Get out on behalf of your group: Political participation of Latinos and Asian Americans in American politics

This dissertation attempts to understand political participation of Latinos and Asian Americans with an emphasis on how racial contexts influence individual participation of these racial-minority and immigrant-majority groups. In particular, this dissertation examines how the aggregate characteristics of a racial group and the level of racial heterogeneity of the local community interact with individual-level political and demographic factors in explaining participation of Latinos and Asian Americans in different types of political activities.;This dissertation presents a simple model of political participation of Latinos and Asian Americans, where a rational individual is motivated to participate in politics not only by individualistic benefits accrued to him- or herself but also by perceptions of participatory benefits realized at the group level, i.e., concerns regarding the welfare of other members of the group. Racial contexts play a critical role in political participation of Latinos and Asian Americans as they provide distinctive (dis-)incentives to participate by influencing their perception of group-level benefits.;The empirical analysis finds that an increasing size of the group significantly increases the likelihood of voting among Latinos and Asian Americans but, at the same time, tends to decrease their participation in other forms of political activities beyond voting. On the other hand, the relationship between the group size and political participation of Latinos and Asian Americans in different types of political activities is significantly conditioned on the aggregate economic status of the group and the level of racial heterogeneity of the local community. For instance, the higher aggregate economic status enjoyed by Latinos and Asian Americans tends to make the positive effect of an increasing group size on voting less salient but accelerates its negative effect on non-voting forms of participation; in contrast, increasing levels of racial heterogeneity makes the positive effect of an increasing group size on voting even stronger but attenuates its negative effect on non-voting forms of participation. Further analysis of a national survey of Latinos shows that these interaction effects of the aggregate economic status of the group and the level of racial heterogeneity are due to the fact that they influence the extent to which Latinos (and, by extension, Asian Americans) identify themselves as members of a distinctive racial group.