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Title: Latino Identities in Context: Ethnic Cues, Immigration, and the Politics of Shared Ethnicity
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2012
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Abstract: This dissertation is a collection of three essays examining the relationship between im- migrant political rhetoric and identity among Latinos in the United States. To achieve this task, this study uses empirical evidence from a national survey and original data collected from experiments in New York City and Los Angeles. The first essay identifies three forms of Latino identity most relevant to political decision-making: national origin, pan-ethnic, and American. I find that levels of acculturation as defined by immigrant status and English language strongly predict American identification. Latino identities inform support on im- migrant issues. Latinos with higher perceptions of national origin and pan-ethnic interests are more pro-immigrant on issues pertaining to the rights of undocumented immigrants. The second essay investigates how exposure to explicit and implicit cues within anti- immigrant rhetoric shape the voting decisions of non-Mexican Latino groups in New York City. I test the effects of pan-ethnic, nationality-based, and counter-stereotypical political appeals on candidate support. I find that nationality-based appeals directly or indirectly tar- geting Mexican immigrants do not activate identity in vote choice, only explicit, pan-ethnic cues implicating all Latino immigrants activate “Latino” group interests in voting decisions. The third essay tests whether political processes of collective identity observed among non-Mexicans in New York City are generalizable to Mexican and non-Mexicans in Border States. Conversely, I find that only nationality-based political appeals targeting Mexicans ac- tivate Mexican group interests in vote choice. These results do not extend to non-Mexicans. Anti-immigrant messages did not activate identity in voting. Overall, these findings sug- gest that identity activation in the context of threat may work differently for Mexican and non-Mexican Latino groups in the United States.
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Authors: Cropper, Porsha, Q
Institution: Harvard University
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Pages: 129
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Migration and Immigration
Countries: United States