Immigrant Political Incorporation in the United States
by Abby Fisher Williamson on December 10, 2008 in Features
My dissertation examines the political incorporation of immigrants in the United States, particularly in smaller cities for which immigration is a new phenomenon.
Unlike some other immigrant-receiver nations, the United States lacks a uniform immigrant incorporation policy. Federal policy specifies the conditions for entry and attaining citizenship. Between entry and naturalization, however, immigrants, and the states and localities in which they settle, must negotiate their own systems of interaction – which in turn affects prospects for political incorporation.
Existing literature on immigrant political incorporation tends to focus on (i) the relationship between individual immigrant characteristics, and the likelihood of naturalization or subsequent electoral behavior and (ii) how immigrants fit into the fabric of a city’s pre-existing racial and ethnic politics.
A more complete explanation of political incorporation, however, would account for the interaction between immigrant characteristics and the local immigration policies of the destination society. Examining new immigrant destinations enables one to observe the development of local, immigration-related policies (e.g., on the role of a city police force in enforcing immigration policy), and the effect of these policies on the political incorporation of immigrants.
Analyzing this effect will hopefully enrich the current understanding of contemporary political incorporation processes, and assist municipalities in facilitating the transition of immigrants from uncertain newcomers to political actors.
Since the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, more than 20 million immigrants have entered the United States. These immigrants are predominantly Latino or Asian, differing ethnically from most earlier immigrants to America. Their settlement patterns also differ – while most immigrants still live in major gateway cities like New York and Los Angeles, the fastest growing immigrant populations are in non-traditional destinations, including suburban and rural areas.
Unlike gateway cities, these areas lack the institutional infrastructure that guides interactions with new immigrants. This lack of infrastructure and a uniform, federal policy on immigration integration, has led to a patchwork of local civic and governmental responses to new immigrant populations. My dissertation leverages the variation in these policy responses to better identify the circumstances and interventions that foster contemporary immigrant incorporation.
Through quantitative data analysis and detailed qualitative case studies, I examine two interrelated questions. First, how does the interaction between immigrant characteristics and local context (including immigrant race, socioeconomic characteristics, and legal status; as well as local economic, social, and political opportunity structures) shape policy responses to immigrants in new destinations? Second, how do these policy responses shape subsequent political incorporation? In the four new immigrant destinations I explore, the processes of political incorporation are visible and accessible from immigrants’ arrival onward.
My dissertation draws on five years of interviews and observation in six immigrant destinations, with a particular focus on four cities: Elgin, Illinois; Yakima, Washington; Lewiston, Maine; and Wausau, Wisconsin. Prior to 1975, these cities were overwhelmingly native-born and non-Hispanic white, with little recent experience of foreign-born populations or ethnic diversity. In addition, all of the sites are small cities, with populations ranging from 36,000 to 94,000. Their civic and governmental responses to immigrants, however, differ in important ways.
In Yakima, a city of 72,000 located in central Washington, the Latino population has grown from less than 5 percent in 1980 to comprise more than a third of city residents in 2000. In Elgin, a city of 94,000 located 45 minutes west of Chicago, ethnic demographic trends are nearly identical, but with immigrants arriving during the late 1970s.
Both Lewiston and Wausau have substantial populations of refugees, though the refugees’ race and the timing of their arrival differ. Beginning in 2001, 2,500 Somalis arrived in Lewiston, a city of 36,000 located 45 minutes north of Portland. In Wausau, a city of 37,000 in central Wisconsin, Hmong refugees began to arrive in the early 1980s, and now comprise over 10 percent of the population.
In Elgin and Wausau, the hiring of immigrant city outreach workers and the early establishment of multi-service, immigrant non-profit organizations improved communications among immigrants and native-born authorities, and increased immigrants’ civic capacity. In contrast, Yakima and Lewiston exemplify the extent to which government neglect and hostile immigration-related policies can adversely impact political incorporation, even if policies or rhetoric change over time.
My research will also touch on whether the United States needs a federal immigrant incorporation policy. Some argue that since the federal government controls the flow of immigrants, it should pay the costs of immigrant settlement in states and localities. Others argue that uniform incorporation policies are undesirable and will do little to shape long-term processes of immigrant acculturation. By investigating the way in which immigrant characteristics combine with contextual factors to shape policy responses and subsequent political incorporation, I hope to contribute to this ongoing discussion.
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