will not politically assimilate and will consistently vote for bigger government for generations.1 Political survey data suggest that this fear is unwarranted, as the political differences between immigrants and native-born Americans are small and, in most cases, so small that they are statistically insignificant. In the cases where the differences are significant, the descendants of immigrants rapidly assimilate into America’s political culture by adopting mainstream ideologies, political party identifications, and policy positions held by longer-settled Americans. The policy and political views of immigrants and their descendants are mostly indistinguishable from Americans whose families have been here for at least four generations. As a result of these small differences in opinion and the subsequent rapid assimilation of immigrants, they and their descendants are unlikely to alter America’s aggregate political attitudes.
This analysis is based on responses from the nationwide General Social Survey (GSS), a large biennial in-person survey of the demographic characteristics and attitudes of Americans that has been conducted since 1972.2 The GSS records the respondent’s political party identification, ideological positions, and opinions on the spending levels of various government programs as well as the place of birth of the respondents, their parents, and their grandparents. The political opinions of the immigrants and their descendants can be measured directly in the GSS, which produces more accurate results than other polling methods.3 The first-, second-, third-, and fourth-generation or greater categories are defined in Table 1.
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