Political incorporation in America: immigrant partisans

Abstract

Demographic changes and the stakes for both democracy and immigrants themselves make the political incorporation of immigrants a key political issue in the USA today. Two structural features of American politics help with political incorporation by providing multiple opportunities for political activity: federalism with its enormous number of state and local government elections and offices, and the permeable character of political parties. Naturalization, voter registration, and political participation are central to the political incorporation of immigrants, and we argue that historically and still today, political parties are the key institutions charged with political incorporation in the USA. Parties' goal in the political incorporation of immigrants should be to create long-term partisans, not just to naturalize immigrants and create voters in the next election. Partisanship has noninstrumental significance as well. As political identity and practice, partisanship has a good claim to earning immigrants' recognition as citizens, and a distinctive claim to achieving incorporation in a moral register. We conclude that partisanship stands out from movement and protest politics, advocacy, and even voting per se as a form of political incorporation.