ABSTRACT
In 1987, the idea of grouping Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans under one “Hispanic” or “Latino” label was viewed by some social scientists as “culturally demeaning and conceptually indefensible”. Since the time of the 1990 Latino Political Survey (LNPS), home country focus has declined in salience and has been gradually, but inexorably, replaced by a focus on US social, economic, and political processes. As Latino multi-nationality communities increased and grew, Latino panethnicity strengthened. This produced rapidly expanding collaborations that not only included members of the some original national origin groups, but also the new immigrants from other countries of origin. The emergence of Latino political ethnicity by the mid-2000s has generated a more coherent pattern of political behaviors and policy preferences. On immigration, the 1990 LNPS asked: whether Latin Americans should receive preferential status for immigration and whether employers should hire citizens over immigrants.
