There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #15: Volunteer for a political campaign

Considering the many ways to participate in democracy, what can possibly be done by "aliens," that is, non-citizen residents of a country? Turns out, a great deal (Barreto & Munoz, 2003). Sociologists Matt Barreto and José A. Muñoz studied the political involvement of millions of non-citizen Hispanic members of US society and found that, not only did they frequently volunteer for political campaigns, they often did so in unusual proportions normally predicted by social scientists who study the relative practices of populations sorted by socioeconomic status (SES).

They note that, " Whether they are legal permanent residents, temporary guest workers, or undocumented, noncitizen immigrants are still impacted by public policy in America and are not passive bystanders" (p. 430).

Part of the reason a higher percentage of such groupings engage in volunteering for various campaigns, they suggest, is that a high percent of the noncitizens residing in the US are applying for US citizenship or intend to seek it. They are learning about the political processes, as any naturalized citizen must, and are in a heightened state of awareness of the potential efficacy of the participation by individuals and collectives, making their involvement therefore much more logical. 

A child can volunteer. A noncitizen can volunteer. A person otherwise unable or even forbidden from voting can still participate in democracy.

Campaigns that are in touch with and in tune with their constituents will make the best use of such volunteers. If the campaign strives to learn about their volunteers they will highly value languages, SES, workplace connections, and other factors that can help campaigns understand and best serve the demographics to which their volunteers belong. A Spanish-speaking volunteer canvassing either door-to-door, in a phone bank, or being at a public place with a table full of bilingual campaign materials ready to engage with Spanish-speaking voters is a highly effective volunteer, even if that volunteer cannot vote. When a campaign understands the recent immigration numbers in their voting jurisdiction, they can especially gain traction with the help of any volunteers who speak the native language of the immigrants who are both naturalized citizens able to vote and who speak that other language as their first language. 

There are congressional districts, for example, with large groupings of Somalis, many of whom are naturalized yet still struggle with English as their second, third, or fourth language. Other districts have significant numbers of relatively recently naturalized Russian, Laotian, Eritrean, Cuban, and other new US citizens who can be mobilized in part by those who speak their mother tongue, even if those campaign volunteers cannot themselves vote. 

A multilingual cohort of eager campaign volunteers can make a vital difference to a campaign, and when their candidate wins, they may well solidify an intent to never stop volunteering, never stop participating in a democracy that is answering to them.

References

Barreto, M. A., & Munoz, J. A. (2003). Reexamining the “Politics of In-Between”: Political Participation Among Mexican Immigrants in the United States. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 25(4), 427. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/10.1177/0739986303258599