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Chapter Five: From Naturalized Citizen to Voter: The Context of Naturalization and Electoral Participation in Latino Communities
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f i v e From Naturalized Citizen to Voter The Context of Naturalization and Electoral Participation in Latino Communities L o u i s D e Si p i o In the 1990s, naturalization surged to levels unprecedented in the history of its federal regulation since 1907 (see Table 5.1). The more than five million immigrants who naturalized as U.S. citizens in the 1990s exceeded the number of naturalizees in the previous three decades combined . Naturalization in the first decade of the twenty-first century increased further. More than 6.5 million immigrants naturalized as U.S. citizens between 2001 and 2010. The large number of newly naturalized citizens—most of whom are adults1 —will likely influence U.S. electoral politics for many years to come simply based on their numbers and their concentration in a few states, but they also raise a dilemma for democratic institutions in the United States. Specifically, they test whether existing incorporative mechanisms are successful at making these new, voluntary citizens into regular participants in electoral politics. Numbers alone, of course, do not guarantee regular electoral participation . For these newly naturalized citizens to have a distinct voice 149 150 ■ Louis DeSipio Table 5.1. Naturalizations by Decade Decade Naturalizations 1907–1910 111,738 1911–1920 1,128,972 1921–1930 1,773,185 1931–1940 1,518,464 1941–1950 1,987,028 1951–1960 1,189,949 1961–1970 1,120,263 1971–1980 1,464,772 1981–1990 2,214,265 1991–2000 5,597,105 1991 307,394 1992 239,664 1993 313,590 1994 429,123 1995 485,720 1996 1,040,991 1997 596,010 1998 461,169 1999 837,418 2000 886,026 2001–2010 6,556,004 2001 606,259 2002 572,646 2003 462,435 2004 537,151 2005 604,280 2006 702,589 2007 660,477 2008 1,046,539 2009 743,715 2010 619,913 Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 2011. Yearbook of Immigration Statistics 2010. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics. http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/yearbook/2010/ois_yb_ 2010.pdf. Accessed May 3, 2012. From Naturalized Citizen to Voter ■ 151 in politics, they need to participate regularly and, ideally, at higher levels than do their U.S.-born co-ethnics who tend to participate at lower levels than non-Hispanic whites (Anglos) and African Americans (U.S. Bureau of the Census 2005; DeSipio 1996a; Lien, Conway, and Wong 2004). Naturalized citizens may be at a particular disadvantage. A series of studies conducted in the 1990s demonstrate that naturalized citizens participate in elections, as well as other forms of community political activity, at rates lower than comparably situated U.S.-born citizens (Bass and Casper 1999; DeSipio 1996c, 2001; Levitt and Olson 1996; Minnite, Holdaway, and Hayduk 1999; Mollenkopf, Olson, and Ross 2001).2 Several of these studies, however, note that the naturalized citizens in their analyses include immigrants who became U.S. citizens exclusively or primarily before the surge in naturalization in the mid-1990s, a period in which more of the naturalizees arguably naturalized for political reasons than had immigrants in previous eras. Thus, this previous scholarship would suggest that it might be valuable to disaggregate 1990s naturalizees and/or immigrants who naturalized for political reasons to ascertain a cohort effect that distinguishes them in terms of their political behavior from earlier naturalizees or from naturalizees who did not naturalize for political reasons. The post-1992 naturalizees also include a subgroup that may have a claim on electoral participation that is unique from other naturalizees. Specifically, one of the reasons for the surge in naturalization in the 1990s (a topic discussed in more depth later) is the large number of Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) legalizees who became eligible to naturalize in the 1990s (Rytina 2002; Baker 2010). United States residency since at least 1981 was required of this group—many had been resident for much longer—and they had to demonstrate either a facility in English and civics at the time of legalization (in other words, in the late 1980s) or the taking of classes to gain this knowledge. Thus, IRCA recipients should on average have been ahead of other naturalizees in gaining the formal civics skills necessary to participate in U.S. politics. Finally, previous scholarship has not been able to assess whether the broader context of naturalization, regardless of when it took place, shapes the likelihood...