Immigration politics and group consciousness for newcomers to Southern US politics

Identifying factors linked to the development of group consciousness is important toward bettering our understanding of group formation processes among marginalized ethnoracial groups. This study examines predictors of group consciousness among Asians and Asian Americans in the United States, focusing on numerous dimensions of this concept, including linked fate, panethnic group identification, and four specific sources of perceived group commonality and interests: (1) cultural, (2) economic, (3) political, and (4) racial. We use data from a national survey to examine socio‐structural, political, discrimination, and immigration correlates associated with separate dimensions of Asian group consciousness. We found that perceiving interpersonal discrimination increased the importance of being Asian; heightened the odds of feeling linked fate with other Asian people; and enhanced the odds of identification as “Asian American.” Republicans and Independents were less likely to perceive different elements of Asian group consciousness compared to Democrats. Educational attainment, income, gender, employment status, ethnicity, and English‐speaking comfortability had varying effects across certain measures of Asian group consciousness. For Asians and Asian Americans, interpersonal discrimination and certain socio‐structural, political, and immigration factors may be especially meaningful toward the development of linked fate, shared group interests and commonalities, and panethnic identification, all of which are key toward activating group consciousness.

The present study utilized data from the National Latino and Asian American Study to examine ethnic and generational differences in family cultural conflict and family cohesion and how the effects of such family conflict and cohesion on lifetime service use vary by generation status for Latino Americans (n = 2,554) and Asian Americans (n = 2,095). Findings revealed that first-generation Asian Americans reported greater family cultural conflict than their Latino counterparts, but third-generation Latino Americans had higher family conflict than their Asian American counterparts. First-generation Latino and Asian Americans had the highest levels of family cohesion. Results from logistic regression analyses indicated that Latino Americans who reported higher family cultural conflict and lower family cohesion were more likely to use mental health services. For Asian Americans, family cultural conflict, but not family cohesion, was associated with service use. Relative to third-generation Asian Americans, second-generation Asian Americans with higher family cultural conflict were more likely to use mental health services. Given that cohesive familial bonds appear to discourage service use on the part of Latino Americans irrespective of generation status, further research is needed to ascertain the extent to which this tendency stems from greater reliance on family support as opposed to the stigma associated with mental health treatment. Mental health providers and treatment programs need to address the role of family cultural conflict in the lives of Asian Americans, particularly second generation, and Latino Americans across generations, because conflictual family ties may motivate help-seeking behaviors and reveal substantial underlying distress.

The effects of client-therapist ethnic match and client ethnicity on therapist-evaluated Global Assessment of Function (GAF) and visitation were investigated. The sample consisted of several thousand outpatient clients of a Southern California community mental health center. Findings indicated that unadjusted GAF-intake and GAF-termination scores were higher for ethnically matched Latino and Asian Americans but not for African and White Americans. Unadjusted GAF-difference scores for ethnically matched Latino and White Americans were higher than for African American clients. Unadjusted visitation or total visits was lower for ethnically matched Asian and Latino American clients, while African and White American clients had relatively high visitation levels regardless of the ethnic match status. After adjusting for 12 other variables, ethnically matched Asian American therapists consistently evaluated clients higher than did ethnically matched African American therapists. Adjusted visitation revealed fewer total visits for ethnically matched Latino and African American clients, while White Americans garnered higher visit levels when ethnically matched, and Asian Americans evidenced relatively high levels of visitation regardless of ethnic match status. Separate diagnostic category analyses revealed higher GAF-termination scores for ethnically matched African, Asian, and Latino American (schizophrenic) clients and ethnically matched Latino and Asian(mood disorder) clients. Implications for future research are discussed. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

This study explores the factors that influence Asian Americans’ perception of interracial commonality with Blacks and Latinos. Using the 2018 Civic Engagement and Political Participation of Asian Americans Survey, this research tests a model of competing theoretical explanations for Asian Americans’ intergroup commonality: group consciousness, group identity, views of discrimination, and intergroup contact. Results from ordered logistic regression analyses suggest that group consciousness, ethnic identity, and intergroup contact via friendship are robust predictors of Asian Americans’ feelings of closeness to Blacks and Latinos. However, Asian Americans’ perceptions of discrimination are unlikely to result in higher levels of the perceived commonality with outgroups. This study provides a valuable addition to the existing literature on interminority relations by identifying opportunities for Asian Americans to join cross-racial alliances. The conclusion of the article points to the important role that community-based organizations can play in bringing specific Asian American ethnic groups into such coalitions and promoting direct interactions between Asian Americans and other racial groups.

There are racial/ethnic disparities in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, including lower uptake rates among Hispanic Americans (HAs) and Asian Americans (AAs) relative to non-Hispanic white Americans. The objective of this study was to explore pathways associated with the use of health services and to characterize multifaceted associations with the uptake of CRC screening among HAs and AAs. Data were obtained from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (2012-2013). Participants included HA (n = 3731) and AA (n = 1345) respondents ages 50 to 75 years who met CRC screening recommendations. A modified Andersen behavioral model was used to examine pathways that lead to CRC screening uptake, including predisposing characteristics (education, economic, and cultural factors), health insurance, health needs (perceived health status and several comorbidities), and health provider contextual factors (access to care, perceived quality of health services, and distrust in health care). Structural equation modeling was used to examine the models for HAs and AAs. In the HA model, cultural factors (standardized regression coefficient [β] = -0.04; P = .013) and distrust in health care (β = -0.05; P = .007) directly and negatively affected CRC screening. Similarly, cultural factors (β = -0.11; P = .002) negatively affected CRC screening in the AA model, but distrust in health care was not significant (P = .103). In both models, perceived quality of health services was positively associated with CRC screening uptake and mediated the negative association between cultural factors and CRC screening. Access to care was not associated with CRC screening. Correlations between CRC screening and associated factors differ among HAs and AAs, suggesting a need for multilevel interventions tailored to race/ethnicity. The current findings suggest that facilitating access to care without improving perceived quality of health services may be ineffective for increasing the uptake of CRC screening among HAs and AAs. Cancer 2018;124:335-45. © 2017 American Cancer Society.

In this study, I test a model of competing theoretical explanations of Asian American attitudes toward immigration by studying the effects of acculturation, group consciousness and political commonality with other groups, and contextual factors. Using the 2018 Civic Engagement and Political Participation of Asian American Survey, Asian Americans’ policy preferences on Syrian refugees, Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the Muslim travel ban, and a border wall are examined. Multinomial logistic regression analyses reveal that acculturation explains positive attitudes toward immigration among Asian Americans whereas factors such as Asian identity, political commonality with other racial groups, and the perceived racial mix of neighborhoods have limited and mixed influence on Asian American immigration attitudes. As one of very few studies on immigrants’ attitudes toward immigration policies, this study contributes to our better understanding of how the fastest-growing immigrant group like Asian Americans determine their attitudes toward policies that target immigrants.

The New Agenda for Minority Business Development

Honoring Asian diversity by collecting Asian subpopulation data in health research.

This study extends the dominant Black–White paradigm in assessing public perceptions of the police by including Hispanic and Asian Americans. Relying on a large random sample of Seattle residents, this study examines: (1) perceptions of police problem-solving, hassling, racial profiling and bias among Hispanic, Asian, Black and White Americans and (2) factors that influence police perceptions. Results reveal both majority–minority and inter-minority variations in attitudes towards police, suggesting that a single vertical scale or gradation of attitudes cannot adequately describe the complexity of different racial/ethnic groups' perceptions of multiple aspects of policing. A range of individual demographic, police- and crime-related, and neighbourhood structural and cultural factors influence public perceptions of the police. Some interesting findings include that educational attainment and employment have negative effects on public satisfaction with the police, police visibility is associated with greater satisfaction with police problem-solving yet stronger beliefs on police harassment and racial profiling, and neighbourhood codes of violence is a consistent and outstanding predictor of public perceptions of the police. Possible explanations are provided.

Historically, psychological models of how people make judgments of discrimination have relied on a binary conceptualization of intergroup relations, making it unclear how people make judgments of discrimination in diverse, multigroup contexts. We propose that groups can vary in the extent to which they fit the prototype for targets of discrimination and that this variation influences judgments of discrimination in ambiguous circumstances. The present research examined attributions to discrimination when job applicants are rejected for a white-collar position. People consistently made more attributions to discrimination (ATDs) when managers rejected Black American as compared to Asian American job applicants, and when managers rejected Asian American as compared to White American job applicants. People also made more ATDs for rejected Black American as compared to Latino American applicants, but ATDs were similar for Latino and Asian American applicants. Overall, similar patterns were observed in majority White American samples and a Black/African American sample; only an Asian American sample did not make more ATDs for rejected Black than Asian American applicants. Six experiments (N = 2,321) found strong support for the relative fit hypothesis and suggest that, in a white-collar employment context, White Americans are a distant fit to the prototype for targets of discrimination, Asian and Latino Americans are an intermediate fit, and Black Americans are a close fit. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Are all immigrants in the United States willing and able to integrate successfully within a liberal democratic polity? This research question guides the three papers included in the present dissertation. To explore this question I designed and implemented a multi-city survey in the United States (the American Cities Survey) which contains representative immigrant, black, white, Latino and Asian samples drawn independently for each locality. Based on the findings of the American Cities Survey, which include multiple attitudinal, cultural background and political behavior measures at the individual level, along with socioeconomic and demographic measures in six distinct local institutional environments, I argue that all voting eligible immigrants and immigrant communities-regardless of their native origin and their ancestral religious affiliation-- are willing and able to integrate politically so long as political institutions and contexts (especially local ones) provide them with the same exposure to the political system and institutions, and opportunities to participate in politics as the ones provided to all other citizens. I thereby challenge both the academic and popular perceptions that certain immigrant groups have anti-democratic and anti-liberal attitudes due to their shared cultural characteristics (i.e. religious affiliation or political socialization in a non-democratic polity) that persist even after migrating to a liberal democratic polity and are passed on to the second generation. I discover that the notion that Latinos vote less than similarly situated blacks and whites has persisted overtime for two reasons: first, simply because a greater proportion of Latinos have settled in localities where institutions tend to inhibit political competition and depress turnout, biasing representative national samples; second, because the smallest geographical unit one can study with existing survey and Census (CPS) data does not allow for exploration of political behavior at the individual level beyond the state. This is problematic for studying groups like Latinos, because 50 percent of their population is concentrated in three states and less than ten cities. I find that the results found at the national level are not replicable at the local level and Latino political participation varies by city. In localities where institutions provide incentives for political party competition the probability of a citizen of Latino origin voting is equal to that of blacks and whites of similar age, income and education. In other words, the evidence presented here suggests that the correlation found at the national level between Latino immigrant group membership and apolitical attitudes and behavior is of a contingent, perhaps even spurious nature, artifice of geographical concentration of members of this group in local institutional environments that depress political activity. The theoretical framework and findings of this dissertation reveal that immigrant political attitudes and behavior towards the host country's political system is shaped mostly by individual experiences with this system, and not by prior or inherited cultural or religious beliefs from their (or their ancestor's) country of origin.

ABSTRACTThis study investigates Asian American activist group consciousness to advance understandings of complex racial positioning and political engagement beyond extant frameworks of ethnic/pan-ethnic identity, demographic characteristics, and experiences of discrimination. Originally developed to understand African American political engagement, the concept of group consciousness identifies types of racial identities and ideologies that encourage political engagement. However, its relevance for Asian Americans, who have low levels of political engagement and are racialised as a model minority ostensibly facing less discrimination, remains unclear. Drawing from surveys and interviews gathered in California, I examine Asian American-specific, activist expressions of group consciousness and relevant processes. I argue for the importance of politicising mechanisms addressing Asian Americans’ specific racialisation. I demonstrate that youth organising groups encourage activist forms of Asian American group consciousness by reframing personal racialised experiences to challenge dominant racial narratives and by linking identities and ideologies to explicit political action. Accordingly, these groups cultivate activist group consciousness expressed as politicised cultural recuperation, critiques of racialised class inequalities, and devalued status both related to and distinct from other marginalised groups.

Socializing Democrats: Examining Asian American vote choice with evidence from a national survey

This study examines when and where residential context and communicative factors help and hurt Asian Americans’ political participation both within and beyond coethnic boundaries. Using multilevel analyses, this paper found that living in ethnically homogeneous residential areas and using ethnic media increase Asian-related political awareness. However, these coethnic features in their communicative structure did not directly bridge Asian communities to the political participation. Instead, coethnic features indirectly galvanize Asian Americans’ political participation, which may spill over to more general domains of political participation.

Mental health care among marginalized populations in the United States