Pathways of Immigrant Political Socialization: Examining the Role of News Media, Social Connections, and Community Interaction

Abstract

Going beyond the traditional socioeconomic status model of political participation, this study examines pathways that lead to the sociopolitical incorporation of immigrants in the USA, with a focus on the role of communication socialization agents. Using a Current Population Survey sample of 7,626 first-generation immigrants in the USA, results show that communication socialization agents significantly contribute to immigrants’ political socialization, and an important mediating path translates political learning into greater political engagement. Results also identify ethnic differences in how socialization variables affect immigrants’ socialization.

Keywords:

• Immigrant Political Socialization
• News Media Use
• Communication Networks
• Community
• Political Knowledge
• Political Participation

Notes

1. The second wave of immigration here refers to the major migration flow that happened after 1880s, which is characterized by greater diversity in terms of country of origin, ethnicities and religions, as opposed to the prior wave, in which the majority came from European countries. See Henry Bischoff’s (2002) Immigration Issues.

2. The African/Black immigrants sample was significantly smaller than the other major groups, and it only made up a small portion (6.5%) of the overall sample. Thus, we did not include it as a comparison group.

3. To assess those models’ goodness-of-fit, the χ² to degrees-of-freedom ratio, Bentler–Bonett normed fit index (NFI), the comparative fit index (CFI), and the root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) were used. Generally, a χ² to degrees-of-freedom ratio less than 5 indicates a satisfactory model fit. The NFI compares the hypothesized model with a null model specifying no association between any of the variables, and NFI ≥ .90 suggests a satisfactory fit of the model to the data (Marsh, Balla & McDonald, 1988). Adjusting for the sample size, the CFI compares the hypothesized model with the null model. The CFI value ranges from 0 to 1, with values of .90 and greater suggesting satisfactory fit between the model and the data (Hu & Bentler, 1999). Finally, the RMSEA is a parsimony-adjusted index that assesses the amount by which the observed variances and covariances differ from the hypothesized ones. Therefore, RMSEA ≤ .05 indicates an excellent fit, RMSEA ≤ .08 a satisfactory fit, RMSEA between .08 and .10 a fair fit, and RMSEA ≥ .10 a poor fit (Jöreskog & Sörbom, 1993b).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wenlin Liu

Wenlin Liu is a doctoral student at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, 3502 Watt Way, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA.

John Gastil

John Gastil is a professor of Communication Arts & Sciences and Political Science at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.