Foreign Born Americans and Party Polarization
AP US Government and Politics
As the percent of foreign born Americans increases, what happens to House polarization (how often members of the House of Representative vote against the opposite party)?
Red = % of foreign born population. Blue = Party polarization in US House.
How accurate was your prediction?
What is the big story the graph tells?
Explain the connection between foreign population % and House polarization.
What % of Americans were foreign born in 2007?
What do you imagine that percent is today?
Which of the two major US political parties is generally the party of the foreign born today?
In the 1950s members of the House of Representative were likely to vote with their opposition party. About how often did members of the House of Representatives vote against the opposition party in 2007?
If the percent of Americans who are foreign born went back down to around 5 percent what do you think would happen to the amount of cooperation or bipartisanship in the US House?
What is one specific consequence of this polarization in the US House?
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
If these current trends continue, wait, never mind, we're already at almost 100% polarization (meaning, Democrats always vote against Trump, Republicans always voted against Obama)!
Explain whether you think Democrats in the US House should be bipartisan and vote with Trump.
What is one benefit of a high foreign born population?
If the % of foreign born Americans decreased, so would partisanship. What is one change to the US electoral system that could also decrease party polarization?
Some would say that "Make America Great Again" means, make America have a low foreign born population again. Explain what you think "Make America Great Again" really means.
During the same time period that polarization has increased, the number of bills passed by Congress has declined. Explain why that is.
Given the data from the chart, how do any bills get passed?
Do you know any foreign born Americans?
What would be one quick way to decrease the size of the foreign born population?
This will be difficult, but try to describe why it is that high foreign born population leads to high polarization in Congress:
If a member of the House votes with the president who is of the opposition party, what is one consequence they might face?
All things considered, is it worth having a polarized Congress in order to have a high percentage of foreign born Americans?
Learning Extension
Check out some of the other cool polarization charts from the authors.
Action Extension
Contact your US House member and ask them their political party and if they think we should lower the population of Americans who are foreign born. Share their answer in class or online.
Bonus Polarization Chart
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