Late to the Party: On the Prolonged Partisan Socialization Process of Second-Generation Americans

Abstract

This article posits that the key to understanding the low levels of political involvement within contemporary immigrant communities, such as Asian and Latino communities, requires a closer examination of the partisan socialization process of the native-born children of immigrants. This article finds that many native-born children of immigrants, otherwise known as second-generation Americans, experience what I call a “prolonged partisan socialization process.” In the absence of parental partisan transmission, many second-generation Americans are left to find their own path to partisan attainment. The consequences of this are that many second-generation Americans eventually come to find their partisan identity outside of the home and much later in life. These findings disrupt the traditional partisan attainment story, which assumes that partisanship is the product of a process of socialization led by parents. Accounting for this prolonged socialization process provides significant insight into why partisan identification, and by extension political participation, among many second-generation Americans, such as Latinos and Asians appears muted. Therefore, while it will likely take some time for many within these contemporary immigrant communities to reach “partisan maturity,” we should not mistake the prolonged socialization process to mean that these individuals are destined to be politically disengaged.

Attitude Instability and Measurement: Item-Specificity and Group Differences

“…In contrast, many Asian Americans and Latinos were born outside the United States. Scholars have found that Asian Americans and Latinos tend to have weaker political socialization (Carlos, 2018;Hajnal and Lee, 2011;Raychaudhuri, 2018;Zheng, 2019). Many Asian Americans learn about politics mostly from peers and mass media rather than their parents (Zheng, 2019).…”

The Politics of the Mundane

“…Those persons born with at least one U.S.-born parent belong to the third generation or higher. The distinction is important because generational status plays a significant role in the way people experience the political world (e.g., Abrajano and Alvarez 2010;Alvarez and Bedolla 2003;Cain, Kiewiet, and Uhlaner 1991;Carlos 2018;Hajnal and Lee 2011).…”

“…Non-identifiers are individuals who do not report belonging to a political party (Hajnal and Lee 2011). The introduction of the Non-identifiers variable accounts for the uniqueness of the political socialization process for those connected to immigrant communities, as Non-identifiers make up the plurality of those in Latinx and Asian communities (Carlos 2018;Hajnal and Lee 2011). Finally, two variables regarding whether respondents think they can trust others and whether they believe Latinos can get ahead in the United States are included.…”

Choosing Choice: How Gender and Religiosity Shape Abortion Attitudes among Latinos

“…Finally, we turn briefly to the control variables. Compared to most other racial/ethnic groups, Latinos tend to have weaker partisan attachments (Carlos 2018), although group members have become more partisan since 2006 (Huddy, Mason, and Horwitz 2016). In line with this increased polarization, we find strong ties between partisanship and abortion attitudes in the 2014 Pew survey but, interestingly, not in the 2006 LNS.…”