Making Citizens or Good Citizens? Naturalization as a Predictor of Organizational and Electoral Behavior among Latino Immigrants

In this article, the author draws on the Latino National Political Survey (LNPS) to contrast the political behaviors of naturalized and native-born Latino U.S. citizens. The author examines three types of political behavior-organizational participation, ethnic organizational participation, and electoral participation-and one form of community activity that may serve as a precursor of political activity-school-focused parental involvement. The authorfinds that the naturalized are less likely than similarly situated native-born Latinos to participate in electoral politics and organizational activity. The author also finds that the weight of the negative influence of naturalization is less than the weight of the positive influence on participation of increasing levels of education and of age. The consequence of these findings is that strategies for Latino political empowerment based on naturalization will have to recognize that naturalization is just thefirst step in making politically active citizens.