Unless you?ve been living in a bunker for the past few months, you may have noticed the hotly contested presidential campaign currently raging in the U.S. Democratic President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, are currently locked in a statistical dead heat for the presidency, according to polling data aggregator Real Clear Politics. Just as in 2000, when Republican George W. Bush narrowly defeated Al Gore, pundits believe the election will be determined by razor-thin margins. It?s no surprise that both Obama and Romney are looking to sway these significant voting blocs ahead of the November election.
What role do legal immigrants play in the upcoming elections?
Legal immigrants represent a rich source of potential votes. Recent research suggests that registered naturalized immigrants vote at higher rates than native-born Americans. However, immigration reform remains a polarizing topic, and both Romney and Obama have had to adopt stances that sometimes alienate legal immigrants.
Although Obama won 67% of the Hispanic vote in 2008, according to the Pew Hispanic Center,
Republicans in battleground states like Nevada have branded him the ?deporter-in-chief.? Furthermore, while Obama?s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, ?potentially provides relief from deportation for eligible unauthorized immigrants ages 30 and under who arrived in the U.S. before age 16,? it falls far short of the comprehensive immigration reform he promised in 2008, as well as the DREAM Act, which would offer young illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.
Romney took a hard-line stance on immigration reform during the 2012 primaries, according to a recent USA Today article. The Republican candidate, ?pushed identity-verification laws to keep illegal immigrants out of American jobs and endorsed the idea of ?self-deportation,? where laws make life so hard for illegal immigrants that they choose to return to their home countries.?
Reaching out to this voting segment
In recent weeks, both parties have created commercials in different languages hoping to reach and influence legal immigrant voters, but the Republicans have generally been outspent by Obama?s team. Reaching this key voting bloc could be easily accomplished through the effective use of resources. For example, deploying interpreters and translators would not only help Spanish voters, but also Chinese, Tagalog, Korean, Hindi, Punjabi, Japanese, and Russian speakers. This simple tactic would allow both parties to reach much wider audiences.
It should also be noted that many naturalized citizens are affected by the 180 bills introduced in state legislatures requiring voter identification and/or proof of citizenship in order to vote. The necessity of these bills is open to debate, but they clearly demonstrate the need for solid translation and interpretation.
Northwest Interpreters, Inc., as a language services company, supports the use of professional interpreters and translators for advertising aimed at multilingual voters, or voters who do not speak English as a first language. Naturalized citizens, as noted above, are motivated voters and take their civic responsibility seriously. NWI believes this voting constituency will only grow more crucial in the years to come.
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