LATINO NATIONAL SURVEY

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LATINO NATIONAL SURVEY

• Luis R. Fraga, Stanford University
• John A. Garcia, University of Arizona
• Rodney E. Hero, University of Notre Dame
• Michael Jones-Correa, Cornell University
• Valerie Martinez-Ebers, Texas Christian
  University
• Gary M. Segura, University of Washington

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(No Transcript)
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Sources of Funding

• Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Carnegie Corporation
• Ford Foundation
• Hewlett Foundation
• Irvine Foundation
• Joyce Foundation
• Kellogg Foundation
• National Science Foundation
• Russell Sage Foundation
• Texas AM University MALRC, PERG

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Latinos and the American Polity

• Are Latinos a distinct community of interest in
  American politics?
• To what extent is this so?
• By what process has this come to be?
• With what political and social effects?
• How and to what extent are Latinos integrated
  into mainstream society?
• And do Latinos change America?
• Does America change Latinos?

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Latino Diversity, in America and in the LNS

• Census Bureau (American Community Survey,
  Released August 2006)
• Mexican 63.9
• Puerto Rican 9
• Cuban 3.5
• Salvadoran 2.9
• Dominican 2.7
• Guatemalan 1.7
• Colombian 1.8
• ALL OTHERS 14.3
• Native-born (not Island-born) 35.4
• Foreign-born 61
• Island-born PR 3.6
• No high school diploma 43
• College graduate 11.1

• Latino National Survey (unweighted N)
• Summer 2006
• Mexican 66.1 (5704)
• Puerto Rican 9.5 (822)
• Cuban 4.9 (420)
• Salvadoran 4.7 (407)
• Dominican 3.9 (335)
• Guatemalan 1.7 (149)
• Colombian 1.6 (139)
• ALL OTHERS 7.6
• Native-born 28.4 (2450)
• Foreign-born (adults) 66.2 (5717)
• Island-born PR 5.4 (467)
• No high school diploma 37.0
• College graduate 16.21

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What We Did

• A national telephone survey of 8600 Latino
  residents of the United States, seeking a broad
  understanding of the qualitative nature of Latino
  political and social life in America
• State-stratified samples reach approximately 90
  coverage of the national Latino population
• Approximately 40 minutes (length and number of
  questions depends on split-samples, etc)
• English and Spanish
• Universe is all Latino adults, not citizens or
  voters.

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Stratified Structure

• The survey is stratified, that is, creates
  stand-alone samples in 15 states and the DC Metro
  area allowing us to speak to specific political
  contexts
• Arizona 400
• Arkansas 400
• California 1200
• Colorado 400
• DC-SMSA 400
• Florida 800
• Georgia 400
• Illinois 600
• Iowa 400
• Nevada 400
• New Jersey 400
• New Mexico 400
• New York 800
• North Carolina 400
• Texas 800
• Washington 400

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Latino National Contextual Database

• Include census, economic and demographic data
• Income, education, residential segregation,
  foreign-born population, national-origin group,
  citizenship status etc. at state, community,
  political boundary, bloc and tract levels
• Include political data
• Representation by gender, ethnicity, and party
• Aggregate political data, including party
  distribution, voter registration and turnout
• VRA Section 5 covered jurisdiction
• Include education data
• Per pupil expenditure
• Percent of LEP students
• Bilingual Instruction/English Immersion practices
• Latinos as a share of total school enrollment
• Racial and ethnic composition of school boards

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Themes within the Survey

• Survey includesmany of the questions or topics
  you have grown to love from existing surveys,
  whenever possible to ensure comparability
• Questions submitted by various political
  scientists specifically targeted at states
• Questions suggested by the advisory board
• Beyond the standard, we focused on
  transnationalism, identity, inter-group and
  intra-group relations, gender, education, policy
  preferences, discrimination, mobilization and
  overall political orientations
• Some questions specific to foreign born,
  non-citizens, registered voters, and residents of
  specific states.

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The Miracles of Sample Size

• Usable sub-samples for
• National origin groups (7)
• Stand-alone State Analysis
• 15 states DC Metro
• Generations
• 5717 Foreign born
• 936 US-born to FB parents
• 892 US-born to at least one US born parent
• 1047 US-born citizens of at least one US
  grandparent
• Includes 467 Island born Puerto Ricans and
• 580 4th generation US mainland born

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More Miracles of Sample Size

• Sample StrataSeveral states stratified within to
  ensure geographic dispersion and more usable
  subsamples
• e.g. California has six strata L.A., Inland
  Empire, San Diego, Central Valley, San Francisco
  Bay Area, and the rest (including Sacramento)
• Texas and Florida have multiple strata, and
  several states have twousually a single metro
  area and the rest of the state (CO, GA, IL)
• Before and after Immigration Marchescreates a
  natural experiment 3373 interviews before March
  15, 708 from 3/15-5/1, 4553 after May 1.
• Mexican State Analysis 12 Mexican states with
  Ns greater than 100 respondents (1- 200, 2
  -300, 2 -400)
• Chihuahua (353), DF (235), Durango (166),
  Guanajuato (327), Guerrero (192), Jalisco (419),
  Mexico (160), Michoacán (423), Puebla (133), SLP
  (98), Sonora (110), Veracruz (119), Zacatecas
  (169)

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Unique Sub-Samples Available

• 841 Senior Citizens (65)
• 1035 Union Members
• 997 with household incomes above 65k
• 1379 College graduates, 573 of which have
  advanced degrees
• 964 self-identified Republicans and 1424
  Independents
• 71 Catholic, but 224 Jehovahs Witnesses, 339
  Pentecostals, 177 Southern Baptists, etc.
• 2671 (31) report that they or a close family
  member served in the military
• Numbers reported are un-weighted Ns

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Our First Focus Coming to Grips with Latino
Identity

• As an Aspect of American Identity
• As a potentially problematic construct
• As a meaningful political force

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Three Elements to Explore Today

• MULTIPLE DIMENSIONS OF OVERLAPPING IDENTITY
• Are Latino and American Identities in conflict?
• Does a Latino identity really exist for political
  purposes?
• RACIAL IDENTIFICATION
• More complex than previously understood
• Confounding notions of phenotype and skin-tone
• INTERGROUP RELATIONS
• Latinos enter a society with established racial
  hierarchies and patterns of interaction
• How do Latinos view African-Americans and whites?
• How do Latinos view themselves vis-à-vis
  African-Americans and Whites?

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Latino and American Identities

• False dichotomy of Latinoness and Americanness
• To often viewed as a single dimension with each
  at one extreme
• Our view Latino identity is an American identity
• Latino socially constructed in the U.S. and
  meaningless outside that context
• American is often an idealized and imagined
  identity, historically constructed
• Both dimensions necessary to understand Latinos
  in American politics.

X
Latino
American
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Latino Identity in the United States
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Surprising News on Pan-ethnicity

• Dramatic increase Over 87 identify either
  strongly or very strongly with terms like Latino
  or Hispanic
• Reasons to expect otherwise
• 1989 LNPS national origin preference clear
• High Immigration and prevalence of Mexican-origin
  group leads many to expect persistence of
  national-origin as principal self-identifier
• Cause not clear, but we have some thoughts

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A Multiplicity of Identities

• Simultaneous strong sense of pan-ethnic identity,
  national origin identity, and American-ness
• Puerto Ricans illustrate best that identities are
  not mutually exclusive
• Cuban pan-ethnicity surprisingly high
• Mexican sense of American-ness high considering
  the share foreign born

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Forced Choice

• However, forced choice reveals more traditional
  patterns
• American-ness suffers among foreign-born but
  improves greatly across generations
• Puerto Ricans least Latino and most stand alone
  as a group
• Share of Mexicans choosing pan-ethnicity equals
  share choosing national origin
• We caution that this is an artificial choice, one
  not required of people in the real world
• Preference for pan-ethnicity still more than
  double what was found in LNPS 1989

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Latino Linked Fate
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Racial Identity and Latinos

• Racial complexity among Latinos long-understood
  but understudied
• Varies considerably by country of origin
• Varies with respect to SES
• Latinos do not fit well in the racialized
  categories in American society, as evidenced by
  the Census

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Racial Identification

• Self-identification Distribution
• 66.1 some other race
• 24.0 white
• .8 black
• Fully 51 of respondents say Latino/Hispanic is a
  different race!
• But race isnt the same as skin tone.

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Determinants of Racial Self-identification

• Racial identification doesnt obviously vary by
  citizenship or generation in US.
• Looking at national origin and state, Cubans
  (and Florida) are outliers (25 percentage point
  difference with six other major Latino ethnic
  groups).
• As previously documented, Cuban Americans are
  more likely than other Latinos to self-identify
  as white.
• But. Even Cuban response is a big shift from
  LNPS in 1989.Cuban Distribution white other
  1989 92.5 3.8 2006 51.1 42.7

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Skin-tone and its effects

• Plurality Answer in the mid-range of dark to
  light. Majority answered 4 or 5, i.e. light.
• Cuban Responses for skin-tone not significantly
  different from other groups
• 8.1 answering dark or very dark, compared
  to 10 of other groups.
• Skin-tone not obviously correlated to outcomes in
  employment, home ownership, education, income,
  thinking of self as American, experience of
  crime, or intermarriage.
• Most importantly, skin-tone not closely
  correlated with self-reported racial
  identification.

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Inter-group Relations

• How do Latinos view their material circumstances
  vis-à-vis whites and African-Americans?
• How do Latinos view their political interests
  vis-à-vis whites and African-Americans?
• Do Latinos believe their collective future is
  linked to that of African-Americans?

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Extent of Commonality among Latinos regarding
Jobs, Education and Income Attainment with
African Americans and Whites
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Extent of Commonality among Latinos regarding
their political situation with African Americans
and Whites
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How much does Latinos doing well depend on
African Americans doing well?
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Implications

• Preliminary findings challenge previous research
• Empirical observations distinct
• Theories must be reexamined
• Dimensions of community
• How is it manifested?
• Which factors drive sense of community
• Implications for American politics
• Effects of community sentiment on the development
  of the Latino future
• Effects of Latino community sentiment on American
  politics

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Public Release of Data Set

• Questionnaire available in the Fall of 2006 at
  the University of Washington Institute for the
  Study of Ethnicity, Race, and Sexuality (WISER)
  at http//depts.washington.edu/uwiser
• Release to Advisory Board in Spring 2007
• Conference for Assistant Professors and Graduate
  Students in AY 2007-8 selected from a call for
  papers to be issued Summer 07
• Release to general political science public at
  the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Political
  Science Association