Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-03T04:34:19.011Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Politics of the Mundane

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2021

ROBERTO F. CARLOS*
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
*
Roberto F. Carlos, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Georgia, [email protected].

Abstract

Extensive research on political participation suggests that parental resources strongly predict participation. Other research indicates that salient political events can push individuals to participate. I offer a novel explanation of how mundane household experiences translate to political engagement, even in settings where low participation levels are typically found, such as immigrant communities. I hypothesize that experiences requiring children of Latinx immigrants to take on “adult” responsibilities provide an environment where children learn the skills needed to overcome the costs associated with participation. I test this hypothesis using three datasets: a survey of Latinx students, a representative survey of young adults, and a 10-year longitudinal study. The analyses demonstrate that Latinx children of immigrants taking on adult responsibilities exhibit higher levels of political activity compared with those who do not. These findings provide new insights into how the cycle of generational political inequality is overcome in unexpected ways and places.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abrajano, Marisa, and Alvarez, R. Michael. 2010. New Faces, New Voices: The Hispanic Electorate in America . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acock, Alan C. 2018. A Gentle Introduction to Stata . College Station, TX: Stata Press.Google Scholar
Alvarez, R. Michael, and Bedolla, Lisa Garcia. 2003. “The Foundations of Latino Voter Partisanship: Evidence from the 2000 Election.” Journal of Politics 65 (1): 3149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersen, Kristi. 2010. New Immigrant Communities: Finding a Place in Local Politics . Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Bandura, Albert. 1994. “Self-efficacy.” In Encyclopedia of Human Behavior Vol. 4, ed. Ramachaudran, Vilayanur Subramanian, 7181. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bandura, Albert. 1997. Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Self-control . New York: W.H. Freeman and Company.Google Scholar
Barreto, Matt A. 2007. “¡Sí Se Puede! Latino Candidates and the Mobilization of Latino Voters.” American Political Science Review 101 (3): 425–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barreto, Matt A., Manzano, Sylvia, Ramirez, Ricardo, and Rim, Kathy. 2009. “Mobilization, Participation, and Solidaridad: Latino Participation in the 2006 Immigration Protest Rallies.” Urban Affairs Review 44 (5): 736–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, Paul Allen, and Jennings, M. Kent. 1991. “Family Traditions, Political Periods, and the Development of Partisan Orientations. Journal of Politics 53 (3): 742–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bedolla, Lisa Garcia. 2005. Fluid Borders: Latino power, Identity, and Politics in Los Angeles . Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blair, Sampson Lee. 1992. “Children’s Participation in Household Labor: Child Socialization versus the Need for Household Labor.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 21 (2): 241–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bleakley, Hoyt, and Chin, Aimee. 2004. “Language Skills and Earnings: Evidence from Childhood Immigrants.” Review of Economics and Statistics 86 (2): 481–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bleakley, Hoyt, and Chin, Aimee. 2008. “What Holds Back the Second Generation? The Intergenerational Transmission of Language Human Capital among Immigrants.” Journal of Human Resources 43 (2): 267–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bleakley, Hoyt, and Chin, Aimee. 2010. “Age at Arrival, English Proficiency, and Social Assimilation among US Immigrants.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 2 (1): 165–92.Google Scholar
Bloemraad, Irene, and Trost, Christine. 2008. “It’s a Family Affair: Intergenerational Mobilization in the Spring 2006 Protests.” American Behavioral Scientist 52 (4): 507–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brody, Richard A. 1978. “The Puzzle of Political Participation in America.” In The New American Political System , ed. King, Anthony, 287324. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.Google Scholar
Brown, Nadia E. 2014. “Political Participation of Women of Color: An Intersectional Analysis.” Journal of Women, Politics & Policy 35 (4): 315–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Susan K., and Bean, Frank D.. 2016. “Migration Status and Political Knowledge among Latino Immigrants.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 2 (3): 2241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buuren, S. van, and Groothuis-Oudshoorn, Karin. 2011. “Mice: Multivariate Imputation by Chained Equations in R.” Journal of Statistical Software 45 (3): 168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cain, Bruce E., Kiewiet, D. Roderick, and Uhlaner, Carole J.. 1991. “The Acquisition of Partisanship by Latinos and Asian Americans.” American Journal of Political Science 35 (2): 390422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlos, Roberto F. 2018. “Late to the Party: On the Prolonged Partisan Socialization Process of Second-generation Americans.” Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics 3 (2): 381408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlos, Roberto F. 2021. “Replication Data for: The Politics of the Mundane.” Harvard Dataverse. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/4P2JA3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capps, Randy, Fix, Michael, and Reardon-Anderson, Jane. 2003. Children of Immigrants Show Slight Reductions in Poverty, Hardship. Urban Institute. Retrieved March 1, 2019.Google Scholar
Chávez, Maria, Monforti, Jessica L. Lavariega, and Michelson, Melissa R.. 2015. Living the Dream: New Immigration Policies and the Lives of Undocumented Latino Youth . New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cho, Wendy K. Tam, Gimpel, James G., and Dyck, Joshua J.. 2006. “Residential Concentration, Political Socialization, and Voter Turnout.” Journal of Politics 68 (1): 156–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Cathy J. 2010. Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics . Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Condon, Meghan, and Holleque, Matthew. 2013. “Entering Politics: General Self-efficacy and Voting Behavior among Young People.” Political Psychology 34 (2): 167–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawson, Michael C. 2001. Black Visions: The Roots of Contemporary African-American Political Ideologies . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Denny, Kevin, and Doyle, Orla. 2008. “Political Interest, Cognitive Ability and Personality: Determinants of Voter Turnout in Britain.” British Journal of Political Science 38 (2): 291310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foner, Nancy, and Dreby, Joanna. 2011. “Relations between the Generations in Immigrant Families.” Annual Review of Sociology 37: 545–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, James H., and Kam, Cindy D.. 2006. “Patience as a Political Virtue: Delayed Gratification and Turnout.” Political Behavior 28 (2): 113–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, James H., and Kam, Cindy D.. 2007. “Beyond the Self: Social Identity, Altruism, and Political Participation.” Journal of Politics 69 (3): 813–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraga, Bernard L. 2018. The Turnout Gap: Race, Ethnicity, and Political Inequality in a Diversifying America . New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraga, Luis R., Garcia, John A., Hero, Rodney E., Jones-Correa, Michael, Martinez-Ebers, Valerie, and Segura, Gary M.. 2011. Latinos in the New Millennium: An Almanac of Opinion, Behavior, and Policy Preferences . New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
García-Castañon, Marcela. 2013. “Theory of Multi-tiered Membership.” PhD diss. University of Washington.Google Scholar
Garcia-Rios, Sergio I., and Barreto, Matt A.. 2016. “Politicized Immigrant Identity, Spanish-language Media, and Political Mobilization in 2012.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 2 (3): 7896.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gimpel, James G., and Schuknecht, Jason E.. 2003. “Political Participation and the Accessibility of the Ballot Box.” Political Geography 22 (5): 471–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodnow, Jacqueline J. 1988. “Children’s Household Work: Its Nature and Functions.” Psychological Bulletin 103 (1): 526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenstein, Fred I. 1965. Children and Politics . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hajnal, Zoltan L., and Lee, Taeku. 2011. Why Americans Don’t Join the Party: Race, Immigration, and the Failure (of Political Parties) to Engage the Electorate . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hausman, Jerry, and McFadden, Daniel. 1984. “Specification Tests for the Multinomial Logit Model.” Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society 52 (5): 1219–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heckman, James J., and Kautz, Tim. 2013. “Fostering and Measuring Skills: Interventions that Improve Character and Cognition.” National Bureau of Economic Research. No. w19656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hero, Rodney E., and Campbell, Anne G.. 1996. “Understanding Latino Political Participation: Exploring the Evidence from the Latino National Political Survey.” Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 18 (2): 129–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hess, Robert D., and Torney, Judith V. 1967. The Development of Political Attitudes in Children . London: Aldine.Google Scholar
Holbein, John B. 2017. “Childhood Skill Development and Adult Political Participation.” American Political Science Review 111 (3): 572–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holbein, John B., and Hillygus, D. Sunshine. 2020. Making Young Voters: Converting Civic Attitudes into Civic Action . New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holman, Mirya R. 2016. “The Differential Effect of Resources on Political Participation across Gender and Racial Groups.” In Distinct Identities: Minority Women in US Politics , eds. Brown, Nadia E. and Gershon, Sarah Allen, 1328. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. 2005. “Hispanic Immigration Threatens to Divide America.” In Race Relations: Opposing Viewpoints , ed. Torr, John D., 6279. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press.Google Scholar
Institute of Education Sciences. 2002. “Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) [Base Year. 2005-10-11].” National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/els2002/.Google Scholar
Jennings, M. Kent, and Niemi, Richard G.. 1968. “The Transmission of Political Values from Parent to Child.” The American Political Science Review 62 (1): 169–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, M. Kent, and Niemi, Richard G.. 1981. Generations and Politics: A Panel Study of Young Adults and Their Parents . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, M. Kent, Stoker, Laura, and Bowers, Jake. 2009. “Politics across Generations: Family Transmission Reexamined.” Journal of Politics 71 (3): 782–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones-Correa, Michael, and Leal, David L.. 2001. “Political Participation: Does Religion Matter? Political Research Quarterly 54 (4): 751–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Junn, Jane. 1999. “Participation in Liberal Democracy: The Political Assimilation of Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities in the United States.” American Behavioral Scientist 42 (9): 1417–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, Vikki. 2014. “Children as Brokers of Their Immigrant Families’ Health-care Connections.” Social Problems 61 (2): 194215.Google Scholar
King, Gary. 1989. Unifying Political Methodology: The Likelihood Theory of Statistical Inference . New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Klein, Wendy, Graesch, Anthony P., and Izquierdo, Carolina. 2009. “Children and Chores: A Mixed-methods Study of Children’s Household Work in Los Angeles Families.” Anthropology of Work Review 30 (3): 98109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, Wendy, and Goodwin, Marjorie Harness. 2013. “Chores.” In Fast-forward Family: Home, Work, and Relationships in Middle-class America , eds. Ochs, Elinor and Kremer-Sadlik, Tamar, 111–29. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Krogstad, Jens Manuel, Lopez, Mark Hugo, and Rohal, Molly. 2015. “English Proficiency on the Rise among Latinos: US Born Driving Language Changes.” Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2015/05/12/english-proficiency-on-the-rise-among-latinos/.Google Scholar
Kuziemko, Ilyana. 2014. “Human Capital Spillovers in Families: Do Parents Learn From or Lean on Their Children? Journal of Labor Economics 32 (4): 755–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leighley, Jan E., and Vedlitz, Arnold. 1999. “Race, Ethnicity, and Political Participation: Competing Models and Contrasting Explanations.” Journal of Politics 61 (4): 10921114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masuoka, Natalie, Ramanathan, Kumar, and Junn, Jane. 2019. “New Asian American Voters: Political Incorporation and Participation in 2016.” Political Research Quarterly 72 (4): 9911003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marrow, Helen B. 2005. “New Destinations and Immigrant Incorporation.” Perspectives on Politics 3 (4): 781–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDevitt, Michael, and Chaffee, Steven. 2002. “From Top-down to Trickle-up Influence: Revisiting Assumptions about the Family in Political Socialization.” Political Communication 19 (3): 281301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McQuillan, Jeff, and Tse, Lucy. 1995. “Child Language Brokering in Linguistic Minority Communities: Effects on Cultural Interaction, Cognition, and Literacy.” Language and Education 9 (3): 195215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morales, Alejandro, and Hanson, William E.. 2005. “Language Brokering: An Integrative Review of the Literature.” Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 27 (4): 471503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nie, Norman H., Junn, Jane, and Stehlik-Barry, Kenneth. 1996. Education and Democratic Citizenship in America . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Niemi, Richard G., and Jennings, M. Kent. 1991. “Issues and Inheritance in the Formation of Party Identification.” American Journal of Political Science 35 (4): 970–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niemi, Richard G., and Junn, Jane. 2005. Civic Education: What Makes Students Learn . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Ojeda, Christopher, Michener, Jamila, and Haselswerdt, Jake. 2020. “The Politics of Personal Crisis: How Negative Life Events Affect Political Participation.” SSRN Working Paper 3573758.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orellana, Marjorie Faulstich. 2001. “The Work Kids Do: Mexican and Central American Immigrant Children’s Contributions to Households and Schools in California.” Harvard Educational Review 71 (3): 366–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orellana, Marjorie Faulstich. 2003. “Responsibilities of Children in Latino Immigrant Homes.” New Directions for Youth Development 2003 (100): 2539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orellana, Marjorie Faulstich, Dorner, Lisa, and Pulido, Lucila. 2003. “Accessing Assets: Immigrant Youth’s Work as Family Translators or Para-phrasers.” Social Problems 50 (4): 505–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pacheco, Julianna Sandell, and Plutzer, Eric. 2007. “Stay in School, Don’t Become a Parent: Teen Life Transitions and Cumulative Disadvantages for Voter Turnout.” American Politics Research 35 (1): 3256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, Lisa S. 2001. “Between Adulthood and Childhood: The Boundary Work of Immigrant Entrepreneurial Children.” Berkeley Journal of Sociology 45 (1): 114–35.Google Scholar
Park, Lisa S. 2005. Consuming Citizenship: Children of Asian Immigrant Entrepreneurs . Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedraza, Francisco I., and Perry, Brittany N.. 2020. “Validating a Measure of Perceived Parent–Child Political Socialization.” Political Research Quarterly 73 (3): 623–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pérez-Stable, Eliseo J., Hiatt, Robert A., Sabogal, Fabio, and Otero-Sabogal, Regina. 1995. “Use of Spanish Surnames to Identify Latinos: Comparison to Self-identification.” Journal of the National Cancer Institute Monographs 18: 11–5.Google Scholar
Plutzer, Eric. 2002. “Becoming a Habitual Voter: Inertia, Resources, and Growth in Young Adulthood.” American Political Science Review 96 (1): 4156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Portes, Alejandro, and Rumbaut, Rubén G.. 2006. Immigrant America: A Portrait . Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramírez, Ricardo. 2013. Mobilizing Opportunities: The Evolving Latino Electorate and the Future of American Politics . Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Rende, Richard. 2015. “The Developmental Significance of Chores: Then and Now.” The Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter 31 (1): 17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riggio, Heidi R., Valenzuela, Ann Marie, and Weiser, Dana A.. 2010. “Household Responsibilities in the Family of Origin: Relations with Self-efficacy in Young Adulthood.” Personality and Individual Differences 48 (5): 568–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenstone, Steven J., and Hansen, John Mark. 1993. Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America . London: Longman Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Rouse, Stella M., and Ross, Ashley D.. 2018. The Politics of Millennials: Political Beliefs and Policy Preferences of America’s Most Diverse Generation . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rumbaut, Rubén G. 2004. “Ages, Life Stages, and Generational Cohorts: Decomposing the Immigrant First and Second Generations in the United States.” International Migration Review 38 (3): 11601205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlozman, Kay Lehman, Verba, Sidney, and Brady, Henry E.. 2012. The Unheavenly Chorus: Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Democracy . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sears, David O., and Valentino, Nicholas A.. 1997. “Politics Matters: Political Events as Catalysts for Preadult Socialization.” American Political Science Review 91 (1): 4565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sears, David O., Danbold, Felix, and Zavala, Vanessa M.. 2016. “Incorporation of Latino Immigrants into the American Party System.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 2 (3): 183204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shechtman, Nicole, DeBarger, Angela H., Dornsife, Carolyn, Rosier, Soren, and Yarnall, Louise. 2013. “Promoting Grit, Tenacity, and Perseverance: Critical Factors for Success in the 21st Century.” Washington, DC : US Department of Education, Department of Educational Technology 1: 1107.Google Scholar
Stoll, Michael A., and Wong, Janelle S.. 2007. “Immigration and Civic Participation in a Multiracial and Multiethnic Context.” International Migration Review 41 (4): 880908.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Street, Alex, Jones-Correa, Michael, and Zepeda-Millán, Chris. 2017. “Political Effects of Having Undocumented Parents.” Political Research Quarterly 70 (4): 818–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Paul, Cohn, D’Vera, Livingston, Gretchen M., Funk, Cary, and Morin, Rich. 2013. “Second-generation Americans.” Pew Research Center Social Demographic Trends Project RSS. Retrieved March 13, 2014. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2013/02/07/second-generation-americans-by-the-numbers/.Google Scholar
Teixeira, Ruy A. 1992. The Disappearing American Voter . Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Tse, Lucy. 1995. “Language Brokering among Latino Adolescents: Prevalence, Attitudes, and School Performance.” Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 17 (2): 180–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valentino, Nicholas A., Gregorowicz, Krysha, and Groenendyk, Eric W.. 2009. “Efficacy, Emotions and the Habit of Participation.” Political Behavior 31 (3): 307–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valenzuela, Abel Jr.. 1999. “Gender Roles and Settlement Activities among Children and their Immigrant Families.” American Behavioral Scientist 42 (4): 720–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Burns, Nancy, and Schlozman, Kay Lehman. 2003. “Unequal at the Starting Line: Creating Participatory Inequalities across Generations and among Groups.” The American Sociologist 34 (1–2): 4569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, Kay Lehman, and Brady, Henry E.. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, Kay, and Burns, Nancy. 2005. “Family Ties: Understanding the Intergenerational Transmission of Participation.” In The Social Logic of Politics , ed. Zuckerman, Alan, 95114. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Wong, Janelle S. 2000. “The Effects of Age and Political Exposure on the Development of Party Identification among Asian American and Latino Immigrants in the United States.” Political Behavior 22 (4): 341–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wong, Janelle S., and Tseng, Vivian. 2008. “Political Socialisation in Immigrant Families: Challenging Top-down Parental Socialisation Models.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 34 (1): 151–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wong, Janelle S., Ramakrishnan, S. Karthick, Lee, Taeku, Junn, Jane, and Wong, Janelle. 2011. Asian American Political Participation: Emerging Constituents and their Political Identities . New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Wong, Tom K., García, Angela S., and Valdivia, Carolina. 2019. “The Political Incorporation of Undocumented Youth.” Social Problems 66 (3): 356–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woods, Tyler, and Hanson, Devlin. 2016. Demographic Trends of Children of Immigrants. Urban Institute. Retrieved March 1, 2019. https://www.urban.org/research/publication/demographic-trends-children-immigrants.Google Scholar
Zelizer, Viviana A. 1994. Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Zepeda-Millán, Chris. 2017. Latino Mass Mobilization: Immigration, Racialization, and Activism . New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Carlos Dataset

Link
Supplementary material: File

Carlos supplementary materials

Online Appendix

Download Carlos supplementary materials(File)
File 63.4 KB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.