Civic Rise: Local Integration Policies and Immigrant Political Participation

• In Event: Local Organizations and Immigration Political Incorporation

Abstract

The U.S. is a country built by immigrants. Recognizing the potential for friction in such a diverse society, various levels of U.S. governments have launched immigrant integration policies to weave newcomers into the community’s fabric. Immigrant integration policies, defined as comprehensive programs designed to facilitate the economic, social, and cultural inclusion of immigrants, include (a) workforce training (socio-economic integration), (b) civic education (legal-political integration), and (c) bilingual education (cultural-religious integration) (Penninx & Garcés-Mascareñas, 2016).
Without a federal integration system, local integration policies vary widely in quantity and effectiveness. Despite the pivotal role these policies play, there has been limited exploration into the processes and outcomes of such local practices, where immigrants experience the most interaction. In terms of studies that assess the outcomes of these efforts, such as how these policies affect immigrants’ political engagement (Goodman & Wright, 2015; Filindra & Manatschal, 2020; Walker et al., 2020), the inconclusive results highlight the need for further study. Some research suggests that policies like civic education can enhance political participation by providing immigrants with essential skills, such as language proficiency and political knowledge (Goodman & Wright, 2015). In contrast, other studies argue that a restrictive policy environment can act as a barrier, signaling exclusion and damaging immigrants’ sense of belonging to their new society (Maltby et al., 2018).
To fill these gaps, this paper continues to unmask the political outcomes (immigrants’ political engagement) of integration policies implemented by city governments, and aims to answer the question: How do local integration policies affect immigrants’ political participation, one of the primary outcomes of integration policies? I expect that the amount and quality of integration services provided for immigrants, determine their likelihood of encouraging political engagement via the influences of the mediator—political knowledge, which is the tangible and fundamental material effect of integration policies. Thus, the first hypothesis asserts: Inclusive local integration policies foster immigrants’ political participation by amplifying their political knowledge (material effects). Next, I expect integration policies to convey the psychological, symbolic effects, that is, feelings of political efficacy, to immigrants and enhance their political activities. In light of this, the second hypothesis is: Inclusive integration policies enhance immigrants’ political participation by elevating their political efficacy (symbolic effects). Lastly, whenever providers of integration services, i.e., governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, or local communities, emit signals of welcome towards immigrants, it elevates their sense of belonging. This subsequently translates into a heightened likelihood of political engagement, as the immigrants perceive a sincere invitation to be integral components of their host society. Thus, the third hypothesis asserts: Inclusive integration policies amplify immigrants’ political participation by strengthening their sense of belonging (symbolic effects).
To construct the independent variable of the study (inclusiveness of city’ integration policies), I built the City Government Immigrant Integration Policy Dataset encompassing policies implemented before 2017, by utilizing the advanced capabilities of the Pre-Trained Large Language Model (LLM) –Bing AI, to evaluate city policies against a set of inclusive and restrictive criteria derived from the survey respondents’ residency, and cross-validate with reputable sources. Cities are scored based on the presence of inclusive services, like civic education or restrictive measures affecting public service access.
I then merge the policy dataset with the 2016 Collaborative Multi-Racial Post-Election Survey based on survey respondents’ resident city. I measure political participation (dependent variable) through both formal and informal political activities. Mediators like political knowledge, efficacy, and belonging are assessed as immediate outcomes of policy, gauging their effectiveness in fostering long-term immigrant political engagement. Control variables include demographics, political attitudes, and immigration experiences, enabling a comparative analysis of political engagement across immigrant generations. I adopt causal mediation analysis with a fixed-effects model, which addresses unobserved heterogeneity among local governments, to test the above hypotheses. Preliminary results suggest that inclusive policies enhance mediators, particularly the sense of belonging, thereby increasing political engagement, especially in informal domains. This is attributed to immigrants’ perceived institutional welcomeness, influencing their community identity and civic involvement.

Author

• Kayee Zhou, The University of Texas at Austin