Physically Here, Mentally There? A Study of Transnational Links and Civic Engagement Among Migrants in the USA

This paper considers immigrant engagement with the politics of their country of residence (COR) as a function of their relationships with their countries of origin (COO). I present two arguments. Firstly, I consider that engagement with the COO can enhance engagement with the COR to the extent that such engagement is a product of political socialization that is transferable across country contexts. Alternatively, engagement with the COO may disincentivize engagement with the COR by reducing the cognitive and material resources necessary for such engagement. To explore these possibilities, I use a unique set of survey questions from the 2020 Collaborate Multiethnic Postelection Study to ask whether engagement with the politics of the country of origin makes foreign-born American residents more or less likely to participate in American civic and political activities. Using logit and ordered logit models with multiple specifications, I find that COO engagement is negatively associated with formal participation in COR politics but positively associated with COR civic engagement. This suggests that political socialization does not translate effectively across countries and that migrants may have different political goals than nonimmigrant cohorts. I consider these results as pathways for further research.