Transnational Stakeholders: Latin American Migrant Transnationalism and Civic Engagement in the United States

In the current period of international migration there is no consensus among analysts regarding the relationship between immigrant transnationalism and civic engagement in the United States. Focusing mainly on the transnational behaviors of Latin American migrants, three views predominate: critics argue that immigrant transnationalism hinders integration, advocates argue that the two are not mutually exclusive, while the skeptics simply contend that transnationalism is the exception rather than the norm among these immigrants. Using data from the Latino National Survey (Fraga 2006), the most comprehensive survey of Latino political attitudes and behaviors in the United States to date, we test models of immigrant transnationalism and engagement in U.S. politics and society to determine which immigrant characteristics are associated with a range of transnational practices and attachments as well as measures of U.S. civic participation. We find that transnational behaviors take on different forms as immigrant settlement occurs and that pessimistic accounts of the negative effects of transnationalism on engagement in the civic life of the United States have been overstated. While transnational attachments persist among those with familial or material ties to the home country, our findings suggest that the barriers to immigrant participation and incorporation in the United States have as much to do with the political predispositions of migrants as with how the host state and society receives them. (Contains 3 tables.)