Contexts of Contestation: How Competing Logics of the State Enable and Constrain Immigrant Civic and Political Participation

Abstract

Immigrants face substantial barriers to civic and political participation, but many nonetheless remain highly engaged. This study examines this tension by developing and applying a framework for analyzing how state policies both integrate immigrants and enforce immigration to shape participation. I find that states (1) differ in their adoption and implementation of federal immigration policy and (2) pass inclusive and exclusive legislation in cross-cutting ways, which together (3) shape group differences in immigrant engagement along race-ethnicity and citizenship. Immigrant participation is examined using multilevel data that combine individual-level characteristics with state policy and implementation measures. Models show that inclusionary public benefits policy bolsters participation and exclusionary law enforcement policy reduces participation. However, these policy effects are shown to attenuate each other in asymmetric ways. The bolstering effect of inclusionary policy is sensitive to and rendered statistically nonsignificant by exclusionary policy, but the reverse is not true. I conclude with a discussion on the implications of these results for research on civic inequality along race-ethnicity and citizenship.