(Page 1 of 13) - Taking the Pulse of Asian Political Participation in Chicago authored by Slessarev-Jamir, Helene.

Taking the Pulse of Asian Political Participation in Chicago

SungYeon Choi and Helene Slessarev-Jamir

For presentation at the American Political Science Association annual meeting, Sept. 1 – 4, 2005,

Washington DC.

Interest in Asian voting behavior intensified during the last two Presidential elections, as
candidates and party organizations trolled for new voters among hither-to-fore untapped
segments of the population. This has opened up new opportunities for Asian American
communities across the nation to build political capital. During the November 2004
elections there were efforts across the country seeking to mobilize Asian American votes.
This paper describes those efforts in Chicago where various ethnic organizations worked
to get out the Asian American vote. Using poll monitors’ observations and exit poll
results from Chinatown, as well as a second more varied group of Asians on the city’s
northside and north suburbs we have sought to shed more light the particularities of Asian
political opinions. We were interested in assessing the extent to which Chicago’s Asians
manifest distinctive political opinion and political opinion since earlier research would
suggest that Chicago’s political machine would seek to exert considerable influence over
Asian voters in wards that they control.

According to the data from the Pilot National Asian American Political Survey analyzed
by Lien, Collet, Wong, and Ramakrishnan, Chinese Americans’ political participation is
quite low. (Lien, 2001, 627). They found that only 6 percent of Chinese voters contacted
any law-maker about an issue, 7 percent had attended a political rally or public forum,
and only 8 percent had donated money to a candidate. Thirty-two percent of their sample
self-identifies as Democrats, an equal percentage claimed no affiliation, and 8 percent
reported to be Republicans. Since the exit polling survey done in Chicago asked voters
the identical questions, we have the opportunity to examine how Chicago’s Chinese
American might vary from the national norm in their political opinions and voting
behavior.

Chicago’s Asian American Voting Patterns

While much of the existing literature on Asian voting patterns has focused on the larger
Asian communities in California there have been a few studies of Asian political
participation in Chicago. Chicago’s Asian population is relatively small; only 377,739 in
2000 compared to 3,682,975 Asians living in California. Chicago’s Asian population
consists of a higher percentage of new immigrants with 86% of the SMSA’s Asians being
foreign born compared to 79 percent of Asians living in California. Furthermore, 44
percent of Chicago’s Asian population arrived between 1990 and 2000 while only 38
percent of California’s Asians arrived within that decade. (US Census, 2000, Summary
File 4) On the other hand, among those Asians who entered the US since 1990, only 17
percent have become citizens in Chicago while 23 percent have been naturalized in
California. This differential may be indicative of the greater degree of political awareness
and mobilization among all Asians in California than in Chicago. However, among
Chicago’s immigrants, Asians who came after 1990 had the second highest percentage of
naturalized citizens, second only to Europeans. In fact, numerically, more Asians who