Mobilization by Different Means: Nativity and GOTV in the United States

We compare the impact of 15 randomized get-out-the-vote (GOTV) field experiments on naturalized and U.S.-born voters. We find that mobilization increased turnout among U.S.-born Latinos, but had no measurable effect among Latino naturalized citizens. In contrast, GOTV increased turnout among natural...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The International migration review Vol. 48; no. 3; pp. 710 - 727
Main Authors:	Michelson, Melissa R., García Bedolla, Lisa
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Thousand Oaks Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-09-2014 Wiley Subscription Services SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects:	Asian Americans Citizens Citizenship Comparative analysis Control groups Demonstrations Experiments Field work Heterogeneity Hispanic Americans Hispanics Immigration Intellectuals International migration Mobilization Naturalization Political campaigns Politics Race Social mobilization U.S.A United States of America Voter behavior Voter registration Voter turnout Voters Voting United States > US USA
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Summary:	We compare the impact of 15 randomized get-out-the-vote (GOTV) field experiments on naturalized and U.S.-born voters. We find that mobilization increased turnout among U.S.-born Latinos, but had no measurable effect among Latino naturalized citizens. In contrast, GOTV increased turnout among naturalized Asian Americans but had no measureable effect among U.S.-born Asian Americans. Race politics scholars have long argued that the terms we use to describe ethnoracial groups mask significant internal heterogeneity. We show how this heterogeneity affects voter mobilization, demonstrating the importance of seeing nativity and national origin as critical lines of demarcation that affect how certain individuals are mobilized to participate in politics.²
Bibliography:	ark:/67375/WNG-9NF244K5-7 An earlier version of this paper was delivered at the May 4, 2012 meeting of the Politics of Race, Immigration and Ethnicity Consortium (PRIEC), San Diego, CA. We are grateful to Jane Junn, Benjamin Bishin and other PRIEC participants, as well as the anonymous reviewers of International Migration Review, for their helpful comments. This research was funded by The James Irvine Foundation as part of its California Votes Initiative (CVI). For more information on the CVI, see http://www.irvine.org/grantmaking/our-programs/californiademocracy/civicengagement/californiavotesinitiative. The James Irvine Foundation bears no responsibility for the content of this article. ArticleID:IMRE12067 istex:DC27A98B39D6947375FABB308F0171FE1C0F688D ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0197-9183 1747-7379
DOI:	10.1111/imre.12067