Doctoral Dissertation Research: Political Incorporation of Asian Americans

亚裔美国人构成了美国增长最快的移民人口相对于其先前存在的规模。随着这一人口的增加，我们需要更多地了解这些新移民如何在政治上融入美国社会。我们知道，在教育程度和收入方面取得成功的社会群体通常具有较高的政治参与水平。亚裔美国人最令人困惑的是，尽管他们在经济和教育方面相对成功，但他们在投票率方面落后于其他种族群体。对这个问题的最新研究没有给出足够的答案。该项目将调查亚裔美国人投票率较低的原因，并提供一个更详细的了解亚裔美国人如何理解和定义参与公共领域。后一个方面很重要，因为更大的公民包容性的潜力很大程度上在于承认在新移民中更常见的多样化但往往被忽视的体制外政治参与形式。 该项目将为各政党和我们的社会提供有用的信息，通过促进具有公民意识的公民更多地参与政治进程，从而加强我们的民主。这一混合方法项目将联合收割机结合现有数据集的定量分析和深入访谈。 该项目将使用2000年至2014年的当前人口调查来验证之前关于亚裔美国人投票率模式的研究。该项目还将分析2016年全国亚裔美国人调查，以测试有关最近选民模式背后机制的假设，包括实际投票以外的政治参与形式。最后，该项目将在一个大城市与亚裔美国人小组进行90次访谈，以捕捉这些群体对他们在公共领域的政治参与和经验的看法。 访谈转录后，定性编码将产生共同的主题和概念。 atlas.ti将用于组织、管理和分析数据。 该项目的调查结果将显示亚裔美国人参与政治动机的总体模式和亚组差异，并测试有关这些模式背后机制的假设。研究结果将为与政治参与相关的社会学和政治学理论提供信息，特别是资源在激励这种参与中的作用。 调查结果还将谈到社会学理论关于族裔群体同化，以更好地理解为什么亚裔美国人容易同化社会经济，但不太容易政治。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Asian Americans constitute the United States' fastest growing immigrant population relative to its preexisting size. As this population expands, we need to understand more about how these new immigrants become politically integrated into United States society. We know that social groups that succeed in terms of educational attainment and earnings typically have high levels of political participation. What is most perplexing about Asian Americans is that, despite their relative economic and educational success, they lag behind other racial groups in voter turnout. The most recent studies of this question have not produced adequate answers. This project will investigate the causes for lower Asian American voter turnout as well as provide a more detailed understanding of how Asian Americans understand and define participation in the public sphere. This latter aspect is important given that much of the potential for greater civic inclusion lies in the recognition of the diverse but often overlooked extra-institutional forms of political engagement more common among recent immigrants. This project will provide political parties and our society generally with information useful in promoting greater participation in the political process by facilitating greater engagement of civically-minded citizens, thus strengthening our democracy. This mixed-methods project will combine quantitative analysis of existing data sets with in-depth interviews. The project will use The Current Population Survey between 2000 and 2014 to verify prior research concerning patterns of voter turnout among Asian Americans. The project will also analyze the 2016 National Asian American Survey to test hypotheses regarding the mechanisms behind recent voter patterns, including forms of political participation other than actual voting. Finally, the project will conduct 90 interviews in a large city with subgroups of Asian Americans to capture these groups' perspectives on their political engagement and experiences in the public sphere. After the interviews are transcribed, qualitative coding will produce common themes and concepts. Atlas.ti will be used to organize, manage and analyze the data. Findings from the project will show both overall patterns and subgroup differences in the motivations for political participation among Asian Americans, and test hypotheses regarding the mechanisms behind these patterns. Findings will inform theories in both sociology and political science related to political participation, especially the role of resources in motivating such participation. Findings will also speak to sociological theories regarding ethnic group assimilation to better understand why Asian Americans assimilate readily socio-economically, but less readily politically. The findings will also speak to sociological theories regarding the role of culture in patterning public sphere behaviors.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.