The Potential of Immigrants to Exert Political Influence
on Their Host Countries
Abstract:
This research investigates what factors allow for immigrant communities to exert political influence on their host countries and whether these factors are replicable for new immigrant groups. Five factors are identified as important for immigrant communities exerting political influence. These factors are based on historical examples of immigrant communities and their politics. These factors include, the historical relationship between the host and home country of an immigrant population, the socio-economic class of the immigrant group, the time spent in the country by the immigrant group including generations born in the host country, the political participation of the immigrant group, as well as the electoral system of the host country. Cuban immigrants are used as an example of a group that has successfully exerted political influence in the United States and positively fulfilled the five factors listed. This is compared to the contemporary example Venezuelan immigrants in the United States. Overall, evidence suggests that they are not comparable as certain factors are not as favorable for the contemporary Venezuelan community as they were for the Cuban American community at the time of their large movement to the United States in the decade following Castro’s rise in the 1960’s.