Karthick Ramakrishnan, an associate professor of political science at UC Riverside, has

Karthick Ramakrishnan, an associate professor of political science at UC Riverside, has co-authored a new book that speaks about the Asian American community’s involvement in the political world. Ramakrishnan believes that, despite the growth rate and success enjoyed by the Asian American community, the group seems to be overlooked as a political constituency. The book seeks to address this trend by focusing solely on groups of
Asian heritage living in the United States.

The new book, titled “Asian American Political Participation: Emerging Constituents and Their Political Identities,” is one of the most wide-ranging studies of Asian American political behavior to date. The data derived from the book is based upon a
multilingual 2008 Asian American Survey of more than 5,000 groups, including: Chinese,
Vietnamese, Indian, Filipino, Korean and Japanese Americans. The book examines group voting behavior, patterns of political donations, involvement in community organizing and political protests. The book also aims to demonstrate why some groups choose to participate in political activities while others do not, why certain civil activities are seen as more desirable compared to others and why Asian American socioeconomic advantages have not led to an enlarged political influence thus far.

In an article by the UC Riverside Newsroom, Ramakrishnan highlighted some of
the most interesting findings. “The very clear preference for the Democratic Party among party identifiers is something that isn’t well known. The high level of support for universal
health care, even among Vietnamese Americans who are Republican identifiers, was surprising. Our survey shows that even those Asian Americans who are very active in politics are not getting many requests to volunteer or donate by the main political parties and candidates. This is a missed opportunity for the political system,” stated Ramakrishnan.

The findings tend to relate group behavior with other factors such as average level of education and income. Data gathered from the surveys demonstrates that native-born Asian Americans have higher rates of voting and political contributions compared to
immigrant Asian Americans. However, when it comes to the topic of protest activity, immigrant Asian Americans have shown to have maintained higher connections abroad.

Other findings include the trend that Vietnamese Americans vote and engage in political protest more than any other group, even though they have the lowest levels of education and income.

http://www.highlandernews.org/news/ucr-professor-sheds-light-on-political-behavior-of-asian-americans-1.2707026#.TtEirPLugWD