Examining How Socialization Affects People Who Are Either Immigrants or First-Generation U.S. Citizens

Abstract

This paper focuses on the relationship between theupbringing of first-generation Americans andimmigrants, and how their cultural ties influencedtheir political philosophy or ideology. I willexplore different factors such as how an individual'sideology contrasts with their parents. Thestudy mostly focused on students from the Universityof California, Merced (UC Merced), andpeople who are physically and financially independent.Factors such as age, gender, politicalparty affiliation, political philosophy, and countryof origin or country of parents’ origin wereconsidered in this study. While there is an emphasison students of Latino or Hispanic origin,other backgrounds like Asian ethnic groups were alsoconsidered. Students of Asian ethnicbackgrounds were relevant in this study as they similarlywent through periods of assimilation toWestern culture. This paper also compares my findingsto the conclusions of Uhlaner & Garcia’s(2016) essay on Latino partisan preference, Sapiro’s(2004) study on how socialization affectspolitical identity, and Kinefuchi’s (2010) researchon how assimilation affects political and socialattachments. This paper looks at how parental influence,or the lack thereof, leads to thedevelopment of their children’s political views whileminding sociocultural and socioeconomicfactors. This paper will consider how knowledge on socialization and political philosophy can influence current events like the  political campaigns during the 2020 United States presidential election.