| This project explores the naturalization and voting patterns of immigrants in the United States using the November 1994, 1996, 1998, and 2000 Voter and Registration Supplement to the Current Population Survey. Immigrants from Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Britain, Italy, the former Soviet Union, the Philippines, China, Southeast Asia, and India are included in the research study in an attempt to include groups with varied political, social, economic, and geographic backgrounds. Through multivariate logistic regression analysis, I have examined the influence of individual, family, community, and country of origin factors on both naturalizing and voting in an effort to determine the factors that dictate which of three possible trajectories an immigrant group chooses to take: (1) naturalizing or not, (2) naturalizing, but not voting, or (3) naturalizing and voting. Systematic study of the data has revealed the importance of factors at all four levels. Individual levels of education, income, and exposure to the United States influence naturalizing and voting, as does family structure, the population density of the host community, and the distance, level of democracy, and GDP of the home society. These characteristics affect political incorporation, net of and in interaction with other factors. The respective direction and strength of these characteristics vary by gender and country of origin. Finally, the processes of naturalizing and voting are differentially influenced by the same individual, family, community, and host society characteristics, suggesting the two forms of political incorporation are distinct from one another and occur for dissimilar reasons. |
