Immigrants’ membership in civic associations: Why are some immigrants more active than others?

Abstract

This study focuses on the level of membership in associations of the migrant population in Spain. Three types of civic engagement are considered: participation in all types of civic associations, in associations for immigrants and in non-immigrant associations. The article investigates whether immigrants coming from countries with higher levels of civic participation are more likely to participate in civic associations and if immigrants who have lived longer in and stayed in closer contact with a home country with a higher level of civic participation are more likely to join civic associations. Data used come from the Spanish National Immigrant Survey (2007) and the World Values Survey (2000, 2005). The results of multilevel logistic regressions show that immigrants who have spent more time in a more participatory context at origin and who are in closer contact with these societies are more likely to get involved in civic associations at destination.

National day participation among immigrants in the Netherlands: the role of familiarity with commemorating and celebrating

“…Based upon the assumption that previous experiences in the country of origin can be transferred, adapted, and used once immigrants arrive in their country of destination, previous studies have argued that immigrants from countries that have a civic or political environment similar to the host country integrate more easily than immigrants from countries with a very different environment (Voicu and Comşa 2014;Voicu and Rusu 2012;White, Nevitte, Blais, Gidengil and Fournier 2008). This is explained by the acquisition of civic or political skills that are more compatible with those needed in the country of destination.…”

“…voting, volunteering), this study aims to answer these questions by examining to what extent immigrants' host national day participation can be explained by previous participatory experiences related to their country of origin, in addition to socio-cultural factors related to their current country of residence. We follow a recent line of research suggesting that to understand immigrants' political participation, not only immigrants' current situation should be taken into account, but also -and perhaps even more so -the 'previous participatory context', in other words, experiences related to immigrants' country of origin (Voicu and Comşa 2014;Voicu and Rusu 2012).…”

Immigrants' Participation in Voting: Exposure, Resilience, and Transferability

“…The first hypothesis explicitly adds the effect of the host participatory culture, which was merely assumed in previous analyses (Togeby 1999;van Londen, Phalet, and Hagendoorn 2007). Considering H1 and H2, similar steps were taken for the case of participation in civic associations (Voicu and Rusu 2012;Voicu 2013). Bilodeau (2008) considered the effects of early socialisation in the country of origin on the participation in protest actions of immigrants to Canada and Australia.…”

La participación política de las comunidades migrantes en España. Nuevos y viejos dilemas

“…La relación entre procesos sociodemográficos y formas asociativas de las comunidades migrantes ha sido tradicionalmente uno de los ejes de investigación más productivos. Partiendo del ya clásico estudio de Rex et al (1987) sobre las entidades de migrantes en Europa, las contribuciones que se orientan en torno a este eje han analizado la relación entre los flujos y los procesos migratorios y las características del asociacionismo migrante (Moya, 2005;Vermeulen, 2010;Voicu y Rusu, 2012;Bada, 2013), pero también cuestiones vinculadas al liderazgo en el seno de las comunidades (Pratten y Baldo, 1995;Escala et al, 2011;Antwi, 2010;Pirkkalainen et al, 2013) o la participación femenina en dichas organizaciones (Pojmann, 2007;Jettinger, 2010;De Tona, 2012). En el caso español existen también importantes contribuciones que se enmarcan en esta línea.…”