Why do Asian Americans Get Involved in Politics: 2008 NAAS Survey highlights
April 22, 2009
By Kelli M. Rucker
Chicago, IL. - Why do Asian Americans get involved with politics? Political scientists Jane Junn (Rutgers University), Taeku Lee (University of California, Berkeley), Janelle Wong (University of Southern California), and S. Karthick Ramakrishnan (University of California, Riverside), try answering this question in the National Asian American Survey (”NAAS”), the most comprehensive survey conducted of the political views of Asian Americans.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Asian Americans have been the fastest growing population over the past few decades, increasing from 1 million in 1960 to about 15 million today, and comprising approximately 5% of the American population. By the year 2060, Asian Americans are expected to account for 10% of the population. But according to Ramakrishnan, these growing numbers do not necessarily translate to increased Asian American political representation, “Despite the fact that we are a growing and interesting population in so many ways, there’s a gap between what Asian Americans are in terms of the population and how well we’re represented in terms of politics,” said Ramakrishnan, “We’re underrepresented in most locations, both at the local, state, and national level when it comes to having elected officials. Even looking beyond the racial and ethnic characteristics of officials, many elected officials don’t know much about the Asian American population which they represent.”
Prior research has been unable to give complete information about Asian American voter demographics, their voting preferences, the reasons behind their voting patterns, and their partisan affiliations. The NAAS aims to answer these important questions and elevate our understanding of the Asian American electorate. “In many ways we posed the research question against a central puzzle in political science which suggests that people with high levels of socioeconomic resources, primarily education and income, are more politically active,” said Junn. Statistically, and for Asian Americans in particular, this theory raises many contradictions. “Asian Americans as a group have the highest levels of formal education than any other group in the United States,” said Junn, “Some 50% of Asian American adults have a college degree or beyond which is literally double that of the rest of the population, in particularly that of whites, and at the same time the political participation of Asian Americans is relatively low.” This is especially evident in comparison to other ethnic groups, such as African American and Latinos, who on average report lower levels of formal education than Asian Americans, but have a greater share of political participation and representation in all levels of government.
In the 110th Congress, African Americans comprised 9.4% of the House of Representatives, followed by Latino Americans, 7% and Asian Americans, 1.8%. This dearth of Asian Americans may result from heavily populated enclaves of Asian Americans in only a few states. In 2006, 1 in 2 Asian Americans were reported to live in the West region of the United States and a significant portion of the population in states such as Hawaii (56%), California (13%), New Jersey (8%), District of Columbia (8%), and New York (7%).
In analyzing Asian American voter preferences, the survey measures the impact of these geographic factors and others related to U.S. socialization, such as English language proficiency and adaptability to American culture, experiences of racial discrimination, the role of political parties, and civic engagement.
The NAAS was a national telephone survey which interviewed over 5,000 Asian American respondents, and was completed in the months between August and October. The sample included respondents from six of the largest Asian American ethnic categories: (24%) Chinese (22%) Asian Indian, (18%) Filipino, (11%) Vietnamese, (10%) Korean, and (6%) Japanese. An “other” category was also included, which comprises various Southeast Asian subgroups, such as Thai and Hmong, as well as multiracial Asians. Results for this category was limited and only briefly discussed. In total, responses were collected from 1, 195 Chinese, 920 Asian Indian, 678 Vietnamese, 493 Korean, 493 Japanese, 486 Filipino and 129 in the “other” category. The languages used to interview were Korean, Mandarin, Chinese, Hindi, Vietnamese, Japanese, Tagalog, and English.
Survey findings have so far revealed some unexpected results. For instance, citizenship and voter registration are often considered significant barriers to getting Asian American representation, however, the NAAS reveals that 63% of the adult Asian Americans are citizens, and 81% of that group is registered voters. Overall, 58% of Asian Americans are registered voters. Seventy-two percent of registered voters said they voted in the 2004 election, 46% of registered voters said they voted in the primaries, and around 76% of registered voters said they were likely to vote in the 2008 elections.
According to NAAS data, when respondents were asked about their voting patterns, 65% of Asian American citizens were described as “most likely to vote”. Among this segment were (82%) Japanese (73%), Asian Indian (72%), Koreans (67%), Filipinos (65%), Vietnamese (60%), and Chinese. Sixteen percent of respondents indicated that they were “very interested” in politics, twenty-five percent said they were “interested,” thirty-nine percent reported being “somewhat interested,” and twenty percent said they were “not interested at all.”
In terms of partisanship, Asian Americans most identify as Democrats than as Republican, 32% to 14%, respectively. One in five identify themselves as Independents and the largest number of respondents, thirty-five percent, do not identify themselves as Democrat, Republican, or Independent. These preferences vary among ethnic group: Asian Indian and Japanese Americans most strongly identify as Democrats, and were the strongest supporters of Obama, 52% and 60%, respectively. Vietnamese Americans most strongly identify as Republicans, and were more likely to support McCain than Obama, 51% to 24%. Chinese Americans (70%) are the least likely to identify as either Democrat or Republican, but were more supportive of Obama. Filipino and Korean likely voters favor Obama over McCain. Overall, 41% of Asian American likely voters supported Obama, 24% supported McCain.
Self-identified Republicans were much more likely to engage in voter behavior, followed by Democrat. For those who do not identify in partisan terms, they were not very likely to vote. With a significant number of Asian Americans identifying in non-partisan terms, the conclusions drawn from this information could remain speculative, “This is an important lost opportunity in terms of parties,” said Lee, “The historical role that we think political parties play in bringing large immigrant groups into politics is by mobilizing them to vote and registering to vote.” Almost 2 out of 3 non-partisan Asian Americans were undecided voters and about 1 out of 2 Independents are undecided. Among respondents, undecided voters were more likely to vote for Obama than McCain.
Correlating partisan identification with external factors, such as voter mobilization, NAAS measured the probability of a respondent to vote by their civic engagement, participation in home country politics, and contact from political and civic organizations.
In general, respondents with greater civic involvement were more likely to vote. Seventy percent of people who report belonging to civic organizations without a religious activity are registered to vote. The proportion of people not belonging to this type of organization is much lower. Similarly, Asian Americans involved in their countries of origin are slightly more likely to vote in the U.S. than those who are not (73% versus 67%). This is an alarming statistic, particularly in light of popular belief. “A common criticism or refrain among activists in the United States is that Asian Americans are distracted by homeland politics in terms of activity,” said Junn, “Our results suggest that participation in one context may help increase participation in the other.”
Direct contact from political or civic organizations yield similar results of increased political participation. Over the past 12 months, 1 in 4 respondents reported that some political party contacted them and one out of seven people in the survey report having been contacted by a civic organization. Voters who were contacted had much more likelihood of voting in the primaries and general election, and within that sample, there was more likelihood for voters to vote Obama, and less likelihood of being undecided. Still, the rate of direct contact by political organizations appears lower for Asian Americans than for the general population.
In terms of political issues, respondents were asked to rank the most important problems facing the nation. Sixty-one percent of Asian American likely voters and fifty-seven percent of overall respondents report the economy, nine percent of both likely voters and overall respondents report the war in Iraq. While immigration was not the top “most important problem” selected, after allowing for more than one selection choice, immigration increases in favor. One in six adults and one in seven likely voters consider it a priority issue. However, when asked the survey question, “Whether people strongly agree or disagree with whether the U.S should provide a path to citizenship for people who are in this country illegally,” there is a surprising disconnect between the level of support among the Asian American population and Asian American advocacy organizations, the latter having a significantly higher level of support for immigration. The question was also asked, “Whether U.S. immigration policy should favor immigrants with higher levels of professional qualifications over those who already have family in the United States.” Strong levels of agreement were among Indian, Chinese, and Filipino Americans.
Respondents also cited healthcare as one of the most important problems facing the country. Among likely voters, 75% agreed with a national healthcare plan, 52% were strongly in agreement, 16% disagree, and 9% neither disagree nor agree.
Analyzing racial identity, respondents were asked whether they identified themselves as Asian American, strictly by Asian ethnicity, hyphenated ethnicity-American, or Asian. Overwhelming proportions of respondents identified themselves as by either their singular ethnic identity or by hyphenated ethnicity. Only 1 out of 8 respondents identified themselves as Asian American, this was especially likely with Asian Indians. Vietnamese are especially likely to identify themselves as a hyphenated ethnicity. Another question posed was in what sphere respondents believed identity is most important for Asian Americans, in terms of having a level of commonality (race, culture, economics, political interest). With the exception of political interests, Asian Americans expressed high agreement with having commonality in all spheres.
Regardless of political commonalities, respondents were strongly in favor of voting for political candidates of their Asian ethnicity. When the survey analyzed respondents’ likely voting patterns in terms of two candidates with similar qualifications, with one of the candidates being a member of their ethnic group, the vast majority of Asian Americans responded that they would be more likely to vote for the candidate that was a member of their ethnic group. For instance, if the respondent is Korean American they were more likely to vote for a Korean-American political candidate. This has importance in terms of districting, where Asian American political candidates could have an increased chance for political gain in highly populated Asian American districts. By comparison, the same voting preference holds true for African Americans.
Complete survey results will be published in a forthcoming book in 2010.
Detailed report findings and future reports and data from the 2008 National Asian American Survey are available at www.naasurvey.com
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