Gabriel R. Sanchez

The Role of Group Consciousness in Latino Public Opinion

The public opinion of the Latino community is an understudied area within the political science literature. This analysis contributes to this literature by investigating the role of group consciousness across both Latino salient and general policy areas utilizing the 1999 Washington Post/Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation National Survey of Latinos. By including both issue areas that are salient to the Latino community (immigration, bilingual education) as well as those that are not directly tied to Latinos (abortion, death penalty), I test the primary hypothesis that group consciousness has a greater impact on Latino political attitudes across issues that are directly tied to ethnicity than on those that are not. Results from this analysis support the overall theory, as perceived discrimination motivates public opinion toward both immigration and bilingual education, and collective action toward immigration. Among other factors, nativity and the length of time lived in the U.S. have the greatest influence on Latino public opinion.

The Role of Group Consciousness in Political Participation Among Latinos in the United States

There are approximately 40 million Latinos living in the United States, which represents 13.7% of the U.S. population. Despite the growing attention the newly titled largest minority group has yielded, there is still a large question of whether this community can translate demographics into political influence. This study attempts to add to this literature by testing dominant theories of political participation in conjunction with the concept of group consciousness utilizing the 1999 Kaiser/Post National Survey of Latinos. Through the use of measures for all dimensions of group consciousness across multiple Latino subgroups, this analysis helps to clarify the role of group consciousness in Latino political behavior. Through an examination of the relationship between group consciousness and political participation across both voting and Latino-specific activities, this study suggests that group consciousness is more meaningful in the context of political activities that are directly tied to the Latino community.

Brown-Utility Heuristic? The Presence and Contributing Factors of Latino Linked Fate

In an electoral system governed by the plurality rule, those groups who wield the greatest amount of power in the United States are those who vote as a cohesive bloc. Although the size of the Latino population is growing, it is unclear whether all Latinos perceive a shared collective identity that will be exercised in the political realm. This study uses the Latino National Survey, a nationally representative telephone survey of 8,600 Latino adults, to examine how individual Latinos perceive their personal fates and the fate of their national origin group with the larger panethnic community. The authors utilize ordered logistic regression analysis to test their hypotheses regarding the impact of immigration experiences, race, and socioeconomic status on Latino linked fate. Results suggest that linked fate for Latinos may be a temporary phenomenon, as linked fate for Latinos appears to be based on marginalization derived from economic status and immigration experiences.

The Disproportionate Impact of Voter-ID Requirements on the Electorate—New Evidence from Indiana

This article analyzes the impact that voter-identification laws may have on the electorate in the state of Indiana. Cross-state comparisons are interesting, but they are insufficient if we are to investigate the disparate impact strict voter-identification laws will have on unique sub-populations. The ability to analyze representative data for specific segments of the Indiana electorate allows for a direct test of whether photo-identification laws negatively impact the poor, the elderly,and racial/ethnic minorities as the plaintiffs in Crawford v. Marion contend. Numerous claims have been made that voter-identification laws do and do not have a discriminatory affect,however such claims have not been based on individual-level datasets. This analysis hopes to shed some light on the actual consequences of these laws.

Take One for the Team? Limits of Shared Ethnicity and Candidate Preferences

This study tests the theory of politicized ethnic identity’s shaping Latino political behavior. The authors consider whether candidate quality moderates the effects of political ethnic attachments on co-ethnic candidate preferences. Ordered logistic regression models are developed to predict Latino voter preferences for co-ethnic candidates with varied degrees of qualification. Candidate quality significantly mitigates collective ethnic political behavior, yet the authors find Latinos with strong ethnic attachments remain inclined to prefer a co-ethnic even when less qualified than a non-Latino candidate. Political ethnic identity theory is useful in explaining minority political behavior, but there are boundaries to collective identity’s shaping political preferences.

Anti-immigrant Anxieties in State Policy The Great Recession and Punitive Immigration Policy in the American States, 2005–2012

The Great Recession of late 2007 through 2009 had profound negative economic impacts on the U.S. states, with 49 states experiencing revenue decreases in their 2009 budgets representing more than

Taking a Closer Look at Group Identity The Link between Theory and Measurement of Group Consciousness and Linked Fate

67.2 billion USD. Also during this period, states enacted a record number of laws related to immigrants residing in their states. We make use of data from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) to examine punitive immigration policy enactment from 2005 to 2012 and conduct a state comparative study using cross-sectional time-series analysis to examine the potential ways in which the economic recession and changing demographics in the states have impacted punitive state immigration policy making. We hypothesize that although anti-immigrant anxieties are driven in part by economic insecurity, they are also impacted by the presence of a large or growing proportion of racialized immigrants. We find that increases in state Hispanic populations and state economic stressors associated with the recession have both led to a greater number of enacted punitive state immigration policies. In addition, we find that changes in the non-Hispanic white populations in the states are also impacting the expression of anti-immigrant attitudes in state policy during this period.

Explaining public support (or lack thereof) for extending health coverage to undocumented immigrants.

Scholarship in the area of group identity has expanded our understanding of how group consciousness and linked fate operate among racial and ethnic minority populations in the United States. What is yet to be tested is whether the measures employed adequately capture the multidimensional theoretical constructs associated with group consciousness across racial and ethnic populations. To address this question, we make use of the 2004 National Political Study (N = 3,339) and apply principal components analysis and exploratory factor analysis to assess whether measures used for both group consciousness and linked fate are interchangeable, as well as whether these measures are directly comparable across racial and ethnic populations. We find that the multidimensional approach to measuring group consciousness is a sound strategy when applied to African Americans, as the dimensions fit the African American experience more powerfully than is the case for non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics, and Asian populations. Our analysis suggests that scholars interested in exploring group identity among the African American population have fewer analytical concerns in this regard than those working with other populations where the underlying components associated with group consciousness appear to be operating differently.

Hispanics and the U.S. political system : moving into the mainstream

While the recent passage of health care reform is estimated to provide millions of currently uninsured Americans with access to health coverage, undocumented immigrants are excluded from federal mandates. Since federal reform excludes undocumented immigrants, state governments will largely decide the fate of this vulnerable population. This article investigates public support for including undocumented immigrants in state health care reform efforts in New Mexico. Understanding the publics perception of extending health coverage to this population is important because public opinion influences health policy formation at the state and federal levels. Our results suggest that there is little support for including undocumented immigrants (or recent migrants from other parts of the United States) in state health care reform, particularly when compared with other segments of the New Mexican population, such as the homeless or unemployed. Our discussion highlights the economic and public health consequences of excluding undocumented immigrants from coverage options.

Latina/o or Mexicana/o? The Relationship between Socially Assigned Race and Experiences with Discrimination

UNIT I: THE CONTEXT AND SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT Chapter 1: The People, Politics, Power and the US Political System Chapter 2: Attitudinal, Constitutional and Historical Settings Chapter 3: The Demographic and Socioeconomic Settings UNIT II: INPUTS Chapter 4: Supports, Interests and Resources Chapter 5: Latino Public Opinion, Political Socialization and Political Culture Chapter 6: Participation--Voting and the Electoral Process Chapter 7: Participation--Collective Action: Interest Groups, Organizations Coalitions and Leadership Chapter 8: Participation--Political Parties and Political Ideology UNIT III: CONVERSION AND DECISION MAKING Chapter 9: Representation--Representatives, Reapportionment and Redistricting Chapter 10: The National Government and Latinos Chapter 11: Latinos in State and Local Governments UNIT IV: OUTPUTS OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM Chapter 12: Latinos and Public Policies Chapter 13: Summary, Some Observations and Conclusion