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Pessimists, Optimists, and Skeptics: The Consequences of Transnational Ties for Latino Immigrant Naturalization
Author(s) -
Gershon Sarah Allen,
Pantoja Adrian D.
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.12044
Subject(s) - naturalization , immigration , homeland , citizenship , disengagement theory , politics , interpersonal ties , political science , residence , sociology , political economy , law , social science , demography , gerontology , medicine , alien
Objective Central to current debates over immigration is the impact of transnational ties on immigrant political incorporation in the United States. Some researchers believe these ties hinder incorporation, while others have found a positive relationship between these variables, and yet other scholars have found that transnational connections exert no significant impact on immigrant behavior in the United States. We test these competing hypotheses in an attempt to resolve this scholarly debate. Methods We rely on data from the 2006 Latino National Survey and use logistic regression to test the impact of transnational ties on immigrant political incorporation (via naturalization). Results Transnational ties positively impact immigrants’ orientations toward citizenship and eventual naturalization. Conclusions Immigrant political incorporation is not a unidirectional process where immigrant engagement in the United States increases with disengagement in the ancestral homeland. Rather, Latino immigrants with ties to their ancestral homelands are more likely to desire and seek out U.S. citizenship.