How Social Ties with Undocumented Immigrants Motivate Latinx Political Participation

• Author: Marcel Roman,Hannah Walker,Matt Barreto
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211019473
• Published date: 01 September 2022
• Date: 01 September 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211019473

Political Research Quarterly

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129211019473

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Introduction

How do undocumented social ties motivate political

engagement among Latinxs? Undocumented immigrants

are increasingly relevant in the social life of the Latinx

community. The undocumented population has increased

from 3.5 to 10 million between 1990 and 2017. In all, 70

percent of the undocumented originate from Latin

America. Moreover, the proportion of long-term undocu-

mented immigrants living in the United States over ten

years has increased more than 80 percent due to limited

options for attaining legal status and higher reentry costs.

At the same time, interior immigration enforcement grew

significantly since Clinton-era immigration reforms,

bringing fear of deportation from the border to the streets

of American cities.1

Prior research demonstrates anti-immigrant policies

spur political action not only among immigrants, but

Latinxs writ large (Barreto et al. 2009; Bowler, Nicholson,

and Segura 2006; Pantoja, Ramirez, and Segura 2001;

Zepeda-Millán 2017). This research implicitly assumes

Latinxs have ties to the immigrant experience, if not

undocumented people. This research also assumes

Latinxs are collectively mobilized by political rhetoric

and punitive policies targeting undocumented commu-

nity members. However, little work assesses the conse-

quences of social ties with undocumented immigrants on

political behavior directly, and even less identifies mech-

anisms motivating participation among Latinxs with

undocumented social ties.

Drawing on six nationally representative surveys of

Latinxs, we demonstrate social ties with undocumented

immigrants are consistently associated with collective

forms of political participation amenable to facilitating

group interests and identity expression, such as protest-

ing. Conversely, undocumented social ties do not moti-

vate individualistic forms of political participation in

1019473PRQXXX10.1177/10659129211019473Political Research QuarterlyRoman et al.

research-article2021

1University of California, Los Angeles, USA

2University of Texas-Austin, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:

Marcel Roman, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

90049, USA.

Email: mfrmarcel@ucla.edu

How Social Ties with Undocumented

Immigrants Motivate Latinx Political

Participation

Marcel Roman1, Hannah Walker2, and Matt Barreto1

Abstract

Prior research suggests social ties with undocumented immigrants among Latinxs may increase political engagement

despite constraints undocumented social networks may introduce. We build on prior research and find across six

surveys of Latinxs that social ties with undocumented immigrants are reliably associated with collective, identity

expressive activities such as protesting, but not activities where immigration may not be immediately relevant, such

as voting. Moreover, we assess a series of mechanisms to resolve the puzzle of heightened participation despite

constraints. Consistent with prior research at the intersection of anti-immigrant threat and Social Identity Theory,

we find Latinxs with strong ethnic identification are more likely to engage in political protest in the presence of social

ties with undocumented immigrants, whereas weak identifiers disengage. We rule out alternative mechanisms that

could link undocumented social ties with participation including political efficacy, a sense of injustice, linked fate,

acculturation, outgroup perceptions of immigration status, partisan identity, conducive opportunity structures, and

prosociality. Our contribution suggests the reason social ties with undocumented immigrants are not necessarily

a hindrance to political engagement among Latinx immigrants and their co-ethnics is because they can draw from

identitarian resources to overcome participatory constraints.

Keywords

Latino politics, political participation, immigration, race and ethnic politics, political psychology, social identity theory

2022, Vol. 75(3) 661–675

Article