Re-Defining Civic Participation through the Lived Experiences of Latinx Immigrant and African American Older Adults

Background and Purpose: Civic participation is related to better health, economic, and social benefits for older adults. However, this literature has failed to recognize and study the experiences of civic participation among minority older adults, as evidenced in a systematic review on civic participation among older adults that found only 1.7% of all publications included ethnoracial minorities. This oversight, coupled with a literature that primarily has favored formal participation, has led many scholars and policy makers to conclude that Latinx and Black older adults are less civically involved than White older adults. This paper re-defines civic participation from the lens of historically ethnoracially marginalized older adults to avoid further erasure of their experiences and contributions.

Methods: Thirty-four in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with Latinx immigrant and Black older adults (ages 60+) living in New Jersey and New York City. The sample is predominately female (53% female, 41% male) one participant identified as non-binary, 58% Black and 42% Latinx immigrants, 58% had a disability or chronic illness, and 76% were retired or on disability. Participants were recruited via an email sent out to local organizations and community groups. Two interviews were conducted with each participant, focusing on their current and life history narratives of civic participation. All interviews were transcribed verbatim (Spanish/English). Guided by phenomenology, transcripts were crafted into narratives that were organized chronologically across life stages and tracked the progression of sociopolitical movements and major life experiences (immigration, death, pandemics, illness diagnosis, etc.). These stories were sent to participants to review and edit, and then coded thematically using Nvivo qualitative software. This analytical process was further complemented by an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and the Intersectional Life Course Perspective.

Findings: Data analysis reveals that civic participation among Black and Latinx Immigrant older adults goes beyond altruism and discrete social or political activities. This research finds that civic participation entails five movements, by which we can understand and measure the experiences and contributions of Latinx and Black older adults. These are movements because they are embodied experiences that both spark action and are coalesced efforts. These movements (survival, healing, justice, liberation, and spirit) give insight into the context of why people act and considers the sociopolitical context of their participation. For example, survival activities include civic participation that arise to maintain current limited resources in the context of oppression and neglect. Participants discussed block clean ups and police violence prevention workshops in this context. While liberatory activities are those that emerge from a sense of belonging and give rise to new structures and resources to support and expand community empowerment. Participants discussed their role in the development of schools, museums, churches, community programs for the Black and/or Latinx community.

Conclusion and Implications: These findings have implications for the development of future theoretical frameworks and measurements of civic participation that center the experiences of BIPOC older adults. In addition, these results have implications for informing policy and practice that seeks to support and expand access to civic activities among historically marginalized groups.