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 Editorials | At Issue | April 2006 
Mexicans in U.S. Tuned in to Politics
 Amber Scott - journalandcourier.com
| | James McCann, a Purdue University associate professor in political science, talks with a group of students about surveying expatriate Mexicans on whether they will or will not vote in the upcoming national elections. (Tom Leininger/Journal and Courier) |
Rosa Montoya, owner of A Mexican Bakery in Lafayette, says she personally has not been following Mexico's election process because she is too busy.
And she says she hasn't really heard anyone else in the Mexican community discuss the July 2 election either. She also said it seems as if the immigrant community is paying too much attention to what's going on locally and not enough back in their native country.
Still, Montoya says she is interested to learn who will replace Vicente Fox as her native country's next president.
That fits in with some of the findings of a Purdue University political science class studying political behaviors in the United States and Mexico.
Although they live in the United States, many Mexican immigrants have not forgotten about the politics of their homeland, says James McCann, an associate professor of political science. In fact, he said, many Mexicans living here are as attentive to Mexican politics as Mexicans living in Mexico.
McCann teaches a political science class at Purdue, "Mexican Expatriates in the 'Crossroads of America.'" The class requires students to collect survey data on Mexican immigrants' political thoughts.
Taught several months before the first Mexican presidential election that will allow Mexicans living in the United States to cast an absentee ballot, many of the survey questions deal with that issue.
McCann estimated about 60,000 Mexican immigrants have solicited absentee ballots for the July 2 election, out of a potential 4 million Mexicans living in the United States.
He attributed this lack of participation to the fact that the voting is all postal-based, and to send solicited mail to Mexico would cost about $7. Also, the deadline to register for an absentee ballot was in January.
Perhaps if the voting process was more accessible to immigrants, more people would be willing to vote, said Caitlin Fitzpatrick, a senior communication and Spanish double-major and student in the class.
Montoya, a Lafayette resident born in Mexico City, agrees. She says the community has not received enough information to facilitate the voting process.
"It's probably part of the problem," she said about the lack of information. "You would have to pay close attention to the news, and we don't have a number to call or anything."
Nick Martin, a senior industrial engineering major and also McCann's student, said that by reading over the survey responses, the students are able to get a better understanding and insight as to where the immigrants are coming from.
The 10 students in the class have brought back results that McCann says are surprising.
For example, many immigrants are fully knowledgeable about what's going on in Mexico, and attention that Mexican immigrants pay to their own politics does not lessen their civic duty to the United States, he said.
When the class is through, McCann said he plans on compiling the statistics and findings into a "policy-maker friendly report," and will distribute it to the Mexican Consulate in Indianapolis and also to the Mexican government. He also will eventually publish his findings for academia. |
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