Immigration

Immigrant Political Incorporation and Electoral Coalitions

Project Date:

February 2005

Award Amount:

$33,957

Summary

The emergence of new immigrant groups into U.S. political life is reshaping the nature of political coalitions, which have been crucial in the rise of minority communities to political influence. The old black-white coalitions that marked the rise of African-American politics are beginning to wither in the face of increased immigrant political participation, but we do not yet know what new frameworks are replacing them. How often and in what ways do today’s immigrants forge political alliances? What influences their decision to form coalitions? With funding from the Foundation, political scientist Raphael Sonenshein and geographer Mark Drayse, both of California State University, Fullerton, will study these questions in the 2005 Los Angeles mayoral election.

Based on results from several recent elections in Los Angeles, Sonenshein and Drayse have developed a precinct-level dataset with information on voting behavior, party registration, ethnicity, and nation of origin. For this project, they will add data from the federal 2004 election and the 2005 mayoral race. The investigators will test for differences in voter participation and preferences in the mayoral election between immigrant, racial, and political groups. Next, they will examine how education and income levels—as well as ethnic and immigrant population concentration—influenced the voting behavior of both immigrants and native-born citizens in several elections. In addition, they will analyze voter surveys, campaign materials, and travel schedules for the mayoral candidates, looking for explicit appeals to foreign-born communities. Sonenshein and Drayse will present papers at the meetings of several political science associations and will prepare one or more articles for submission to refereed journals.

Reports and Publications