Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-8v9h9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-03-27T10:47:17.282Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Fluctuations of immigration salience: testing alternative explanations of policy salience among US Latinos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2023

Barbara Gomez-Aguinaga*
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, USA
Jason L. Morín
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, California State University, Northridge, USA
Gabriel R. Sanchez
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of New Mexico, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: bga@stanford.edu

Abstract

What makes immigration a salient issue among Latinos? We focus on immigration – one of the most pressing issues facing the United States (US) – and evaluate the factors that motivate immigration salience among Latinos over several election cycles. Although immigration policy has been linked with the Latino electorate over the period of our study due to high foreign-born rates and mixed-status families within this community, immigration policy has actually not been the dominant issue for the majority of Latino voters over this time period. Using survey responses from the 2008, 2012 and 2016 elections, we test multiple theories of issue salience by exploring social, political and individual determinants of policy salience among Latino voters. We find that in addition to nativity, consumption of ethnic media and group identity are associated with reporting immigration as a salient issue. These findings provide a valuable addition to literature of public opinion on immigration and the origins of policy issue salience among ethno-racial minorities in the US.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Supplementary material: Link

Gomez-Aguinaga et al. Dataset

Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Gomez-Aguinaga et al. supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Gomez-Aguinaga et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 144.2 KB