The Movement for Immigrant Voting Rights: Journey, Victories, Backlash & Future
Immigrant voting has long existed in the United States and was recently affirmed with the implementation of noncitizen voting in San Francisco. Understanding the history around immigrant voting rights and current initiatives to revitalize immigrant voting dispels the false notion that citizenship is required to cast a ballot in the United States.
In October, the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative invited speakers to discuss immigrant voting rights from both an academic and activist perspective. The event was moderated by BIMI’s faculty director, Professor Irene Bloemraad.
The first panelist, Professor Eric Shickler, Co-Faculty Director from the Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS), discussed the findings from IGS’s 2023 poll on Californian’s public opinions about non-citizen voting. IGS found that there are widespread concerns in California about unequal voter participation and that there is substantial support — particularly among Latinx, AAPI, and young people — for non-citizen voting in school board elections.
Professor Kathleen Coll, Associate Professor of Politics at University of San Francisco, explained that noncitizen voting has long existed in the US, but immigrants’ right to vote was eliminated during periods of nativism. The Civil Rights Movement helped pave the way for immigrant voting today by eliminating barriers to voting.
Annette Wong, Managing Director of Programs at Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), discussed the battle for noncitizen voting rights in San Francisco and its future throughout California. In November 2016, voters passed Proposition N which allows non-citizens parents of school-aged children to vote in School Board elections. Since then, CAA and other local organizations formed the Immigrant Parent Voting Collaborative (IPVC) to spread the word about noncitizen voting among immigrant communities in San Francisco.
Professor Stephanie Zonszein, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley shared the preliminary results from her research, explaining that community-centered ethnic media organizations can play a strong role in political education and mobilizing immigrants to vote.
The panelists all spoke about the changing tide of public opinions around immigrant voting. Prof. Coll reminded panelists that at various points until the 1920s, white male immigrants from Europe were allowed to vote in the United States, regardless of their citizenship; noncitizen voting was subsequently eliminated due to racism and xenophobia. The IGS’s poll on public opinions is optimistic about the future of immigrant voting in California, since there is broad support for immigrant voting among younger generations.
The Immigrant Voting Collaborative has created a document of responses to common objections to immigrant voting; it is a helpful tool to challenge the negative perception around noncitizen voting.
Speakers also noted the challenges ahead, since the fight for immigrant voting does not end when the right to vote has been secured. Wong shared that many immigrants, especially those who are undocumented, remain wary of the dangers that registration can pose on their safety and on their future access to residency and citizenship. One potential pathway to explore, as Prof. Zonszein explained, is community-centered ethnic media organizations, which provide crucial information that can influence political engagement. Another challenge is the breadth of voting rights; for now, San Francisco has secured the right to vote for immigrants in school board elections, which still leaves room to expand immigrant voting to local and state elections.
The event highlighted the importance of collaboration for the future of the immigrant rights movement. Community organizations are partnering at the local and state level to learn from each other and expand the right to vote for noncitizens in various municipalities. Collaborations between community organizations and community-centered media organizations have a lot of potential to mobilize noncitizens for voting.
A key partnership in the immigrant rights movement is between activists and academics; researchers have the ability to document the battles of community organizers and measure the impact of public opinion and civic participation, which is crucial to this movement!
If you would like to read more about the movement for immigrant voting rights in San Francisco, we encourage you to check out CAA’s report, Immigrant Voting and the Movement for Inclusion in San Francisco
To get involved in the movement and hear about what is happening in your city, visit the Immigrant Voting Rights website.
Thank you to our event co-sponsors: Institute of Governmental Studies, Asian American Research Center, Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, Center for the Study of Law and Society, Center for Race & Gender, and Othering and Belonging Institute.
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