The Immigrant Vote in New York City Is Topic of
Panel Discussion Wednesday, May 2
NEW
YORK, N.Y. - The New York Immigrant Coalition
and Barnard College will host a panel on "The
Changing Face of New York's Electorate: The Immigrant
Vote in 2000 and Beyond" from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.,
Wednesday, May 2, in the Julius Held Auditorium,
Room 304, of Barnard Hall.
The
event is a media briefing and panel discussion
on 2000 immigrant voter data and the growing political
power of New York's immigrant communities:
Results
from a first-ever New Americans Exit Poll,
conducted by Barnard College/Columbia University
on Election Day 2000, suggest that New York City's
foreign-born citizens make up a surprisingly large
portion of the City's electorate. Findings from
the study, drawn from surveys completed by 2,800
voters from all over the City selected at random
as they were leaving the polls, provide unprecedented
data on the political behavior and motivation
of New York's voters, particularly of first-generation
immigrant voters. Based on conservative estimates
of the 1990 Census, which will become outdated
once the Census 2000 foreign-born figures are
released this summer, the study indicates that
at least one in five New York City voters is foreign-born.
New York's eligible-to-vote immigrants make up
close to 40 percent of the city's foreign-born
population, with about 1 million people having
naturalized statewide in the 1990s. Tens of thousands
continue to become U.S. citizens and register
to vote in record numbers each year.
"This
is very exciting because it's the first time that
we have good data on the immigrant voter in New
York," said Dr. Lorraine Minnite, a political
scientist from Barnard College and the study's
principal researcher, who is an expert on New
York City urban and ethnic politics. She continued,
"The survey shows tremendous enthusiasm among
immigrant citizens to participate in the electoral
process, and it highlights that the expansion
of the city's electorate is being driven by first-time
voters, two-thirds of whom identified themselves
in the survey as foreign-born. It's obvious that
the increase in turnout from four years ago, from
57.5 percent of registered voters in 1996 to 66.7
percent in last year's election, is due to new
voters who are, in turn, overwhelmingly immigrant;
the study found that out of the 450,000 first-time
voters last November, 300,000 were first-generation
immigrant." Over 2 million people, a record number
in recent decades, cast ballots in New York City
in the 2000 national election.
Margie
McHugh, executive director of the New York Immigration
Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella advocacy and policy
organization for roughly 200 groups in New York
that work with immigrants and refugees, said that
the increase in the immigrant citizen vote was
a good thing for all New Yorkers.
"Immigrants
and their children are two-thirds of the City's
population. All New Yorkers stand to benefit as
immigrants become mobilized politically, because
it means a huge, new constituency holding elected
officials accountable for improving the schools,
expanding access to health care and affordable
housing, and countless other issues that are important
to the City's working families," McHugh stated.
"Immigrants have a strong and visible presence
in our City's life and this study shows that the
ballot box is no exception," she continued. "It
is clear from these numbers that New Americans
are full invested in the political process, now
the question is, how quickly will their voting
power turn into representation," McHugh said.
For some immigrant communities, particularly those
whose leaders have been deeply engaged in community
education and mobilization, the issue of political
representation is a top priority. For example,
Asian Americans have been a sizable group in New
York City for decades, but still don't have representation
in elective office beyond community school boards.
Christopher Kui, executive director of Asian Americans
for Equality, cheered the results of the exit
poll, saying they supported his community's arguments
for representation. Recognition of the important
role of Asian American voters and all immigrants
in city politics is long overdue. Asian Americans'
solid presence in at least three boroughs of the
city must translate into political power," he
continued. "It's encouraging to see so many Asian
Americans voting and running for City Council
in this year's elections, but that's only part
of what needs to happen. Immigrant voters are
here to stay, and, in order to honor the Census
2000 figures, the drawing of new political lines
in the redistricting process must respect our
communities," he said. The study found that 13
percent of the foreign-born in the sample self-identified
as Asian Americans. Another immigrant exit poll,
focused solely on Asian American voters, was conducted
by Asian American Legal Defense and Education
Fund last November in New York City.
The
results of the survey also show that, contrary
to popular belief, immigration policy is not the
only issue for immigrant voters, who overwhelmingly
expressed concerns about other issues, such as
health care access, public education, and housing.
Echoing these concerns, Saramaria Archila, executive
director of the Latin American Integration Center
in Queens, stated, "Many people think that immigrants
are concerned about politics back home. I think
that's what a lot of politicians would like to
think, because they still haven't accepted the
reality that their neighborhoods have changed
since the 1990 Census and that what may look to
them like the profile of a foreigner, is actually
the profile of a voter, possibly from a mixed
status family, who speaks two languages at home
and rents an apartment and who has children in
the local schools and participates in community
life." About 60% of the sample's foreign-born
voters identified health care access as a top
issue while 53% responded that public education
was one as well, suggesting that those issues
were part of the reason they voted in national
and local elections. in the sample, Latinos made
up about 26% of those voters who identified as
foreign-born.
The study also provided information on other immigrant
voters, who as whole come from 75 countries The
complete findings of the New Americans Exit
Poll will be released at the panel presentation,
where political experts and community advocates
will discuss the results and the implications
for upcoming elections in the next two years in
New York City and the redistricting process next
year.
Speakers
include:
.jpg)
