Immigrants and Voting: How a Personal Relationship to Immigration Changes the Voting Behaviors of Americans

Authors

Mandi Eatough
Jordan Johnston

Keywords

voting, immigration, America

Abstract

In the last thirty years the number of immigrant voters, in the U.S. has increased from less than 5 percent of the population to more than 13 percent. With such an unprecedented increase in such a short amount of time, immigration reform has become one of the most significant and controversial issues in elections nationwide. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has faced consistently increasing levels of both legal and illegal immigration, an issue that is personally relevant to all immigrants regardless of legality (Tichenor 1994). This influx of immigrants has made immigration policy more important for politicians. Understanding the attitudes and opinions of voting immigrants is becoming increasingly important as the percentage of immigrant voters in the U.S. continues to grow.

Recommended Citation

Eatough, Mandi and Johnston, Jordan (2016) "Immigrants and Voting: How a Personal Relationship to Immigration Changes the Voting Behaviors of Americans," Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies: Vol. 33, Article 10.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sigma/vol33/iss1/10