How Contact with Bureaucrats Impacts Immigrant Incorporation in the U.S.

• In Event: Immigrant Perspectives on Policies, Participation, and Bureaucrats

Abstract

Over the last 50 years, the estimated number and proportion of international migrants have increased across the world. During this time period, the United States has been the most popular destination for migrants in the world (McAuliffe and Triandafyllidou, 2021). Moreover, U.S. Census data shows that foreign-born immigrants now make up about 1 in 7 of the whole population, and the demographics of immigrants are diversifying, especially after increased migration from Latin America and Asia. As there are now more people living in countries in which they were not born, it is particularly important to understand how newcomers are incorporated into the political life of their new countries, and the rapid growth of the immigrant population has drawn scholarly attention to immigrants’ political incorporation in the U.S. How do immigrants develop their attitudes toward the American political system? What leads them to engage in politics in the host country? Previous literature provides some guidance about how immigrants are politically incorporated in the host country, but those theories do not give much attention to immigrants’ experiences with the new system after migration.
In this paper, I argue that interactions with the new political system affect immigrants’ political incorporation. These interactions provide one path for immigrants to learn about how the new system works and how the government perceives and treats them, which affects the development of political attitudes toward the new country. Here, I specifically focus on immigrants’ contact with street-level bureaucrats. Street-level bureaucrats are non-elected public service workers at the local level, such as public school teachers, social workers, police officers, local judges, and other public service workers (Lipsky, 1980). Those bureaucrats are the first and most frequently encountered government officials in our everyday lives (Lipsky, 1980; Pepinsky et al., 2017). I argue that positive interactions with street-level bureaucrats lead immigrants to perceive their host country as responsive and trustworthy, which encourages them to engage in politics in the host country. On the other hand, negative interactions with street-level bureaucrats will give the impression that the host country is unwelcoming and hostile, which discourages political activities in the host country.
To understand the potential impact of bureaucratic interactions, I analyze the relationship between bureaucratic interactions and immigrant political incorporation with original survey data. I recruited 1500 documented immigrants and 1000 nonimmigrants residing in the U.S. with YouGov panelists. The results show that experiences with street-level bureaucrats are significantly associated with trust in state and federal government, their external political efficacy, and political participation among immigrants.
Keywords: Street-Level Bureaucrats, Immigrant Political Incorporation, Original Survey

Author

• Minhye Joo, University of California, Riverside