Drive aims to boost voting by immigrants

Mayra Fonseca beamed Wednesday as her sons, Luis Mota (center) and Carlos Mota registered to vote at Fenway Park. (JOANNE RATHE/GLOBE STAFF)

Immigrants entitled to vote in Massachusetts go to the polls at lower rates than native-born citizens in the state, a trend that activists are straining to reverse this election year through grass-roots voter drives in mosques, taquerias, and community centers.

About half of naturalized citizens in Massachusetts voted in the past two presidential elections, compared with 63 percent of native-born citizens, a gap that is similar to national rates, according to an analysis of census data by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.

It is an outcome that limits immigrants' political influence. In Lowell and Lawrence, cities with large immigrant populations, the mayors and the majority of city councilors are nonimmigrants.

"We should not have such a large share of our population be so disengaged in the civic pro cess," Andrew Sum, director of the center, said of immigrants here and nationwide. "It is a very damaging thing to democracy."

At a massive naturalization ceremony Wednesday in Fenway Park, Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston and federal Judge Patti B. Saris urged 3,032 new citizens to vote. Despite the patriotism that permeates such ceremonies, confusion about how to exercise the newfound right often surfaces after the US flags are packed away.

Advocates say immigrants are often put off by language barriers, lack of information, or skepticism about politics honed in their native countries, where elections were rigged or marred by violence.

Yun Liu of Plymouth has two master's degrees and a job as a pharmaceuticals consultant, but after he was sworn in Wednesday he said he doubted that he knew enough to vote. He had disliked politics in his native China.

"When you live in a communist country, there are too much politics," said Liu, 51. "Here politics is kind of weird. I have to get used to it."

He also wasn't sure where to register to vote and had not encountered one of the volunteers signing up voters by the sausage stands and popcorn machines at the park. He asked whether he should have registered at a supermarket.

"Is that how you do it?" he asked.

Karzan Salayi, a 27-year-old mechanic from Woburn, and a Kurd who fled violent persecution in Iraq, said he planned to vote precisely because elections held in Iraq when he was there were a sham. He was only able to get a grade-school education there and was always forced to vote for Saddam Hussein.

"I will vote," he said, sitting four rows behind the Red Sox dugout after the naturalization ceremony, the first trip for him and his two sons to the park. "One is going to make a difference."

Like the population overall, immigrants with more formal education vote at higher rates than immigrants with less than a high school diploma. But both groups lag behind native US citizens in Massachusetts. Fifty-two percent of immigrants with a bachelor's degree in Massachusetts voted in the 2004 and 2006 elections, compared with 73 percent of native citizens.

To estimate voter turnout among naturalized citizens, the Northeastern center examined federal Current Population Survey data, which asks about voting habits. The center then calculated an average of the 2004 and 2006 elections based on responses from about 800 immigrants in Massachusetts, Sum said.

Sum called on state and local programs to go beyond teaching immigrants to speak English and to pass the citizenship test and to teach them how to become civically engaged, such as how and where to vote and what a ballot looks like.

Local groups, from the Muslim American Society of Boston to Centro Presente of Somerville, are holding events to get immigrants even more involved.

Over the past year, the society has registered more than 4,200 new voters, largely immigrants, hoping to reverse a tide of anti-Muslim sentiment and to influence government policies that affect them, from immigration laws to homeland security. A recent candidate night attracted 150 people, said Bilal Kaleem, the society's executive director.

Centro Presente is registering voters on sidewalks in front of Latin American restaurants and even going door to door some Saturday mornings to reach people at their homes. They are also planning workshops to teach people how to vote.

"We're seeing bit by bit the numbers going up," said Beatriz Senior, community organizer for Centro Presente. "But there are lots of people who say: 'How do I do this? . . . How do I vote?' "