Hispanics and the New Administration – Immigration Slips as a Top Priority.

A year and a half after a lengthy, often rancorous debate over immigration reform filled the chambers of a stalemated Congress, the issue appears to have receded in importance among one of the groups most affected by it–Latinos. Only three-in-ten (31%) Latinos rate immigration as an “extremely important” issue facing the incoming Obama administration, placing it sixth on a list of seven policy priorities that respondents were asked to assess in a nationwide survey of 1,007 Latino adults conducted from December 3 through December 10, 2008, by the Pew Hispanic Center. The top-rated issue among Latinos is the economy; 57% of Hispanics say it is an “extremely important” one for the new president to address.

Looking forward, Hispanics are optimistic about the incoming Barack Obama Administration. More than seven-in-ten (72%) say they expect Obama to have a successful first term. Looking back, Latinos offer a negative assessment of the outgoing Bush Administration. More than half (54%) of Latinos say that the failures of the Bush Administration will outweigh its successes. In comparison, 64% of the U.S. general population holds the same view.

The latest report from the Pew Hispanic Center also examines the ways Latinos were involved in the 2008 election. According to the survey, almost three-fourths (74%) of Latinos say they were more interested in last year’s presidential election than in the 2004 election. Latino voters were more than twice as likely as voters in the general population to be first-time voters – 21% versus 8%. Among Latino voters ages 18-29, 47% were first-time voters.

Both partisan and non-partisan campaigns reached out to Latinos in the 2008 election. Almost four-in-ten (38%) Latinos say they were contacted and encouraged to register to vote or to get out to vote. Among Latinos contacted in the 2008 election campaign, 59% say they were contacted by the Obama campaign, while 43% said they were contacted by the McCain campaign.

Latinos were also engaged in ways other than voting in the 2008 election. More than half (51%) of Latinos say they participated in at least one political activity other than voting during the 2008 election season. More than one-third (36%) say they used the Internet to research a candidate; 26% tried to persuade someone else’s to vote for or against a particular party; 18% say they displayed material or wore clothing related to a political campaign; 11% say they attended a political or campaign-related event; 9% say they contributed money to a candidate; 5% say they volunteered or worked for a political candidate.

Television was the most popular conduit of news about the 2008 presidential campaign among Latinos. More than eight-in-ten (82%) report obtaining most of their information on the election through television news; 18% of Latinos used the Internet; 18% used newspapers; and 10% obtained campaign information through radio. Almost one-quarter (23%) of Latinos who obtained campaign information from television report that the information was in Spanish, while one-third (33%) got their television news in English, and; 44% obtained television news about the election in both languages.

by Mark Hugo Lopez, Associate Director and Gretchen Livingston, Senior Researcher.

To view report CLICK on link below:
http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/101.pdf>