Immigrants and Politics Blog

[Janelle Wong writes: “An analysis of Asian American politics in California in the New York Times (2/27/07, A-11), with critical data provided by our very own co-blogmaster Karthick Ramakrishnan (Go Karthick!). Ricardo Ramirez and I were discussing the need –highlighted in this article–for reporters to be careful in their description of the proportion of voters in immigrant communities — are they referring to voters among adults? voters among adult citizens?
Also, note that in some places, like California, the Asian American portion of the electorate is comparable to or even larger than the African American portion of the electorate. This article shows such trends are attracting the attention of political
consultants and campaign managers.”]
February 27, 2007
Asians Flex Muscles in California Politics
By CINDY CHANG

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[Chris Zepeda writes: Countermovements are cases of mobilization that are “generated or intensified by another movement.” Whittier (2004) contends that activists do not join countermovements because a “movement’s success threatens or outrages them”, but because a “movement’s gains provides both a concrete target and an arena in which to mount challenges.” In the case of the immigrant rights movement and the KKK, i think its a little of both - outrage and opportunity]

Ku Klux Klan Rebounds With New Focus On Immigration
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/Extremism_72/4973_72.htm

New York, NY, February 6, 2007 … The Ku Klux Klan, which just a few years ago seemed static or even moribund compared to other white supremacist movements such as neo-Nazis, experienced “a surprising and troubling resurgence” during the past year due to the successful exploitation of hot-button issues including immigration, gay marriage and urban crime, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

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[Two stories from New York City; it looks like the City has leeway to grant voting rights for local elections.  For more on noncitizen voting rights, check out Ron Hayduk’s book Democracy For All.]

Alliance Backs Voting Rights for Noncitizens
By Sewell Chan
The New York Times, February 20, 2007

New York City should allow legal immigrants who are not citizens to vote in local elections, according to an alliance of more than 60 organizations that announced a renewed effort yesterday to secure that right.

The alliance, the New York Coalition to Expand Voting Rights, called on the City Council and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to support a bill, introduced by Councilman Charles Barron of Brooklyn, that would allow legal immigrants who have been in the country for more than six months to vote in elections for mayor, comptroller and public advocate, as well as for the five borough presidents and 51 council members.

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[KR: This story in the LA Times is interesting; the Vietnamese case in OC seems similar to the Cuban American case in Miami. It’s amazing how quickly Van Tran has built up his “machine”; I interviewed him in 2000, and he was just getting started with plans to run for city council. Certainly a bright spot for the GOP, and seems unlikely that the Latino populations in these areas (though numerous) will knock out the GOP or Vietnamese leadership anytime soon.]

Trung Nguyen on top by 7 votes
Rival Janet Nguyen is expected to seek a recount in O.C. supervisor’s race whose outcome surprised many observers.
By Christian Berthelsen, LA Times
February 8, 2007

A Vietnamese American school board member from Garden Grove who was a political unknown two months ago emerged Wednesday as the winner of an Orange County Board of Supervisors seat by just seven votes out of nearly 46,000 cast.

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[KR: Sent in by Chris Zepeda. Similar to research by Burch, Hochschild, Weaver, and others, this may mean that policies meant to combat discrimination may need to pay more attention to color than other ethnic characteristics. And, although height may matter, it is not a protected category for anti-discrimination.]
Lighter and taller equals a bigger paycheck for immigrants
Release Date: Jan 25, 2007

A new study by Vanderbilt University Professor of Law and Economics Joni Hersch found legal immigrants in the United States with a lighter skin tone made more money than those with darker skin.
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[KR: Sent in by Janelle Wong; would be interesting to see if the SBA has taken stances on the varying immigration bills, and whether immigrant entrepreneurship plays any tole in their stances (or if it’s only their interest in low-wage immigrant labor).]

February 6, 2007
Immigrant Entrepreneurs Shape a New Economy
By NINA BERNSTEIN

Manuel A. Miranda was 8 when his family immigrated to New York from Bogotá. His parents, who had been lawyers, turned to selling home-cooked food from the trunk of their car. Manuel pitched in after school, grinding corn by hand for traditional Colombian flatbreads called arepas.

Today Mr. Miranda, 32, runs a family business with 16 employees, producing 10 million arepas a year in the Maspeth section of Queens. But the burst of Colombian immigration to the city has slowed; arepas customers are spreading through the suburbs, and competition for them is fierce. Now, he says, his eye is on a vast, untapped market: the rest of the country.
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[KR: That, at least according to author Debra Dickerson and the “word on the street” in venues such as black barbershops, according to this New York Times story. This particular quotation from a barbershop owner was telling, as is another by Ms. Dickerson.]

“When you think of a president, you think of an American,” said Mr. Lanier, a 58-year-old barber who is still considering whether to support Mr. Obama. “We’ve been taught that a president should come from right here, born, raised, bred, fed in America. To go outside and bring somebody in from another nationality, now that doesn’t feel right to some people.”

[..] “Now, I’m willing to adopt him,” Ms. Dickerson continued. “He married black. He acts black. But there’s a lot of distance between black Africans and African-Americans.”
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