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Political Power of Immigrants and Their Children on the Rise

The growing clout of a previously unidentified yet pivotal group of voters –naturalized immigrants and the U.S.-born children of immigrants – has become increasingly important to the outcome of elections at the federal, state, and local level; say a new report by the Immigration Policy Center, a Carnegie Corporation grantee.

Despite their increased power and numbers, the effect of so-called “New Americans” on the 2008 vote and their impact on future elections has been almost entirely overlooked by elections analysts, say the report’s authors

The report, The New American Electorate: The Growing Political Power of Immigrants and Their Children, suggests that as naturalized citizens and their families grow into sizable portions of the electorate, political candidates who fail to recognize the growing importance of New American voters increasingly undermine their own campaigns.

Carnegie Corporation of New York funds grantees whose work helps to accelerate the integration of immigrants into American society through civic education, creating pathways to citizenship and increasing tolerance of foreign born U.S. residents through education about their cultures.