National origin diversity of foreign -born Asian immigrants voter turnout in 2000

Using data from the 2000 Current Population Survey (CPS) November Voter Supplements collected by the U.S. Census Bureau, the present study examines the group diversity in voting propensity among six major Asian immigrant groups: Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Asian Indians, Koreans, and Vietnamese. Due to the immigrant specific voting sequence—naturalization, voter registration, and voter turnout, three samples are generated: sample 1 includes all foreign-born Asian immigrants regardless of their naturalization status and whether they are registered to vote; sample 2 includes those who are naturalized but not yet registered; sample 3 includes those who are both naturalized and registered to vote. Factors are analyzed are: group cultural factors, immigration related factors, and socioeconomic demographic factors. Chinese is the reference group. Results of the study demonstrate that across the three samples group diversity in voting persistently exists: in sample 1, Filipinos and Vietnamese vote significantly higher than the reference group—the Chinese; in sample 2, Filipinos and Vietnamese still vote significantly higher than the Chinese, however, when socioeconomic demographic factors are controlled, Asian Indians vote significantly higher than the Chinese; in sample 3, only the Vietnamese vote significantly higher than the Chinese. Among the factors affecting immigrants voting propensity, the immigration related factors—year of entry—is the most important factor in sample 1; socioeconomic factors are the most important factors in sample 2; in sample 3, none of the factors is relevant. Contrary to the dominant view of similarity in Asian immigrant political involvement, the likelihood for Asian immigrant groups to vote differs significantly. Meanwhile, the factors affecting their voting propensity are different too. What is more, due to the fact that a large percentage of Asian immigrants are too recent to naturalize, their socioeconomic resources cannot be easily translated to political resources to facilitate them to vote. The results further suggest that when study Asian immigrants\u27 political participation, special attention should be paid on their immigration and registration status, which is especially important for the more recent immigrants