Convergence Across Difference: Understanding the Political Ties That Bind with the 2016 National Asian American Survey

Increased diversity has accompanied dramatic demographic growth of the Asian American population in recent years. If the common characteristic of Asian Americans is a diversity of origins, languages, resources, and cultural traits, what holds this group together, particularly in the political sphere? The model minority stereotype suggests that Asian Americans might converge around education policies. That most Asian Americans are foreign born and the tenacious power of attendant “forever foreigner” tropes suggest that immigration issues might be the basis for a shared political agenda. Analysis of the 2016 National Asian American Survey, however, shows surprising political consensus within the Asian American population outside the policy realms of education and immigration. In other policy issues, particularly those involving the government’s role, important points of convergence among these groups on certain public policies are clear. Political differences within the Asian American community are between those who are progressive and those who are even more so.