, there is little room in existing models for social identity. However, it is clear that for Latinos, political perceptions are greatly shaped by identity with one’s national origin group, identity with the Catholic church, and identity as a minority. These different social identities, we believe, are likely to recombine in often complex ways to influence how different Latino groups think about the major parties, the American political process, and the utility of remaining Independent. Finally, we argue that the ideological views of many Latinos may not fit well into a unidimensional conservative-liberal party dimension. Strong concerns about issues that are either orthogonal to left-right politics and are absent from the debates of Democrats and Republicans are likely to lead to a rejection of both major parties and continued Independence. Thus, Latino Independents may not necessarily be resolute centrists. We test this these distinct pathways to political Independence using data from the cumulative American National Election Studies file and the 1989-1990 Latino National Politics Study. In the first half of the analysis we use mainstream tools of public opinion research to show that the growing trend toward Independence that exists among whites is actually reversed for Latinos. Moreover, traditional models of party identification provide only a partial explanation for why Latinos choose to identify as Independents rather than with a major party. We then explicitly model the views and behaviors of politically unincorporated groups into our model. Consistent with our expectations, non-linear, multi-dimensional models of partisan choice fare better than linear, uni-dimensional models of partisan choice. We conclude by discussing implications for how opinion polls measure partisanship, how political science studies partisan choice, and how political Independence is likely to influence electoral politics in the U.S.

Amaney A. Jamal (Columbia University)
“Associative and Communitarian Models of Political Participation: Arab Americans and Mosque Participation”

Democratic theorists have long been interested in the pathways and processes that pave the way to democratic forms of political participation. Many approaches underscore the importance of associative ties in promoting effective forms of political participation. Associations, it is argued, broaden one's immediate social networks, creating weak but multifaceted ties that facilitate political participation (Verba, Schlozman and Brady,1995; Granovetter, 1982). Associations also serve as sites for civic education, where qualities deemed important for democratic citizenship-such as tolerance and moderation-are reinforced (de Tocqueville 1956; Putnam, 1993 ).

Yet, many scholars have cautioned that this associative model of political participation is often glamorized. Associational participation may aid political participation, but it may also present certain problems to the quest for democratic citizenship. Associations, that is, can hinder democratic citizenship in more ways than one. Not only can associations shelter individuals from other civic groups, they are also in constant danger of reinforcing autocratic, rather than democratic, political structures. In other words, if associations are not managed correctly, they can generate top-down, hierarchical models of engagement that don't bode well for horizontal forms of political participation. Further, associations can preach the wrong message altogether. Xenophobia and other anti-democratic ideologies often pervade associative conglomerations (Berman, 1997). Based on associative theories of democratic participation, then, immigrant groups, and the ethnic associations they join can pose serious challenges to the communitarian ideals of good democratic citizenship discussed above. In this paper, I argue that even narrowly organized associational ties can link citizens to democratic political institutions in ways that are important for democratic forms of participation.

Jane Junn (Rutgers University)
“Mobilizing Group Consciousness: Some Circumstances Under Which Ethnicity Has Political Consequences.”

Mobilization to political participation by group membership – particularly as a function of race and ethnicity – has often been assumed in studies of mass behavior. The links from ethnicity to group consciousness, and from consciousness to political activity, however, remain empirically tenuous and theoretically underspecified. Contrary to prevailing expectations, being Asian or Latino or Black does not systematically predict either the presence of an ethnic group consciousness or the prevalence of a higher degree of political awareness and participation. Nevertheless, racial minority status has been utilized successfully by some groups to mobilize mass behavior precisely because group membership invites an intuitive appeal to action. Under what circumstances does ethnicity have political consequences? Why is ethnic mobilization successful in some situations and for some groups? My paper addresses these questions by analyzing three aspects of ethnic identity and group consciousness: the ability to choose one’s identification, the subjectivity of identities, and the gradations in strength of identification. In so doing, I specify a design to measure an ethnic group consciousness with political kick.

Taeku Lee (University of California, Berkeley) (see above with Zoltan Hajnal)

John Mollenkopf (City University of New York, Graduate Center)
“Political Cynicism in the Immigrant Second Generation”

In New York City, non-Hispanic whites make up a bare majority of the electorate and people from that background hold two of the three city-wide elective offices and 26 of the 51 council seats. Yet only 20 percent of those who are 18 to 32 years old are native born non-Hispanic whites with native parents, and only a third are white. The other two-thirds are black, Asian, and Latino, four out of five of whom are either immigrants or children of immigrants. This creates the potential for a significant gap in the perceptions and practices between those who govern and those who are governed. During the Giuliani era (1993-2001), this gap was particularly sharp, both because minority youngsters perceived Mayor Giuliani to be unfriendly to them, and because the New York City Police Department put young minority males under substantially increased social control. This was associated with a good deal of cynicism about the political system among these young people, pervasive alienation from politics, and the conviction that the system was not fair. Using data from both a large scale survey, and in-depth interviews with several hundred young people from eight different native and immigrant backgrounds, this chapter explores the roots, dimensions, and consequences of these feelings, and asks when and why a few people happened to break out of this general pattern to become politically involved.

Kathryn Pearson (University of California, Berkeley) and Jack Citrin (University of California, Berkeley)
“Assimilation of the Fourth Wave: Identity, Attitudes, and Participation”

Karthick Ramakrishnan (Research Fellow, Public Policy Institute of California)
“Race, Immigrant Incorporation and Civic Voluntarism in the United States”

There has been considerable scholarly debate on the effects of racial heterogeneity and residential poverty on voter turnout and other forms of political participation. While it is widely acknowledged that places with high levels of residential poverty tend to depress political participation, the effects of racial heterogeneity on participation are more contested. Some argue that conflicting interests in heterogeneous contexts prompt higher levels of participation, whereas others suggest that homogenous communities are more likely to enforce norms of higher participation.

Few studies have examined the effects of these contextual factors on civic voluntarism across individuals of different racial and ethnic groups. Furthermore, none has considered whether these effects may vary according to immigrant generation, or whether the presence of immigrants may increase or depress volunteerism among the native-born. This study relies on recent national-level data on civic voluntarism to provide a more detailed analysis of the relationship between residential contexts, race and immigration on the one hand, and civic voluntarism on the other.

Ricardo Ramirez (Public Policy Institute of California)
"Where No Party Has Gone Before...Non-Partisan Latino Voter Mobilization and Issues of Contactability"

Unquestionably, voter mobilization is among the most important functions of political parties during campaigns. Despite the problems that arise in scholarly attempts to find a direct link between contact and turnout, political parties continue to emphasize the importance of Get Out The Vote (GOTV) campaign techniques including phone contact, personal canvass, and literature dissemination. When a target population is selected, political party organizations have two principal considerations, efficiency and effectiveness. Finite campaign resources compel partisan organizations to use modern campaign technology to target as many partisans as possible, yet at the same time focus only on those who are likely to vote. Unfortunately, this mobilization approach has unintended consequences for participation patterns. By neglecting to contact all voters, certain segments of the electorate are not exposed to one of the few elite mechanisms for increasing voter turnout. The outcome is that there is an increasing share of forgotten electorates (i.e. young voters, new voters, infrequent voters), which further depresses turnout. More problematic is the fact that many of these forgotten electorates include sizable number of Latinos and Asian Americans, the two fastest growing segments of the US population. Have political parties missed the boat in their targeting strategies? Or are these forgotten electorates to difficult to mobilize? More specifically, is it possible to demonstrate a more direct link between “real world” mobilization efforts of low propensity voters and turnout? To this end, I examine the effects of non-partisan GOTV efforts on turnout of Latinos least likely to be contacted by any partisan voter mobilization campaign (young Latinos, those with minimal or non-existing voting histories). Using data from a non-partisan GOTV campaign, conducted by the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) prior to the November 7th, 2000 and November 5th, 2002 elections, experiments were conducted to determine whether there were differences in the voter turnout of the treatment and control groups. I address three distinct questions. First, are voter mobilization efforts targeted at Latinos effective in increasing voter turnout? Second, are the effects of GOTV efforts the same among all Latinos or are there distinct patterns of effectiveness based on nativity or registration cohort? Finally, in addition to elite mobilization efforts, what forms of political context (e.g. state political culture, election type, party competition) need to be considered when explaining levels of participation?

Reuel Rogers (Northwestern University) (see above with Dennis Chong)

Leland Saito (University of Southern California)
“The Politics of Race and Redistricting in California, 2000-2002"

Using the 2000-2002 California redistricting as a case study, I primarily focus on Los Angeles County to examine the working relationship that formed among Asian American, Latino, and African American community groups and civil rights organizations, the lawsuit filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) against the final redistricting plan, and the opposition to the lawsuit by Latino elected officials. The issues that I examine include the dialogue on the political meaning of race, and how one's interpretation of race is influenced by one's position in society and the interests related to that location. The policy implications include factors that generate multiracial coalitions and conflict, intra-racial cooperation and conflict, and the debate over redistricting as a tool of minority disfranchisement or enfranchisement. Redistricting provides a unique opportunity to examine the relationship between race and politics because the 1965 Voting Rights Act requires the recognition and protection of the political rights of ethnic and racial minorities. As part of this process, a group must establish that it is a community of interest, that is, a population with shared social, economic, and/or political issues. This compels groups that advocate for the use of race as a factor, to publicly and explicitly state the political significance of race. As data for this project, I primarily use redistricting public hearing transcripts, documents submitted in the MALDEF lawsuit by the plaintiffs and defendants, print media accounts of redistricting, and fieldwork based on my involvement as the regional coordinator of the San Diego Asian Pacific American redistricting effort.

Carole Uhlaner (University of California, Irvine)
“The Roots and Consequences of Subjective Political Representation Among Latinos”

One important component of an immigrant becoming politically incorporated is the existence of the belief that he or she is politically represented. Political representation constitutes one leg of the linkage between elites and mass publics. The other leg, political participation, provides information and pressure from the mass public to elites. Representation refers to the processes whereby elites take account of the publics' views, preferences, and/or interests in producing policy and other political services. In Hanna Pitkin's formulation (in The Concept of Representation, UC Press, 1967), a citizen, to be well represented, must feel that someone would defend his or her interests if they were threatened (pages 232-236). Representation understood this way is an attitude or belief and therefore not measurable solely by matching policy preferences or demographic characteristics.

As I have argued elsewhere, persons who are well represented in the sense above can be expected to participate more in politics, and I have shown this to be the case for Latinos. The present research will examine how perceived representation differentially affects immigrants and the U.S. born. For immigrants, development of a sense of representation forms part of the overall process of incorporation into a new political system, and it may thus function differently than for the native born. This project will also examine which factors appear to foster development of a sense of political representation, and it will examine that process comparatively for immigrants and the US born. Much of this research will use the Latino National Political Survey, as the LNPS contains an item that taps subjective representation. The LNPS also contains a full range of items on political participation, political attitudes, and immigration status, among other variables.

Cara Wong (University of Michigan)
“Citizenship for Service: Substitution, Commutation, and 'Green Card Troops'”

This paper examines the policy of granting American citizenship for military service. It first provides some of the history of aliens in the U.S. armed forces and some of the arguments presented for the passage of the relevant legislation and executive orders. It then briefly summarizes the practice of substitution and commutation, two historical alternatives to military service in times of conscription. While a draft is unlikely in the future, and commutation and substitution were abolished by the beginning of the 20th century, I argue that granting citizenship for service combines aspects of these older policies. Furthermore, I argue that the longevity of the practice of granting alien soldiers citizenship status in exchange for military service is ensured for a number of reasons, including its role in highlighting the value of American citizenship and in allowing Americans to remain what Lane called "casual patriots."

Carolyn Wong (Stanford University)
“Ethnic Barriers to Building Panethnic Coalitions”

This paper analyzes the problems ethnic elites confront when using panethnic labels to mobilize immigrants in politics. The focus is on elite strategies of mass mobilization in electoral campaigns and grassroots issue-based politics. What trade-offs do ethnic political leaders consider when employing the panethnic categories, especially when new immigrants do not readily identify with the panethnic terms? I will suggest an analytical framework that focuses on the dynamics of coalition building. The empirical research is based on interviews of Asian American political leaders, including Asian American elected officials, and leaders of civil rights organizations in state legislatures and in the Washington policy environment (in progress).

Janelle Wong (University of Southern California)
"Political Mobilization Among Asian Pacific Americans: The Role of Political Contact."

This paper examines the role of contemporary community institutions, including parties, labor unions, religious organizations, community based non-profits and ethnic voluntary organizations in the mobilization and incorporation of Asian Americans. Much of the literature on Asian American political behavior focuses on individual-level characteristics and their association with political participation. I argue that in addition to individual-level factors, institutional context also matters for the political participation of Asian Americans. Traditional political organizations, like parties and the community-based organizations described above, all play a part in the political incorporation of Asian Americans. They do not contribute equally to incorporation, however. Nor do they mobilize Asian Americans to participate in the same political activities. Though parties and other mainstream political institutions may turn more of their attention towards contemporary Asian Americans in the near future, for the current wave, mainstream political institutions are less important for political incorporation than other community organizations. I describe the current political forces and incentive structure shaping the behavior of different institutions towards mobilizing Asian American immigrants. How the political system, especially parties and other community-based institutions, will respond to growing numbers of Asian Americans in the future is a key question I explore at the end of the paper. I adopt a multi-method approach, drawing on quantitative survey data, qualitative interviews, fieldwork, and data from an experimental field study on Asian Pacific Americans in Los Angeles County.