This dissertation is a collection of three essays examining the relationship between immigrant political rhetoric and identity among Latinos in the United States. To achieve this task, this study uses empirical evidence from a national survey and original data collected from experiments in New York City and Los Angeles. The first essay identifies three forms of Latino identity most relevant to political decision-making: national origin, pan-ethnic, and American. I find that levels of acculturation as defined by immigrant status and English language strongly predict American identification. Latino identities inform support on immigrant issues. Latinos with higher perceptions of national origin and pan-ethnic interests are more pro-immigrant on issues pertaining to the rights of undocumented immigrants. The second essay investigates how exposure to explicit and implicit cues within anti-immigrant rhetoric shape the voting decisions of non-Mexican Latino groups in New York City. I test the effects of pan-ethnic, nationality-based, and counter-stereotypical political appeals on candidate support. I find that nationality-based appeals directly or indirectly targeting Mexican immigrants do not activate identity in vote choice, only explicit, pan-ethnic cues implicating all Latino immigrants activate "Latino" group interests in voting decisions. The third essay tests whether political processes of collective identity observed among non-Mexicans in New York City are generalizable to Mexican and non-Mexicans in Border States. Conversely, I find that only nationality-based political appeals targeting Mexicans activate Mexican group interests in vote choice. These results do not extend to non-Mexicans. Anti-immigrant messages did not activate identity in voting. Overall, these findings suggest that identity activation in the context of threat may work differently for Mexican and non-Mexican Latino groups in the United States.

Although Asian Americans have the highest growth rate, their electoral participation does not commensurate with their numerical strength. This research explores the causes of Asian Americans' low level of electoral participation. I argue that acculturation presents barriers for Asian Americans to exert their political power. This project combined a survey-based experiment on and in-depth interviews with Asian Americans in Austin, in addition to existing data (CPS and the PNAAPS). I first estimate the effects of socioeconomic status on turnout across racial and ethnic groups. The results demonstrate that while education and income have limited effects on Asian American turnout at the aggregate level, their positive influence on turnout still holds for Asian Americans at the individual level, though the effect varies by nativity. Furthermore, education and income effects on turnout are greatest among Whites. The differences of these effects between Whites and Asians are especially prominent among the higher socioeconomic stratum. I next find that acculturation experiences, group connectedness, and hybrid identity elevate levels of turnout among Asian Americans. Those who are more residentially stable and sense shared Asian culture are more likely to vote, while the Asian-born are less likely to vote. In addition, experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination are likely to turn Asians away from their American-ness, while shared cultural commonality helps to foster the "Asian American" identity. Last, the experiment results suggest that a lack of ethnic cues for Asian Americans may have contributed to their low turnout rates: Asian American voters value descriptive representation, and ethnic cues effectively operate among them, especially the less politically engaged. While voters' support for a coethnic candidate is evident in the study, the evidence of their cross- or pan-ethnic support is limited. The project provides a window into the political incorporation of immigrant populations. The study speaks to the literature on political participation, racial/ethnic politics and identity politics. In addition, the findings broaden our understanding of minority political behavior, and the process by which immigrant populations incorporate into American political system, a promise of democratic representation. / text

​Does political information lower the incidence of ethnic voting in Africa? Even though a significant amount of research has been dedicated to African ethnic voting behaviour,​not much capacity has been dedicated to studying the function of ethnic cues as informational shortcuts. Considering voters use cognitive shortcuts like party affiliations or ideology when making decisions, it is also plausible that voters in elections characterized by ethnic voting use demographic cues in lieu of more comprehensive information. The aim of this thesis was therefore to contribute to the existing research on how informational context affects ethnicity as a determinant for voting behaviour, testing a theory developed by Conroy-Krutz suggesting more political information reduces the incidence of ethnic voting. Using Afrobarometer survey data from 2016-2018, regression analysis was conducted measuring the effects of access to and consumption of political information on ethnic voting in Kenya. The results are ambiguous and do not lend support to the theory in its current form, but instead suggests that what kind of political information and how it is perceived might affect the relationship with ethnic voting. Another possibility is that the content of the political information, bringing about factors like media coverage and press freedom, should be accounted into the model. More research is needed to dismiss or develop the theory, and so this thesis opens up for more research to be made concerning our understanding on the effects of political information on ethnic voting behavior.