Paths to the Practices of Citizenship: Political Discussion and Socialization among Mexican-heritage Immigrants in the US

Abstract

Building on research on immigrant political socialization and social connections in politics, I advance a theoretical model for how immigrants develop their sense of political discussion in a new nation. This model, the Social Contact Model of Immigrant Political Socialization, focuses on the influences coming from close-knit social groups and wider-ranging social networks. I apply the model through a qualitative study of Mexican-heritage immigrants in the US and the likely sources of socialization that influence their political discussion behavior. The findings provide some support for the theoretical model and suggest there are important differences between Latino immigrants and native-born Whites in how they learn to engage in political discussion.

Keywords:

• Assimilation/Adaptation
• Cross-cultural Communication
• Focus Groups
• Identity
• Social Networking

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Marcela Garcia-Castañon, John Gastil, Matt Barreto, Patricia Moy, Phil Howard, and Mark Smith for assistance with this research and feedback on previous versions of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. A note about terminology: Though the research in this manuscript focuses on Mexican-heritage people living in the United States, for the sake of brevity this group is sometimes referred to as “Latinos” or “Latino immigrants.”

2. These results include findings from both the focus group discussions and the individual interviews.

3. This exchange between Maria and the interviewer is translated from the Spanish.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Kettering Foundation, under a joint learning agreement [KF-54022], and by the University of Washington Department of Communication’s Peter Clarke Graduate Research Fund.

Notes on contributors

Justin Reedy

Justin Reedy, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and a research associate in the Center for Risk & Crisis Management at the University of Oklahoma, USA. He studies political and small group communication, including topics such as political discussion and conversation, deliberation and civic engagement, and group behavior and political violence. Correspondence to: Justin Reedy, Department of Communication and Center for Risk & Crisis Management, University of Oklahoma, 610 Elm Ave., Norman, OK 73019, USA. Email: [email protected]