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Abstract
This study was prompted by concerns about the ways in which immigrant organizations, especially those of a transnational character, may retard or prevent political integration among recent migrants to the United States. For this purpose, we constructed an inventory of all organizations created by Colombian, Dominican and Mexican immigrants in the United States, interviewed leaders of the twenty largest organizations from each group in person, and conducted a survey of 178 additional organizations by telephone or Internet. Results reveal a near-absence of perceived conflict between transnational activism and political incorporation. Almost without exception, leaders asserted that there was no contradiction between home-country loyalties and activities and US citizenship and voting. These results appear to reflect genuine conviction, rather than any social desirability syndrome. Objective indicators show that most organizations maintain close ties with US political authorities at various levels and engage in a number of US-focused civic and political activities. Determinants of such engagement are examined. Implications of the results for theory and public policy are discussed.
Acknowledgements
Data for this study were collected by the Comparative Immigrant Organizations Project (CIOP) supported by Grant #88-06-10 from the Russell Sage Foundation. The authors are grateful to the Foundation and, especially, to its president, Eric Wanner, and programme officer, Aixa Cintron, for their consistent support of the project. We also thank anonymous reviewers of this journal. Responsibility for the contents of this report is exclusively ours.
Notes
1. A partial exception is a compilation of hometown associations in Los Angeles and Chicago by Rivera-Salgado, Bada, and Escala-Rabádan (Citation2005). The Institute of Mexicans Abroad (IME in its Spanish acronym) of the Mexican Foreign Relations Secretariat and the Colombia Nos Une programme of the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also publish lists of their respective national associations. While valuable, these official lists seldom identify the type and purpose of the organization or differentiate those composed of first-generation immigrants from those representing a broader ‘Hispanic’ membership.
2. The US Census count for 2000 is less than half of this figure. Based on figures from the Colombian government and independent calculations from various specialists, we believe that this is a serious underestimate based on failure to count unauthorized immigrants and political asylees. We report the Census figure in Table 1.
3. The US Census puts the number of Dominicans at less than 800,000 in 2000. However, estimates from the Dominican government and specialized research centres indicate that the number of immigrants, including the unauthorized, easily exceeds the million mark. We report the Census figure in Table 1.
4. These inventories will be placed in the public domain shortly after publication of this article.
5. Names of persons and organizations are fictitious to protect informant anonymity. Dates and places of interviews are real.
6. Formal non-profit organizations are banned from direct involvement in electoral campaigns in the United States. While informal organizations can be involved, we asked a series of questions aimed at gauging different forms of involvement in both political and civic activities.
