HISPANIC POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

Hispanic Political Participation



Hispanic Political Participation

Introduction

This paper is a review of given articles, presented in the references.

Factors influence Hispanic political participation

The given article written by Barreto, (2005, 79-86) examines the extent of political participation by Latino non-citizens across the United States. The only previous national quantitative research on this topic is by Verba, Schlozman and Brady, who found little difference between the participation rates of Latino citizens and non-citizens. Using the Latino National Political Survey, large differences between citizen and non-citizen participation are found. Although Latino non-citizens participated in non-electoral political activities and in non-political civic groups, they were significantly less likely to do so than Latino citizens. Examination of the non-citizen population shows that immigrants who understood politics better, planned on naturalizing, had a stronger ethnic identity, were more familiar with English and were younger were more likely to become involved. The traditional socio-economic measures of education and income as well as length of stay in the United States were non-significant predictors of non-citizen participation.

The article by Sidney, Schlozman, Brady and Nie, (1993, 453-497) examines the political participation of Latinos who live in the United States but are not citizens. Some scholars have noted that while non-citizens are unlikely to vote in American elections, other types of participation might not be unexpected. Garcia and Arce pointed out: It should be noted that ineligibility from voting does not totally remove the Mexican-born from the electoral process. They can, and many undoubtedly do, participate in campaigns, voice political opinions with family and friends, and contribute to campaigns. However, the nature and extent of their involvement with the electoral process is relatively unexplored.

De la Garza and DeSipio similarly noted in their article that 'Lack of citizenship serves to exclude participation in electoral activities and can make involvement in non-electoral political activities even less likely. While it might seem self-evident that citizens always participate more than non-citizens, this is not the conclusion to be drawn from the only quantitative examination of the topic. The recent Verba, Schlozman and Brady study of political engagement in America reported that Latino citizens did not always participate at higher levels than the overall Latino population.3 In addition, their regressions showed that while citizenship was positively correlated with an aggregate measure of political participation, the regressions on four specific types of political activity revealed a statistically significant difference between citizens and non-citizens only for ...