Hispanic and
Asian Americans will make up a
growing share of the population in the years to come. Republicans hope that they will gradually become more conservative, but
data from the Pew Research Center point in the opposite direction:
Relative to the general public, Asian Americans and, particularly, Hispanics tend to skew more Democratic than Republican in party identification and more liberal than conservative in ideology, according to an analysis of recent Pew Research Center surveys conducted with a nationally representative sample of Hispanics and a separate representative survey of Asian Americans. Second-generation and immigrant Asian Americans hold roughly the same partisan affiliations, though second-generation Hispanics are even more strongly Democratic-leaning than are immigrant Hispanics, however.
Other political orientations paint a complex portrait of the generations. Among Asian Americans, there are no differences in political ideology by generation, but the second generation is more inclined than the first generation to prefer a smaller government with fewer services over a larger, more activist government. Some of that difference may be explained by the younger average age of second-generation Asian Americans relative to Asian immigrants.
Among Hispanics, there is somewhat less support for an activist government among the second generation than Hispanic immigrants, although a clear majority of both generations prefers a larger government with more services to a smaller one providing fewer services. But more of the second-generation Hispanics identify themselves as liberal on political issues than do first-generation Hispanics.
Generational differences are pronounced on attitudes about social issues. Second-generation Hispanics and Asian Americans are more liberal than the first generation on attitudes about homosexuality and abortion. Compared with the general public, second-generation Asian Americans are more liberal on both issues. Second-generation Hispanics tend to be more accepting of homosexuality than the general public; their views on abortion are similar to those of the general public.