Generational Status and Mexican American Political Participation: The Benefits and Limitations of Assimilation

• Published date: 01 March 2011
• Author: Gary M. Segura,Wayne A. Santoro
• Date: 01 March 2011
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912909346738
• Subject Matter: Articles

Political Research Quarterly

64(1) 172 –184

© 2011 University of Utah

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DOI: 10.1177/1065912909346738

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Generational Status and Mexican

American Political Participation: The

Benefits and Limitations of Assimilation

Wayne A. Santoro1 and Gary M. Segura2

Abstract

The authors investigate self-reported voter turnout and ethnic political activity across four-plus generations of Mexican

Americans. Using a 1999 national survey, multivariate results indicate that the likelihood of Mexican American voting

increases largely in a monotonic manner across generations while participation in ethnic political activity begins to

decline after having one parent born in the United States. These results raise the question of whether disadvantaged

ethnic populations necessarily benefit politically from assimilating given that gains in voting that accrue across

generations are accompanied by declines in ethnic political activity among later generations.

Keywords

Mexican American, political participation, generation, assimilation

Immigrants and their descendents have an interest in par-

ticipating politically in the United States because such

activity helps them influence governments to address

their needs (Dahl 1961; Lieberson 1980; Portes and

Rumbaut 1996). Yet, few studies have examined how par-

ticipation varies across generations beyond the second.

Early work on mainly white ethnic voting was focused

on party and policy preferences rather than turnout and

joining political causes (Dahl 1961; Wilson and Banfield

1964; Wolfinger 1965). Likewise, political participation

theories are not designed to explain changes across gen-

eration, and assimilation theories are seldom applied to

political incorporation. In light of this lacuna, we put

forth an approach to explain political participation by

Mexican Americans across four-plus generations. We

focus on Mexican Americans because they are the largest

immigrant population in the United States, making up

30 percent of the foreign-born population in 2005, and

because they have greater generational depth than any

other Latino or Asian American population. Another

advantage of studying Mexican Americans is that their

political incorporation experiences may closely mirror

those of turn-of-the-century immigrants (Portes and

Rumbaut 1996), in part because Mexicans have been

present in both immigration waves.

Understanding the link between generation and political

participation among Mexican Americans necessitates

distinguishing between two types of political acts. The first

is voting. Voting is the most frequent form of political

activity for all Americans regardless of race or ethnicity.

We believe voting will increase generally in a linear

manner across generation, flattening as it reaches its ceil-

ing. This expectation is grounded in the resource model

and classic assimilation theory. The second type of politi-

cal participation is involvement in ethnic political acts.

Ethnic political acts are inspired specifically by concerns

with advancing ethnic political causes, such as boycot-

ting produce to support farm workers or campaigning for

a political candidate because the candidate is of Mexican

origin. Drawing upon diverse theoretical traditions, we

think that generational status will be linked to ethnic

political acts in a curvilinear manner: greater among the

second or third generation than the first but declining

among distant generations. Together, these predications

view assimilation processes as both strengthening and

weakening the political position of Mexican Americans

in that gains in voting that accrue across generations

should be accompanied by declines in ethnic political

activity among later generations.

We seek to make both theoretical and empirical contri-

butions to the study of racial and ethnic politics. In light

1University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

2Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Gary M. Segura, Stanford University, Department of Political Science,

616 Serra St., Encina Hall 100 West, Stanford, CA 94305, USA

E-mail: segura@stanford.edu