Asian Americans constitute the United States' fastest growing immigrant population relative to its preexisting size. As this population expands, we need to understand more about how these new immigrants become politically integrated into United States society. We know that social groups that succeed in terms of educational attainment and earnings typically have high levels of political participation. What is most perplexing about Asian Americans is that, despite their relative economic and educational success, they lag behind other racial groups in voter turnout. The most recent studies of this question have not produced adequate answers. This project will investigate the causes for lower Asian American voter turnout as well as provide a more detailed understanding of how Asian Americans understand and define participation in the public sphere. This latter aspect is important given that much of the potential for greater civic inclusion lies in the recognition of the diverse but often overlooked extra-institutional forms of political engagement more common among recent immigrants. This project will provide political parties and our society generally with information useful in promoting greater participation in the political process by facilitating greater engagement of civically-minded citizens, thus strengthening our democracy. This mixed-methods project will combine quantitative analysis of existing data sets with in-depth interviews. The project will use The Current Population Survey between 2000 and 2014 to verify prior research concerning patterns of voter turnout among Asian Americans. The project will also analyze the 2016 National Asian American Survey to test hypotheses regarding the mechanisms behind recent voter patterns, including forms of political participation other than actual voting. Finally, the project will conduct 90 interviews in a large city with subgroups of Asian Americans to capture these groups' perspectives on their political engagement and experiences in the public sphere. After the interviews are transcribed, qualitative coding will produce common themes and concepts. Atlas.ti will be used to organize, manage and analyze the data. Findings from the project will show both overall patterns and subgroup differences in the motivations for political participation among Asian Americans, and test hypotheses regarding the mechanisms behind these patterns. Findings will inform theories in both sociology and political science related to political participation, especially the role of resources in motivating such participation. Findings will also speak to sociological theories regarding ethnic group assimilation to better understand why Asian Americans assimilate readily socio-economically, but less readily politically. The findings will also speak to sociological theories regarding the role of culture in patterning public sphere behaviors. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.