School of Political Science, Public Affairs, Legal and Security Studies Faculty Publications

“Trump es la cabeza de todo esto”: rhetoric, racism, and the political socialization of Latinx immigrants

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-3-2025

Abstract

How do immigrants learn about the political system and power hierarchies of their countries of settlement under adverse conditions? As a consequence of their migration experiences, undocumented immigrants, and other persons with precarious immigration statuses, face barriers to accessing the customary agents of political socialization. The political socialization experience of immigrants in “new destination” locations is further complicated when they encounter a civic landscape with few supportive resources. This paper explores how Latina/o immigrants underwent a political socialization experience in a new destination state with a hostile context of reception. Analysis of interviews from the Immigrant Worker Project Survey (IWPS) of 2018, a community-based advocacy research project in northeast Ohio, reveals how Latina/o immigrants’ critical interpretations of racist elite rhetoric and experiences with discrimination from local residents serve as pathways to political learning and socialization in the USA. The results of the analysis provide implications for how Latinx immigrants of undocumented or other precarious immigration statuses exercise agency by refracting political rhetoric into the development of politicized group consciousness necessary for expressions of cultural citizenship.

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© 2025 Western Political Science Association.   https://www.tandfonline.com/share/HEPICCZG8ESRSIKAP3G9?target=10.1080/21565503.2025.2550474

DOI

10.1080/21565503.2025.2550474

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