Why some first-gen immigrant groups in cities politically conservative vs. left?
 

Some "new immigrant" groups are famously more conservative than older/more assimilated immigrant groups -- for example Israeli/Orthodox Jews compared to typical American Jews. Another example is mainland Chinese immigrants that are more conservative than earlier Chinese immigrants (e.g. from decades prior).

But that's not always the case. There are some cases where the new immigrant groups are more left-leaning than established ones. For instance, I wouldn't be surprised if a recent Italian immigrant was more left-leaning than older, suburban Italian Americans who naturalized (many which are probably seniors). I think some Asian Americans (e.g. Indian, Bangladeshi immigrants in NYC) also have new immigrant waves be more left-leaning.

Is this a function of recency of immigration (e.g. as time goes on the immigrant picks up the norms of the host society they surround themselves with -- those living in liberal cities become more liberal, those living in conservative suburbs more conservative?)

Is it more about homeland politics. They vote based on what relations with their old country are/were -- e.g. Israel, Cuba, China, India etc.?

Is it an age/socio-economic thing -- poor or younger immigrants become more left-leaning, richer, older ones more right-leaning?

Maybe those who immigrate young (e.g. someone who came to the US or Canada or the UK as a kid/teen are more left-leaning than adult immigrants who are socially conservative due to upbringing in the old country)?

Is it about racial minority status and racialization? Immigrants that are more stereotyped or racialized vote Democratic in the US because they become more aware of the image that that's the party of "minorities"? Would then, say African immigrants be more left-leaning than European immigrants? But in many cases, immigrants don't always socialize/intermingle with the same peer groups as their native-born counterparts.

Or would immigration status in and of itself not be that big of a factor vs. all the other ones -- urban/rural, region/ race/ethnicity, gender, education, socio-economic status etc.

This is not going to end well...

For the mods consideration, I respectfully request this thread be moved to the current events shithole.

let me preface by saying that authoritarian regimes are fucking bad.

next you have global capitalism literally and financially waging war on leftist regimes that resist the attachment of the matrix extraction tubes...resistance to signing over national assets and resources to global banking structures. to be sure, you pay a heavy price if you resist this in the third world. of course bad leftist regimes double down on bad things in this shitty vacuuum. just a guess but bad right wing regimes more often play ball and participate in the looting of assets in a more agreeable way to global and american structures - see saddam hussein for decades...

its been said that the third world war already happened. it was literally waged against the third world either overtly or covertly - see vietnam, syria, iraq, north korea, guatamala, chile, etc...

this all has a particular influence on people...

Immigrants value hard work , are often small business owners , and can see that living in America is a lottery ticket offering many possibilities to gain wealth and education

No surprise that they are conservative , which these days means what the Democratic Party in 1995 used to believe

this too, they are the true believers.

I think it's more religious based. In my experience immigrants value strong schools, safety nets, etc. they just don't want to be gouged/have an overbearing government like most everyone else.

U.S. Orthodox Jews are overwhelmingly native-born. Not immigrants. Their conservatism should be self-evident. There were a bunch who came over from middle eastern states in the postwar era, but that era is done (really the 1979 Persian diaspora was the last).

I don't think U.S. Israelis lean conservative. They're generally secular and trying to get away from Israeli religiosity or military service. Half the Israelis I meet in NY came to avoid the draft. A ton are undocumented and often moneyed, here only for their 20's. If they don't get papers or bigtime success here, they go home and settle down with a nice Jewish girl, having sown their wanderlust and wild oats.

It's important to keep in mind that the politics of immigrant groups in their home countries have little to do with the politics they end up with in their new countries.

For example, most Indian immigrants to the U.S. are high-caste Hindus who would likely be BJP supporters at home (or at least modestly nationalist) and they are moderate to liberal Democrats in the U.S. Or, if they move to Canada or the UK, they might become Tories. You can't really determine it because the "sorting" has more to do with the politics of the country in question than the politics of the home nation.

Within the U.S., there were the following dynamics, IIRC:

Muslims: Were somewhat GOP-leaning prior to September 11th, due to social conservatism. Basically every single Muslim immigrant group is now heavily Democratic leaning.

Latinos: Most Latino immigrants have traditionally leaned Democratic pretty heavily, except for of course Cubans, who were heavily GOP. However, second/third generation Cubans are way less conservative than their parents. Being a protestant Latino (most are Pentecostal) makes you considerably more likely to be GOP-leaning than a Catholic Latino.

Asian immigrants: Prior to around 1990 or so Asian-Americans leaned GOP, now they are pretty heavily Democratic. Traditionally the most GOP-leaning groups have been Vietnamese, Filipinos, and Koreans. What these groups have in common is anti-Communism (except for Filipinos) along with high levels of Christianity (a disproportionate number of Vietnamese-Americans are Catholic, as are most Filipinos, and most Korean-Americans are evangelical Protestants). Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Indian-Americans are much more heavily Democratic.

American Jews are overwhelmingly Democratic, Canadian Jews lean Liberal, British Jews Tory.

They're overwhelmingly not immigrants - but note that American Jews are overwhelmingly Democratic, Canadian Jews lean Liberal, British Jews Tory.

A lot of small business owners are immigrants. The converse is not true...

In Canada, Blacks and South Asians vote for the Liberals overwhelmingly, while the Chinese community is trending towards the Conservatives.

Not really current events though. :shrug: Skybar?

Works for me. I was thibking politics = current events, but Skybat is more appropriate.