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THE POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF ASIAN AMERICANS IN THE EARLY 1990S BY PEI-TE LIEN A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIA/ERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILUVENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1995 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Being a "non-traditional" student in many senses, I am deeply indebted to all the faculty members, classmates, office staff, friends, and family members surrounding me who, at one time or another, have come to my help and contributed in different ways to the completion of this dissertation. My sincere appreciation goes first to my committee chairwoman. Dr. M. Margaret Conway, who, despite many unanticipated professional and personal burdens, never turned down any of my numerous requests for advice and support throughout the years. I thank her for believing in my ability when I was doubtful; I thank her for listening when I was confused; and I thank her for being patient and understanding when my writing was awkward and my sentences cumbersome. For similar reasons, I am very grateful to other members of my committee: Dr. Wayne Francis, Dr. Michael Martinez, Dr. James Button, and Dr. Leonard Tipton. Without the constant guidance and encouragement from these professors, this dissertation would not have been possible. The Pacific Cultural Foundation of Taipei, Taiwan, deserves high praise for providing the money necessary to purchase books and equipments, analyze data, and present results in a national conference. Special thanks go to Dolores Jenkins, reference librarian and a dear friend, for helping me locate and acquire useful survey data. I also want to thank Dr. Don Nakanishi of UCLA Asian American Studies Center as well as Rob Cioe, Jill Milbum, and Claudia Vaughn of the Los Angeles Times Poll for providing information of the datasets analyzed here. Thanks are extended to those mothers and friends-- Martha Samborski, Connie Ayers, Sharon Pence, Eileen Kao, Ruth Sheng, Maggie Runnels, Laurie Davis, and many many more--who sacrificed their leisure or otherwise productive time to volunteer in schools and in field trips so that I could go to school without much fear or guilt. Last but not least, my deepest appreciation goes to my parents, my brother and his family, and my two daring children, Albert and Alice, for their unfailing faith, love, and understanding. Ill TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii LIST OF TABLES vii ABSTRACT ix CHAPTERS 1 INTRODUCTION 1 The Current Status: A Two-tiered Picture. ... 1 The Puzzle and Some Macro Answers 9 An Alternative Approach: Studying the Individuals 15 Notes 18 2 THEORIES OF ETHNICITY AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION 20 Definition of Key Concepts 20 Ethnicity 20 Asian American (Pan)ethnicity 24 Political Participation 25 .... Models of Ethnic Political Participation 28 Ethnic Culture Model 28 Socioeconomic Model 30 Demographic Model 33 Socio-Psychological Model 38 Legal Constraint Model 40 Summary 43 Notes 44 3 METHODOLOGY 46 Studying Asian American Politics 46 The Need for Survey Data 47 .... Limitations of Secondary Survey Analysis 49 Data 50 Method 53 Operational Definitions 54 Political Participation 54 (Pan)ethnicity--Function of Objective Background 56 (Pan)ethnicity--Function of Subjective Factors. 57 The Structures of Panethnicity 60 Summary 65 Notes 66 4 THE POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF ASIAN AMERICANS IN A MULTI-ETHNIC SETTING: RESULTS OF THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SURVEY 68 Comparing Asian American to Other Ethnic Groups in the Aggregate 68 Explaining Asian Participation in a Conparative Perspective 76 Sorting Out Sources of Influence: Comparatively and Internally 82 Summary 97 Notes 98 5 ANOTHER LOOK OF ASIAN AMERICAN ETHNICITY: I.N.TE.G.RATING KOREAN IMMIGRANTS IN LOS ANGELES, 1992 99 Preliminary Observations from Sumoriary Statistics. 106 ... The Structure of Korean Immigrant Ethnicity 112 .... Results from Multiple Regression Analysis 116 Summary 120 Notes 121 6 DOES (UNDER-) PARTICIPATION MATTER? 123 ... The Meaning of Participation Within Asians 127 The Meaning of Asian Participation in a Comparative Perspective 137 Summary 142 Notes 145 7 CONCLUSION 147 Notes 162 APPENDICES A VOTING AND REGISTRATION IN THE ELECTION OF NOVEMBER 1992 163 B A COMPARISON OF SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF ASIAN AMERICANS FROM FOUR SOURCES 164 C A COMPARISON OF SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF KOREAN AMERICANS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY TO THE 1990 CENSUS 165 D QUESTION WORDING FOR THE SURVEYS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIANS AND OF KOREANS IN LOS ANGELES 166 . . E THE KOREAN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE ON INTER-GROUP RELATIONS IN LOS ANGELES, FEBRUARY-MARCH 1992. 172 REFERENCES 174 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 187 VI 1 LIST OF TABLiES Table 3-1 Principal Component Analysis of Ethnicity Among Citizens and All Respondents in the Southern California Survey 62 3-2 Principal Component Analysis of Ethnicity Among Asian American Citizens in the Southern California Survey 63 3-3 Principal Component Analysis of Ethnicity Among All Asian Respondents in the Southern California Survey 64 4-1 Percentage Distributions of Political Participation and Its Possible Causes Across Ethnic Groups in Southern California, 1993 69 4-2 Logistic Regression Estimations of Citizens' Registration and Voting Participation in Southern California, 1993 77 4-3 Logistic Regression Estimations of Participation Other Than Voting in Southern California, 1993 78 4-4 Multiple Regression Estimations of Participation Other Than Voting in Southern California, 1993 79 4-5 Logistic Regression Estimations of Asian American Citizens' Registration and Voting Participation in Southern California, 1993 86 4-6 Logistic Regression Estimations of Asian American Participation Other Than Voting in Southern California, 1993 87 4-7 Multiple Regression Estimations of Asian American Participation Other Than Voting in Southern California, 1993 89 5-1 Percentage Distributions of Political Participation and Its Possible Causes Among Koreans in Los Angeles, 1992 101 VI 5-2 Principal Conponent Analysis of Ethnicity Among Koreans in Los Angeles, 1992 113 5-3 Multiple Regression Estimations of the Political Participation of Koreans in Los Angeles, 1992. 117 . . 5-4 A Simplified Multiple Regression Model of the Political Participation of Koreans in Los Angeles, 1992 122 6-1 Percentage Differences Between Asian American Participants and Nonparticipants in terms of Sociodemographic Background 128 6-2 Percentage Differences Between Asian American Participants and Nonparticipants in terms of Minority Group Experience and Information Level 131 6-3 Percentage Differences Between Asian American Participants and Nonparticipants in terms of Policy Preferences and Other Political Orientations 134 . . . 6-4 Percentage Difference Between Voters and Nonvoters in terms of Policy and Other Orientations Across Four Ethnic Groups 138 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy THE POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF ASIAN AMERICANS IN THE EARLY 1990S By Pei-te Lien May 1995 Chairperson: M. Margaret Conway Major Department: Political Science Defying the image of success, the participation of Asian Americans in the U.S. electoral process is extremely limited. What explains the participation patterns of individuals with Asian ancestry in voting and election- related activities other than voting? Using two sets of recent survey data collected in southern California, the study examines the meanings of being Asian in political participation at three levels--across panethnic groups, inside the multi-ethnic Asian group, and within a specific Asian nationality group. The results confirm previous findings that, compared to other major ethnic groups, Asian ethnicity as indicated by objective culture background depresses participation. Despite controls over several sets of factors commonly related to the political participation of mainstream and minority groups, being Asian means less ix politically active. Yet, within the Asian sample, one's national origin usually has no independent inpact on the likelihood or extent of participation. When the meaning of being Asian is measured with subjective socio-psychological factors underlying the construction of ethnic identity, the results reveal a different dimension of the relationship between ethnicity and political participation. The concept of ethnicity cast either at the panethnic or specific nationality group level, first of all, involves a multi-faceted process that can be manifested in such components as group consciousness, cultural and social integration, and ethnic attachment. Second, being more identified with the panethnic or specific Asian group can increase participation. Although insufficient to compensate for the participation disparity between Asians and Anglo whites, indicators of subjective identity are most useful of all models to explain turnout or other participation among Asians. Third, for a group of foreign-bom Korean Americans, however, length of stay best predicts political integration. For Koreans, the different impact of being a victim of hate crimes in the two surveys conducted before and after the Rodney King riot also highlights the importance of socio-political context in shaping the impact of ethnicity on participation. The study concludes by discussing the meaning of voting participation for Asians as well as the roles of political