Latino National Political Survey Research Articles

The Persistent Connection Between Language-of-Interview and Latino Political Opinion

Since the advent of public opinion polling, scholars have extensively documented the relationship between survey response and interviewer characteristics, including race, ethnicity, and gender. This paper extends this literature to the domain of language-of-interview, with a focus on Latino political opinion. We ascertain whether, and to what degree, Latinos’ reported political attitudes vary by the language they interview in. Using several political surveys, including the 1989–1990 Latino National Political Survey and the 2006 Latino National Survey, we unearth two key patterns. First, language-of-interview produces substantively important differences of opinion between English and Spanish interviewees. This pattern is not isolated to attitudes that directly or indirectly involve Latinos (e.g., immigration policy, language policy). Indeed, it emerges even in the reporting of political facts. Second, the association between Latino opinion and language-of-interview persists even after statistically controlling for, among other things, individual differences in education, national origin, citizenship status, and generational status. Together, these results suggest that a fuller understanding of the contours of Latino public opinion can benefit by acknowledging the influence of language-of-interview.

Racial Threat, Residential Segregation, and the Policy Attitudes of Anglos

The impact of racial context on the political behavior of Anglos has been a focus of social science research for well over half a century. We suggest that a shortcoming of earlier work has been the failure to account for the levels of segregation within a community. Relying on data from the Latino National Political Survey, our findings show that Anglo attitudes toward English-language and immigration policies are significantly related to changes in the size of the Latino population conditional on levels of segregation. We also find that Latinos elicit different reactions from Anglos based on their fluency in English and nativity.

Latino racial choices: the effects of skin colour and discrimination on Latinos’ and Latinas’ racial self-identifications

Are predictions that Hispanics will make up 25 per cent of the US population in 2050 reliable? The authors of this paper argue that these and other predictions are problematic insofar as they do not account for the volatile nature of Latino racial and ethnic identifications. In this light, the authors propose a theoretical framework that can be used to predict Latinos’ and Latinas’ racial choices. This framework is tested using two distinct datasets – the 1989 Latino National Political Survey and the 2002 National Survey of Latinos. The results from the analyses of both of these surveys lend credence to the authors’ claims that Latinas’ and Latinos’ skin colour and experiences of discrimination affect whether people from Latin America and their descendants who live in the US will choose to identify racially as black, white or Latina/o.

Dropping the Hyphen? Becoming Latino(a)-American through Racialized Assimilation

Early assimilation theorists predicted the eventual loss of ethnic distinctiveness for immigrants in the United States. In this paper, the author not only questions the possibilities that Latino and Latina Americans have for losing their ethnic distinctiveness, but also proposes that these possibilities vary widely within the Hispanic population. The central question posed in this paper is: In addition to traditional predictors of assimilation, do experiences of discrimination also affect ethnic identification patterns for Hispanics? Based on the analysis of two data sets, the 1989 Latino National Political Survey and the 2002 National Survey of Latinos, the author provides evidence that Latino/a Americans who have experienced discrimination are less likely to self-identify as Americans, and more likely to self-identify with pan-ethnic or hyphenated American labels. The author contends that this is because experiences of discrimination teach some Latinos and Latinas that other citizens of the United States do not view them as unhyphenated The author further proposes that, through a process of racialized assimilation, these Latin American immigrants and their children are becoming Latino and Latina Americans.

Geographic Mobility and Spatial Assimilation among U.S. Latino Immigrants

Although the spatial assimilation of immigrants to the United States has important implications for social theory and social policy, few studies have explored the patterns and determinants of interneighborhood geographic mobility that lead to immigrants' residential proximity to the white, non-Hispanic majority. We explore this issue by merging data from three different sources – the Latino National Political Survey, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and tract-level census data – to begin unraveling causal relationships among indicators of socioeconomic, social, cultural, segmented, and spatial assimilation. Our longitudinal analysis of 700 Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban immigrants followed from 1990 to 1995 finds broad support for hypotheses derived from the classical account of minority assimilation. High income, English language use, and embeddedness in Anglo social contexts increase Latino immigrants' geographic mobility into Anglo neighborhoods. U.S. citizenship and years spent in the United States are positively associated with geographic mobility into more Anglo neighborhoods, and coethnic contact is inversely associated with this form of mobility, but these associations operate largely through other predictors. Prior experiences of ethnic discrimination increase and residence in public housing decreases the likelihood that Latino immigrants will move from their origin neighborhoods, while residing in metropolitan areas with large Latino populations leads to geographic moves into “less Anglo” census tracts.

Migration and spatial assimilation among u.s. latinos: Classical versus segmented trajectories

We used merged data from the Latino National Political Survey, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and the U.S. census to examine patterns and determinants of interneighborhood residential mobility between 1990 and 1995 for 2,074 U.S. residents of Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban ethnicity. In several respects, our findings confirm the central tenets of spatial assimilation theory: Latino residential mobility into neighborhoods that are inhabited by greater percentages of non-Hispanic whites (i.e., Anglos) increases with human and financial capital and English-language use. However, these results also point to variations in the residential mobility process among Latinos that are broadly consistent with the segmented assimilation perspective on ethnic and immigrant incorporation. Net of controls, Puerto Ricans are less likely than Mexicans to move to neighborhoods with relatively large Anglo populations, and the generational and socioeconomic differences that are anticipated by the classical assimilation model emerge more strongly for Mexicans than for Puerto Ricans or Cubans. Among Puerto Ricans and Cubans, darker skin color inhibits mobility into Anglo neighborhoods.

Religion and Abortion Attitudes Among U.S. Hispanics: Findings from the 1990 Latino National Political Survey*

Objective. The goal of this article is to examine the relationship between religious involvement, gauged mainly in terms of affiliation and frequency of attendance at services, and abortion attitudes among three major Hispanic subgroups: Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans.Method. The study analyzes data from the Latino National Political Survey, a sample of over 2,700 U.S. Hispanics completed in 1990.Results. Committed (i.e., regularly attending) Hispanic Protestants, most of whom belong to conservative groups, are more strongly pro‐life than any other segment of the Latino population, and are much more likely than others to support a total abortion ban. Committed Catholics also tend to hold pro‐life views, but they are relatively more likely to endorse an abortion ban that includes exceptions for rape, incest, and threats to the mother's life. Less devoted Catholics and Protestants generally do not differ from religiously unaffiliated Hispanics in their abortion views. There are also modest variations in the links between religious involvement and abortion attitudes across the three Latino subgroups.Conclusion. Religious factors are highly important predictors of Hispanics' preferences regarding abortion policies. Contrary to some previous discussions, it is committed Protestants, more so than Catholics, who are the staunchest opponents of abortion in the Latino population.

Hispanic Media Use and Perceptions of Discrimination: Reconsidering Ethnicity, Politics, and Socioeconomics

This study utilizes data from the Latino National Political Survey to evaluate the relationship between several social and cultural variables, media use, and Hispanic perceptions of discrimination. We examine the effects that level of income and education, personal experience, ethnicity, and political party preference and media exposure have on these perceptions. The examination builds on social-psychological theories and media framing/cultivation arguments. The cross-section, regression analysis considers Hispanics as a whole and as various subgroups (Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans), respectively. Contrary to conventional wisdom that media use is positively related to perceived discrimination, we find that socioeconomic and ethnic conditions are of greater import for understanding perceptions. Further, it appears that media use has little impact on perceptions of discrimination.

Hispanic Media Use and Perceptions of Discrimination: Reconsidering Ethnicity, Politics, and Socioeconomics

This study utilizes data from the Latino National Political Survey to evaluate the relationship between several social and cultural variables, media use, and Hispanic perceptions of discrimination. We examine the effects that level of income and education, personal experience, ethnicity, and political party preference and media exposure have on these perceptions. The examination builds on social-psychological theories and media framing/cultivation arguments. The cross-section, regression analysis considers Hispanics as a whole and as various subgroups (Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans), respectively. Contrary to conventional wisdom that media use is positively related to perceived discrimination, we find that socioeconomic and ethnic conditions are of greater import for understanding perceptions. Further, it appears that media use has little impact on perceptions of discrimination.

The Corrosive Effect of Acculturation: How Mexican Americans Lose Political Trust*

Objective.Existing research establishes that political trust is not only an important determinant of individual political behavior and government effectiveness, but may also measure the health of civic society. This article looks specifically at trust among Latinos of Mexican descent, demonstrating that acculturation is corrosive of political trust.Methods.Logit and ordered logit models are used to simultaneously test two theories of acculturation—classic assimilation theory and ethnic competition theory. Data come from the Latino National Political Survey (LNPS).Results.Support is found for both modes of acculturation.Conclusions.Although the results do not conclusively side with one particular mode of acculturation, they consistently show that acculturation is corrosive of political trust. Latinos of Mexican descent become more cynical about American government as they incorporate into or are exposed to mainstream American culture, and as they become more aware of or concerned about racism and discrimination.

The Multicultural Military: Military Service and the Acculturation of Latinos and Anglos

Using the Latino National Political Survey, this article examines whether military service helps explain the responses given by Latinos to questions on acculturation. The data show that Latino veterans (and particularly draft-era veterans) had more friendships with Anglos (non-Hispanic whites), spoke more English at home, were more likely to experience discrimination, and were also more likely to correctly identify Cesar Chavez. Service in the volunteer military, however, was related only to the first two questions. In addition, there is evidence that Anglo veterans were more familiar with Latino culture. The article concludes that the end of the draft may have eliminated a useful forum for intercultural and intracultural learning for both groups, although the volunteer military does have an impact on Latino acculturation.

Passing on blackness: Latinos, race, and earnings in the USA

One strategy to address the charge that previous statistical measures overestimate the degree of antiblack discrimination in the US labour market because cultural factors have been omitted, has been to control for culture and vary colour. The procedure is to examine labour market outcomes for all persons self-reporting their ancestry as Hispanic (or Latino) while comparing outcomes among them based upon their self-reported race. The results demonstrate that black Latinos, especially males, suffer substantial discriminatory losses in wages. However, there are two problems: (1) a very small proportion of Latinos self-report themselves as black and (2) controlling for culture by combining all persons with Latino ancestry, regardless of specific national origin, into the gross category of Hispanic is potentially unsatisfactory. In this paper, the Hispanic population is disaggregated by nationality using the 5% Public Use Micro Sample from the 1980 and 1990 censuses to compare outcomes by self-reported race. It is still found that male Latino blacks, regardless of their specific national subgroups, were subjected to significant wage discrimination. The paper also reports on studies that have used the Latino National Political Survey that demonstrates that Hispanics tend to self-identify as black at rates inconsistent with the ascriptive profile of the Latino population. It is explained why this suggests that Latinos who choose to self-report their race as black in the US censuses genuinely are likely to ‘look black’ by American norms.

Assimilation, Ethnic Competition, and Ethnic Identities of U.S.-Born Persons of Mexican Origin

Processes governing the ethnic identification of second and later generations of Mexican immigrant descendants are explored empirically using the Latino National Political Survey, 1989–1990. With multinomial logit regressions, I test hypotheses based on three contrasting perspectives, namely, that ethnic identification, or identification other than “American,” arises directly from: a) cultural continuity and a lower level of assimilation; b) an experience of ethnic competition; and c) both processes. The results from the LNPS support the view that both processes are at work. For example, consistent with the presence of an assimilation process, the chance of “Mexican” identification (as opposed to “American” identification) declines to half in the third generation and to one tenth in the fourth and later generations, relative to the chance in the second generation. Consistent with the presence of an ethnic competition process, (perceived) experience of discrimination doubles the respondents chance of “Mexican” identification. Also, a level rise in the darkness of skin color is associated with a 60 percent increase in the chance of Mexican identification.

Latino Phenotypic Discrimination Revisited: The Impact of Skin Color on Occupational Status

Objective. We reexamine the issue of phenotypic discrimination against Mexicans in the U.S. labor market, originally studied by Telles and Murguia (1990) and later by Bohara and Davila (1992). We also seek to explain this topic with respect to the Puerto Rican and Cuban populations in the United States. Methods. Instead of using household income as a dependent variable, we use occupational ranking scores computed by Hauser and Warren (1996) in combination with data from the 1990 Latino National Political Survey (LNPS). The occupational rankings more accurately reflect the level of labor market discrimination faced by individuals. Furthermore, the use of the more recent LNPS allows us to update the work of previous scholars and extend the analysis to two previously unexamined Latino groups—Puerto Ricans and Cubans. Results. Our findings indicate that darker‐skinned Mexicans and Cubans face significantly lower occupational prestige scores than their lighter‐skinned counterparts even when controlling for factors that influence performance in the labor market. However, we find no conclusive evidence that skin‐color differences impact occupational prestige scores for Puerto Ricans. Conclusions. Using earlier data, some scholars found evidence for difference in labor market performance among Mexican Americans as a function of phenotypic variations among Mexican Americans. Today, dark‐skinned Mexican Americans and Cuban Americans continue to face higher levels of discrimination in the labor market, whereas dark‐skinned Puerto Ricans do not, which may indicate regional differences across the three groups that need to be controlled for.

Political Participation by Latino Non-Citizens in the United States

This article examines the extent of political participation by Latino non-citizens across the United States. The only previous national quantitative research on this topic is by Verba, Schlozman and Brady, who found little difference between the participation rates of Latino citizens and non-citizens. Using the Latino National Political Survey, large differences between citizen and non-citizen participation are found. Although Latino non-citizens participated in non-electoral political activities and in non-political civic groups, they were significantly less likely to do so than Latino citizens. Examination of the non-citizen population shows that immigrants who understood politics better, planned on naturalizing, had a stronger ethnic identity, were more familiar with English and were younger were more likely to become involved. The traditional socio-economic measures of education and income as well as length of stay in the United States were non-significant predictors of non-citizen participation.

Testing the Effects of Collectively Expected Durations of Migration: The Naturalization of Mexicans and Cubans

This study tests a hypothesis that Mexican foreign-born immigrants who came to the United States for economic reasons naturalize less often than Cubans who immigrate for political reasons. It uses information from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, Latino Sample, a national sample of 7,453 respondents from the 1989 Latino National Political Survey (LNPS) and the 1990 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Ordinal logistic regression is used to examine the hypothesis. The results indicate that while more Mexicans plan to apply or have applied for naturalization, proportionately more Cubans than Mexicans have naturalized. Cuban political immigrants who came to the United States during the first half of the 1960s naturalize more often than their Mexican counterparts. However, the effect of ethnic identity on naturalization is mediated by a number of other predictors of naturalization such as gender, race, urban residence, socioeconomic status and acculturation.

Political Participation: Does Religion Matter?

Verba, Schlozman, and Brady (1995) posit that variation in ethnic group political participation, while related to socioeconomic differences among them, is derived from the acquisition of civic skills through their associational memberships and, in particular, from their experiences in church. Catholic and Protestant churches were hypothesized to develop different levels of such skills, and Verba et al. suggested that the relatively low level of Latino political participation was explained by their predominantly Catholic affiliation. If Verba et al.'s argument is true, then we should see participatory differences within ethnic groups by denomination. An alternative hypothesis is that churches matter through their role as civic associations. In that case, denominational differences should not matter, but churchgoers should be more active than non-churchgoers. Examining the 1989-90 Latino National Political Survey and the 1990 ANES, we find that while denominational differences have some limited explanatory power for Hispanic political participation, it is in the opposite direction than that hypothesized. By far the more important contribution to an explanation of political participation is made by churches' central civic associational roles.

IT'S NOT JUST A JOB: Military Service and Latino Political Participation

Using the Latino National Political Survey, this paper tests the hypothesis that military service serves to stimulate electoral and nonelectoral political participation by Latinos. The results are compared with those for Anglos (non-Hispanic whites). The data show that Latino veterans, and particularly draftees, exhibited higher levels of voting and low-intensity nonelectoral political activities. Anglo veterans did not increase their participation to the same extent. Service in the volunteer army was a much less important explanatory factor of both Latino and Anglo political participation. Military experience therefore has a greater impact on Latinos than Anglos, and the draft experience was more important than volunteer service.

Making Citizens or Good Citizens? Naturalization as a Predictor of Organizational and Electoral Behavior among Latino Immigrants

In this article, the author draws on the Latino National Political Survey (LNPS) to contrast the political behaviors of naturalized and native-born Latino U.S. citizens. The author examines three types of political behavior-organizational participation, ethnic organizational participation, and electoral participation-and one form of community activity that may serve as a precursor of political activity-school-focused parental involvement. The authorfinds that the naturalized are less likely than similarly situated native-born Latinos to participate in electoral politics and organizational activity. The author also finds that the weight of the negative influence of naturalization is less than the weight of the positive influence on participation of increasing levels of education and of age. The consequence of these findings is that strategies for Latino political empowerment based on naturalization will have to recognize that naturalization is just thefirst step in making politically active citizens.

Becoming "Hispanic": Secondary Panethnic Identification among Latin American-Origin Populations in the United States

Contemporary debates on Latino panethnicity assert that this identity is either cultural or instrumental in nature. The article looks at respondents'use ofprimary and secondary ethnic identifications to answer two questions: First, how substantial is panethnic identification among Hispanics? Second, what is the nature of Latino panethnicity? Using data from the Latino National Political Survey, the authors find that Hispanic ethnicity is neither simply instrumental nor cultural. Instead, Latino panethnicity is a complex phenomenon, differing not only by a range of demographic characteristics but also among those using panethnicity as a primary or secondary identification. These findings suggest that one needs to think about panethnicity as part of a constellation of individuals'multiple identifications and that individuals may manage these identities in very different ways.