Poster #31 - Meta-Analysis on the Relation between Acculturation and Civic Engagement Amongst Immigrants

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

Civic engagement is a vital component of democratic participation for immigrants (Flanagan & Levine, 2010; Philippe et al., 2022). With over 280 million immigrants world-wide, researchers are increasingly exploring how immigrants are involved in political movements across diverse contexts (Jensen & Laplante, 2015; McAuliffe & Triandafyllidou, 2021). Across immigrant populations, cultural heritage (Chan & Latzman, 2015), intergenerational family connections (Bloemraad & Trost, 2008), and social justice beliefs (Wray-Lake et al., 2015) have been shown to be related to a range of civic activities. However, there have been divergent findings amongst the relation between different acculturation experiences and civic engagement. For example, some studies found higher rates of engagement amongst first-generation immigrants (Wray-Lake et al., 2015) and others found similar patterns between generations (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2015). While there have been prior meta-analytic reviews on civic engagement (see Bowman, 2011; Skoric et al., 2016), there has been no systematic review looking at the relation between acculturation and civic engagement with a specific focus on methodological and demographic moderators. We have addressed this research gap by conducting a meta-analytic review.

Specifically, we are conceptualizing civic engagement as incorporating both political- and community-level involvement while also analyzing both latent and manifest participation (Kim & Anmå, 2012). This allows us to explore how migrants may still be engaged through awareness and intent despite policy barriers that restrict abilities to participate (e.g., voting restrictions; see Jensen & Flanagan, 2008). This study also encompasses multiple types of immigrants (including refugees and undocumented immigrants) across diverse backgrounds in international contexts because the legal challenges involved in migration have been found to influence levels of engagement amongst different populations (see Suárez-Orozco et al., 2015).

To obtain a broad perspective on civic engagement patterns, we searched through PsycNET, Web of Science, ERIC, and ProQuest using the following search term: ((generation* or acculturation* or paradox) and (immigrant* or immigration*)) AND ((volunteer* or activis* or protest*) or (vot*) or (political*) or (civic*) or (“community engagement” or “community involvement” or “community participation”) or (“social change”)).

This search yielded 3,428 unique studies (both journal articles and dissertations). These abstracts were screened for inclusion based on 1) a measure of acculturation, 2) a measure of civic engagement, 3) publication in English, 4) usage of quantitative data, 5) a distinct migrant sample, and 6) data the level of the individual (i.e., individual participants asked about their own engagement). This screening led to 240 studies which met the criteria. These studies will be analyzed for the average effect size on the relation between acculturation and civic engagement through both fixed effects models and random effects models in SPSS and the Comprehensive Meta Analysis (CMA) software. We will also follow up with moderation analysis of demographic (e.g., age at immigration) and methodological (e.g., type of civic engagement measure) characteristics. Detailed results and implications will be discussed at the poster session.

Authors

• Selcuk R. Sirin, New York University

• Scott Z. Brauer, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Elysia Choi, New York University