User:HmongPolitics/sandbox

Review of Literature

The Hmong in St. Paul, Minnestoa

The Hmong are relatively recent refugees from Laos that have settled in the United States; however, even though this population is relatively new, there have been Hmong individuals (Senator Mee Moua, Representative Cy Thao, among others) who were elected into local and state office. It was due to Mee Moua’s grassroots campaign targeting the Hmong population during her bid for the Minnesota District 67 state senate seat that led to her successful victory against State Representative Tim Mahoney (who was seen as the most likely candidate for the Democratic-Farm-Labor Party’s endorsement) during the primary and eventual general election.

Moua’s victory was so attributed to her mobilization of the Hmong that even local Minnesotan politicians have begun to take note of the Hmong in St. Paul as a political force in areas where they make up a large population of the electorate. Today, there are 45,000 Hmong living in Minnesota where they are the largest ethnic group, making up about a third of the total Asian population in the state. In St. Paul, Minnesota, the Hmong population is third only to the White and African American population, totaling about 25,000 individuals. But even though the Hmong have emerged as a political force in Minnesota, little research has been done on their voting behavior.

Party Identification

Wendy K. Tam Cho and Bruce E. Cain's essay, "Asian Americans as the Median Voters: An Exploration of Attitudes and Voting Patterns on Ballot Initiatives," establish Asian Americans as a neutral voting bloc that cannot be clearly labeled as either more Democratic or Republican. Cho and Cain discuss the voting behavior of African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans and Caucasian Americans during California's two initiatives in 1994 and 1996: Proposition 187 (1994) and Proposition 209 (1996). Proposition 187 prohibits illegal immigrants from utilizing public services, while Proposition 209 prohibits the consideration of sex, race, or ethnicity by public institutions, effectively getting rid of affirmative action in the State of California. When Cho and Cain looked at the votes of Asian Americans for and against Proposition 187 and 209, they found that Asian Americans are less likely to vote for (Republican) or against (Democrat) based on partisanship than the other three racial groups.

Effectively, Asians have the weakest partisanship amongst the major racial groups. And the results of the votes and survey responses among Asian Americans made it hard to determine if the group was clearly for or against both propositions. Cho and Cain conclude that Asian Americans voting behavior, because it is reasonably neutral, acts as a median point of sorts between Caucasians and minorities—hence, "Asian Americans are a genuine swing group." Steven Doherty’s introductory research into Hmong voting behavior shows a similar pattern. His interviews show that the Hmong are more likely to vote for a Democratic candidate for local and state office while simultaneously voting for a Republican candidate for national office. Essentially, the Hmong have yet to identify as either a majority Democrat or majority Republican group which puts them in the position of being a possible swing vote in areas where they hold a large population.

Voting Turnout

Pei-te Lien's essay, "Ethnicity and Political Participation: A Comparison Between Asian and Mexican Americans," discusses the role ethnicity plays in the voting turnout of both groups. He describes ethnicity as an ever-evolving social construct due to the increase in population of the immigrant population in both groups. He determines that ethnicity can be broken down into five categories: acculturation, ethnic ties, group identification, alienation, and deprivation.

Of these categories, acculturation, "being more informed, having a higher sense of civic duty, and sharing with the non-Hispanic white attitude toward immigrant-related issues," was the only ethnic dimension that significantly affected the likelihood of an Asian American to vote. Lien concludes that the likelihood of voting among Asian Americans are not significantly affected by having a higher education, family income, prestigious head-of-household occupation, or being foreign-born and male.

Even within the different ethnic Asian American groups, socioeconomic factors are inconsistent across the different ethnic groups: e.g. an increase in education only positively affects the turnout of Chinese while not significantly affecting the other groups. An increase in income, on the other hand, has no significant affect on the turnout of the Chinese. Unlike with African Americans and with Whites, Asian American voting turnout is based less on socioeconomic status (age, gender and martial status) and resources (income, education, house ownership and employment status). If all other variables were equal, even with an increase in socioeconomic resources, voting turnout for Asian Americans is still lower than with Whites or African Americans.

However, there may be other explanations as to why Asian Americans turnout at lower rates than their White and non-White counterparts. As foreign-born individuals comprise a large part of the Asian American population, other factors besides socioeconomic status must be considered: race, ethnicity, nativity and citizenship. Lien argues that institutional mechanisms, such as citizenship and registration requirements, result a lower rate of participation among those who are capable to vote. Therefore, their “apparent deficit in voting participation in the aggregate…should not be interpreted as a lack of…interest in political participation…once the barriers to citizenship and voter registration are accounted for…Asian ethnic groups show a higher rate of voting than non-Hispanic whites…Analysis by nativity also reveals that being foreign born…can be associated with higher turnout among the registered, in the aggregate.” This theory may also apply to the Hmong population because of the recent immigration status of the population and the low socioeconomic status of the population.

CSkibba07 Looks like a good start do far with a lot of useful information

winona2012 Great start! this is a really interesting topic especially because there hasn't been much research done on it.

great start! I really want to learn more about your topic. Excited to see what you write! AHughes08 (talk) 22:23, 14 February 2011 (UTC)