Center for the Study of Democracy

That U.S. immigration policy has shaped the demography, size, and potential for routine political influence of Latino and Asian American populations is a truism.  What is perhaps less acknowledged, but also increasingly clear is that debates over U.S. immigration policy (and Congressional and Executive inaction and posturing) are shaping the politics of Latino and Asian American communities for the next generation.  In this paper, I examine the factors that shape Latino and Asian American attitudes toward U.S. immigration policy with a particular eye to whether generational differences in Latino and Asian American communities predict different preferred outcomes of the national debate on immigration policy.  This generational question is one that will take on increasing influence in coming years as the children and grandchildren of today’s immigrants make up a larger and larger share of these panethnic populations.

            This paper speaks to three sets of scholarly questions.  First, I analyze the predictors of attitudes toward immigration policies in the contemporary debate among Latinos and Asian Americans.  Second, I assess whether there are predictable differences in these attitudes across immigrant generations.  Finally, I compare Latino and Asian American attitudes. 

            I find that Latinos and Asian Americans do not speak with one voice on immigration reform.  Interestingly, the starkest differences are seen across immigrant generations in these communities.  Latino immigrants are more likely than other Latinos to prefer legalization as the core policy outcome.  Asian immigrants are more likely than other Asian Americans to prefer a policy outcome that creates opportunities for migrants with skills to migrate.  Needless to say, these are not mutually exclusive as bills being debated in Congress today include both elements, but they certainly offer a different staring point for shaping policy.