Fear and voting: Evidence of a threat-opportunity model of citizenship acquisition among lower income immigrants of color beginning the naturalization process

Citizenship acquisition is viewed as the key indicator of political incorporation into US society and one motivated by the desire to formally engage in the civic realm, but we know naturalization is undertaken for many reasons. What we know less about is what motivates particular groups. Through surveying 74 lower socio-economic immigrants of color initiating the naturalization process at free citizenship clinics in the Boston, Massachusetts area in the northeastern United States in fall 2019, we examine the stated motivations to naturalize. The survey data reveal that the desire to engage politically is the most commonly cited primary motivation to naturalize (44%), followed by a desire to feel safer in the US (29%). When looking at primary and secondary motivations, 66% cite the ability to vote, and 59% cite the desire to feel safer. The combined motivations of security and political engagement suggest a “threat-opportunity” model of citizenship acquisition, whereby immigrants assess the external socio-political threats and seek to neutralize them through both naturalizing and then engaging politically to change the environment. At the same time, statistically significant relationships between motivations and ethno-racial group and country of origin suggest additional factors must be examined.

La reincorporación en clave del fortalecimiento de capacidades territoriales para la construcción de paz: una mirada desde la academia

Resumen: El artículo presenta la síntesis analítica de un proceso de diálogo entre la comunidad académica de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia; los firmantes y garantes del Acuerdo de Paz en La Habana, Cuba; y representantes de las FARC-EP y del Estado colombiano alrededor de con- versatorios, seguidos de un análisis del proceso de reincorporación para identificar sus alcances y limitaciones, encaminado a visualizar propuestas para su fortalecimiento en nueve ejes: compren- sión de la reincorporación; enfoque territorial en la implementación de la reincorporación; acceso a la tierra; nueva geografía de la reincorporación; seguridad en los territorios y protección de la vida de personas en proceso de reincorporación; proyectos productivos, asociatividad y vínculo con procesos comunitarios; fortalecimiento de capacidades de las personas firmantes del Acuerdo; incorporación política; y nuevas dinámicas familiares, comunitarias y colectivas. Reincorporation Process in the Sense of the Strengthening of Local Capacities for Peace- building: A view from the Academy Abstract: Through a dialogue between the academic community of the National University of Colombia, the signatories and guarantors of the Peace Agreement between the FARC-EP and the Co- lombian State signed in Havana, Cuba, an analysis of the reincorporation process was carried out in order to identify its scope and limitations. It aims at visualizing proposals for the strengthening of the agreement in nine axes: understanding of the reincorporation process; access to land; new geography of the reincorporation; security in the territories and protection of the lives of people in the process of reincorporation; productive projects, association and linkage to community pro- cesses; capacity-building of the signatories; political incorporation; and new family, community and collective dynamics. Keywords: Peace Agreement, Reincorporation Process, National University, Colombia.

Integration, cultural preservation and transnationalism through state supported immigrant organizations: a study of Sweden’s national ethnic associations

This paper explores the activities of Swedish state supported ethnic associations (most of which are immigrant organizations), thus shedding empirical light on how immigrants organize with the help of state support, both nationally and transnationally, in a welfare state context. The paper is based on a study of annual reports of 52 state supported national associations, representing more than a thousand (1046) local immigrant organizations, as well as 17 interviews with representatives of the said organizations. The findings indicate that the welfare state did not crowd out civil societal integration-promoting initiatives, but the state supported immigrant organizations came to occupy a niche in which they primarily offered complementary services with the aim of helping members to navigate the public welfare system. Neither did state support directly shape the content and direction of the political activities of the said organizations. However, the state support seems to have generated welfare channeling effects, in that more immigrant organizations came into existence than would have been the case in the absence of grants. The paper comes down in favor of the thesis that state support in some circumstances can promote political incorporation through immigrant organizations (with a few caveats). Finally, the paper proposes a hypothetical mechanism, homeland-oriented integration, for political incorporation through immigrant organization.

Religion and Politics in Contemporary Turkey

Religion and secularism have been central threads in Turkish politics throughout the history of the republic. This chapter focuses on three important aspects of the relationship between religion and politics in contemporary Turkey. First, it explores the political functions of the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), a government agency that has served as the primary means for the implementation of the religious policies of the Turkish state. Second, it investigates the relations between Islamic communities, political parties, and the state and argues that the distinction between official and unofficial Islam that has informed much of the work on the Turkish religious field must be strongly qualified. Finally, the author focuses on the trajectory of political Islam in Turkey, critically reviewing the literature on the rise, political incorporation, and authoritarian turn of Islamic parties. The conclusion emphasizes the need for studies investigating the impact of politics on religiosity in Turkish society.

Conceptualizing Black Political Disillusionment

This article explores the impact of increased political disillusion on support for a Black regime within a city shaped by Black empowerment. Building on findings from previous research on the 2010 mayoral election in New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA), we examine how the intersection of race and economic stratification influences political disillusion in a Black community. W.E.B. Du Bois’s double consciousness guides our examination of the Black political sphere relative to the election of Mayor Mitch Landrieu in 2010. We conduct a quantitative content analysis to illuminate the communicative elements resulting from Black empowerment and the political incorporation of Black residents of New Orleans in relation to political disillusion. All participants (n=22) in this sample are Black New Orleanians who were eligible to vote in the 2010 New Orleans mayoral election. Our findings convey a Black electorate both disillusioned by post-Katrina economic and political developments and yet pragmatic about the possibilities for greater success with a white mayor. Also, the findings suggest that government disillusion influences why Black voters are willing to elect a white mayor. Lastly, we assert that participants, while being seen as outsiders to their community, develop a second-sight. This second-sight is generated by intra-racial political considerations that take on cultural, as well as political, form.