Political stories: media narratives of political participation by Asian immigrants in the US and Canada

How is the political participation of Asian immigrant communities portrayed by local mainstream media? How does coverage vary over time, by immigrant group, and by host country? This article examines the civic presence of Indian and Vietnamese immigrants in Boston, San Jose, Toronto, and Vancouver from 1985 to 2005. We measure civic presence using a database of 224 articles from the primary newspaper of record in each city, representing a 10% random sample of all articles covering the political participation of these groups. We find that both the frequency and tone of mainstream news coverage vary based on a combination of group-level characteristics and national reception contexts, such that the civic presence of Asian-origin immigrant communities differs significantly between national-origin groups, and for the same group across countries. These findings point to the need for more heterogeneous approaches to the study of “Asian” minority politics in North America.

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