South Florida's Immigrant Youth and Civic Engagement: Major Engagement: Minor Differences

The many faces of hermes: The quality of participation experiences and political attitudes of migrant and non-migrant youth

“…Existing studies tend to reveal a tendency for lower levels of civic and political participation among migrant youths (Vogel and Triandafyllidou 2005;Burns 2007;Paxton, Kunhovich and Hughes 2007;Norris 2002), not recognizing the existence of diversity in terms of contexts and forms of engagement (Stepick, Stepick and Labissiere 2008). Some years ago, Flinkel (1985, 87) suggested that ethnicity and gender could affect the way young people react to various modes of political action.…”

Perceived effectiveness of conventional, non-conventional and civic forms of participation among minority and majority youth

“…Compared with research on participation by ethnic majority individuals, research on participation by ethnic minority individuals has been relatively recent and is not extensive, but has revealed that such populations are no less active than majority populations although the forms of participation in which minority individuals engage may be different in that they may focus particularly on issues affecting the minority ethnic group (Jensen, 2010;Seif, 2010;Stepick & Stepick, 2002;Stepick, Stepick & Labissiere, 2008). These studies have shown the importance of education, language proficiency and income (Wu, 2003), social trust, social links and culture (Fennema & Tillie, 2001) and the prevailing political opportunity structure (Ahmad & Pinnock, 2007;Penninx, Martiniello & Vertovec, 2004) for participation by minority individuals.…”

“…Given the differences which are known to occur in the political and civic behaviours of minority vs. majority populations, and the previous finding that minority individuals tend to focus particularly on issues and forms of action relevant to their own minority ethnic group (Jensen, 2010;Seif, 2010;Stepick & Stepick, 2002;Stepick et al, 2008), it was expected that there would be differences in the judgements and reasoning of majority vs. minority participants, and that different judgements and reasons might be given by the members of different minority ethnic groups.…”

Placing Immigrant Incorporation: Identity, Trust, and Civic Engagement in Little Havana

“…This can be understood as being (or in the case of immigrants, becoming) part of a polity. The civic engagement that is being discussed here, then, can include formal political (electoral) participation, participation in established clubs and associations, as well as activities that occur through social networks that extend beyond one's family (Stepick et al, 2008;Hyman, 2002;Flanagan and Faaison, 2001;Flanagan and Sherrod, 1998). …”

“…When civic engagement is addressed as an aspect of immigrant incorporation (i.e., participation by members of immigrant populations) as it is in this dissertation, it overlaps with the traditional concerns of studies of immigrant incorporation, or assimilation. In general, civic engagement speaks to the process of being a part of or belonging to a community and participating in a polity; for immigrants, it is a question of becoming part of and gaining a place of belonging on various scales, including the nation-state -i.e., citizenship broadly put (Stepick et al, 2008;Reed-Danahay and Brettell, 2008;Alba and Nee, 2003;Joppke and Morawska, 2003;Joppke, 1999) Many of the same fears and concerns over the incorporation of immigrants vis-à-vis identity mentioned above surface also vis-à-vis immigrant civic and political incorporation. For example, Thomas Jefferson worried that immigrants and their ethnic descendants would not incorporate into the political mainstream.…”