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Do Social Ties Encourage Immigrant Voters to Participate in Other Campaign Activities?
Author(s) -
Klofstad Casey A.,
Bishin Benjamin G.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/ssqu.12040
Subject(s) - immigration , interpersonal ties , politics , miami , control (management) , political science , bivariate analysis , sociology , demographic economics , social psychology , psychology , law , economics , environmental science , management , soil science , statistics , mathematics
Objective How do immigrants become politically active? While this process has been extensively studied, the role of ties to formal and informal institutions of society has been understudied. We test whether informal (political discussion) and formal (connections to community organizations) ties encourage immigrant voters to participate in other campaign activities. Methods Data were collected through a 2008 exit poll of Miami‐Dade County, Florida, USA voters. Along with assessing the bivariate relationship between social ties and campaign participation, we use a Poisson event count regression model to control for alternative explanations. Results The positive relationship between social ties and campaign participation among immigrant voters disappears once we control for alternative explanations. There is, however, a positive relationship among the native born (including second‐generation immigrants). Conclusion Voters need to acquire personal resources, and become assimilated into American political culture, before social ties have an effect on campaign participation.