Their role as resident is the only way to exert any control over the local and state politics that affect them, being summarily excised from any role in nation-wide elections. Residents who are not also citizens are categorized as either permanent residents or as conditional residents, with very little difference but demographic and reputation between them. In Birmingham, where transient workers are shuttled through the state to work on agricultural plants with Georgia-Pacific or local farmers, many of these residents are conditional, EB-5 Employment Creation Immigrants. Here, they have full right to enjoy the services provided for them by the city and state - including health care, education, public transportation, police protection - and maintain that benefit by voting in local elections only.
Yet, while residents participate in these elections, they are surrounded by stigma that handicaps their influence and policy-making ability. Since their ability to participate in local politics is different throughout all fifty states and even inside of those, they lack a clear channel for asserting their voices. Many are presumed to only be residents because they are workers or not vested in long-term interest of the area, and some citizens are hesitant to allow more control over local activities to those who may not be there to oversee them in twenty years; this bias, even if unduly, focuses the residents' interest on immediacy.
Residents, who may not be able to vote as readily as citizens, are therefore necessarily involved in local politics. Their need to create a system to service their needs, as is the basis of the American government, is more dire than that of their citizen counterpart. If they are...
Many citizen organizations, understood on the national level as the ACLU, NAACP, and other well-recognized groups, provide an outlet for public pressure on politicians and policy making. Residents may become involved with these groups which, uniting them together with citizens, are able to influence local politics in much the same vein as is witnessed at the national level; labor unions, which include many people who are not residents, are a prime example of this circumnavigation. Examining the case of Alabama workers, the labor unions are able to force the state government to provide more money for the public transportation that shuttles more transients to work than it does citizens, keeping a steady movement throughout the political atmosphere.
Residents and citizens play two important but differing roles in American politics. While one group enjoys the freedom to vote and take advantage of civic benefits at will, the other is limited to state and local involvement as provided by specific regions. Residents, whose need to interact effectively with local government is exacerbated by their lack of involvement at the national level, are left making their decisions as allowed by their region or through external groups that might influence local leaders as a citizen-unit. While citizens are able to vote on and become city council leaders, residents are not always allowed this privilege; as such, their legislative influence and policy making power is defined only by their efforts and success in involving other residents in local politics.
