Abstract
Given that much scholarly and popular attention has recently been paid to the growing influence of Latinos in the U.S. political arena, Asian American Political Participation makes a significant contribution to the literature by providing a detailed examination of political involvement among Asian Americans, now the fastest-growing racial group in the United States. Janelle Wong, S. Karthick Ramakrishnan, Taeku Lee, and Jane Junn seek to document patterns and explain why some Asian Americans participate in political life and some do not, and among those who participate, why some individuals engage in political activity such as voting while others choose to contact government officials or work within the context of community organizations.
The data source for the book is the 2008 National Asian American Survey (NAAS), a nationally-representative survey (N=5,159) based on phone interviews conducted with the six largest Asian national origin groups in eight languages. The authors developed the survey with an eye toward understanding political ideologies and priorities, party identification, ethnic and racial identification, and of course, political participation. The NAAS is especially timely because it was conducted before the 2008 election, and to date, it is the best publicly available data source on the social and political life of the Asian American population. The book also draws upon the 2008 American Community Survey (ACS) and Current Population Survey (CPS) data to provide additional descriptive background information about Asian Americans. For example, Chapter Three focuses on where Asian Americans live in regards to region of the country, new immigrant destinations, concentration of Asians, as well as political geography. But by and large, the main focus of the book is the NAAS.
The primary strength of Asian American Political Participation is its comprehensive, detailed, and descriptive nature. It pays attention to the historical context within which different national origin groups comprising the racial category of Asian American come to participate in politics in the United States and describes these national origin populations regarding length of time in the United States, immigrant generation, citizenship, English proficiency, and variations among Asian national origin groups’ participation in five political behaviors: voting, political donations, contacting government officials, working with others in one’s community to solve a problem, and protest. The authors also successfully showcase how political participation among the Asian American population as a whole differs from other racial groups by providing useful comparisons with whites, blacks, and Latinos.
Theoretically, the book highlights the uniqueness of Asian Americans, and makes the important point that standard variables and models used to explain political participation do not work well when applied to the Asian American population. For example, Asian American involvement in politics is lower than one would expect based upon a resources or socioeconomic model of political participation. In other words, socioeconomic status does not automatically translate into political involvement. When looking at national origin group differences, the survey data reveal that Chinese Americans have higher average socioeconomic levels than Japanese Americans, yet Japanese Americans are more likely to vote and make political contributions, and Vietnamese Americans have the lowest average socioeconomic status but are the most likely to vote and engage in protest politics. Because of such issues, the book moves beyond the standard models and considers additional factors that might help to explain Asian American political participation such as immigrant socialization, residential context, party identification and political orientation, ethnic and panethnic identity formation, and membership and involvement in civic and religious associations. Each chapter in the book is devoted to describing patterns associated with these different variables, and basic relationships between these variables and the various forms of political participation.
Many interesting patterns emerge from these chapters, and two of the most interesting relate to partisanship and panethnic identity respectively. In regards to partisanship, nearly one-third of Asian Americans did not identify as Democrat, Republican, or Independent. This finding was consistent across national origin groups, and highlights that standard theories of partisanship cannot simply be applied to Asian Americans since a sizeable proportion of the population are non-identifiers. As to panethnic identity, Asian Americans identified with their national origin or ethnicity most often, but Chinese, Indian, and Vietnamese respondents were more likely to adopt a panethnic identity than Japanese respondents (a group that was central in developing a pan-Asian identity during the late 1960s in the United States). The fact that Indians identified with a panethnic label as often as Chinese and Vietnamese is significant, especially since scholars have found that second-generation Indians are building a panethnic South Asian American identity, and have often been viewed as distinctive from other Asian American groups. So what does all of this have to do with political participation? In the final empirical chapter, there is a full treatment of all variables together in a multivariate analysis predicting political participation.
The authors conclude that Asian American political participation is reflective of both assimilation and racialization processes. Education, nativity, national origin, and factors related to immigrant socialization such as length of time in the United States, play a major role in explaining patterns of political participation. At the same time, experience with racial discrimination or being the victim of a hate crime are also important predictors of political participation. Additionally, factors such as political party identification, mobilization by political parties and community-based organizations, and involvement in civic and religious organizations also increased political involvement among Asian Americans. The authors address the diversity across national origin groups relating to which factors are most important for predicting participation and type of participation, and effectively historicize the context of the different political pathways of the various national origin groups. The major challenge of studying Asian Americans and their political participation is to provide a cohesive explanation of political involvement among Asians as a panethnic or racial group, while also recognizing national origin differences. Asian American Political Participation successfully surmounts this challenge.
Understanding the political behaviors of the Asian American population can ultimately tell us about the extent to which a new immigrant group, and one that is majority foreign-born, is becoming politically incorporated, and the factors that encourage the incorporation process. Asian American Political Participation is a must read for scholars, students, and policy makers alike who are interested in learning more about the political attitudes and behaviors among Asian Americans and immigrant populations. Students of immigration, race/ethnicity, and politics will also discover that the book holds important insights about identity, intergroup attitudes, and civic engagement.