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We examine the political position of the suburbs relative to the city by focusing on attitudes toward immigrants. Using 22 years of survey data for the Houston area, this paper addresses three questions. First, how has the attitudinal position of the suburbs relative to the city changed over time? Second, does the city-suburb distinction differ depending on the respondent's race/ ethnicity? Finally, do these results differ depending on the content of the question? Multivariate results indicate an overall increase in positive attitudes, but the increase is slower in the suburbs relative to the city. The resulting divergence is driven exclusively by non-Hispanic whites and is only evident when focusing on more contentious questions regarding immigrants in the United States. Our results suggest a persistent suburban cultural context despite recent demographic shifts, and they highlight the multidimensional nature of the (racialized) attitudes toward immigrants held by non-Hispanic whites in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the “new father” conversion process undertaken by participants of the worldwide, South Korean–inspired Father School movement. Focusing on first-generation Korean immigrant men living in the United States, men pursue an alternative Western paradigm of fatherhood emphasizing an emotionally expressive and caring “new father” ideal at odds with the distant and domineering fatherhood style that traditionally characterizes much of this population. Based on the ethnographic study of multiday seminars and content analyses of movement rhetoric and men’s personal letters, I assess how immigrant fatherhood is reconstituted within the stew of intensive interaction and affective bonding. The gender conversion process undertaken by these men involves five core elements: (1) trying participation, (2) defining fatherhood models, (3) following organizational roles and guidelines, (4) confessing fatherhood transgressions, and (5) projecting new fatherhood. This study extends conversion theory by explicating the processual and time-specific nature of how these distant immigrant patriarchs learn to become expressive dads. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The great body of recent work on international migration has generally considered immigration as a permanent movement and explored the phenomenon from either a micro or macro perspective. Transnationalism offers a new model that integrates these dichotomized views. This paper uses the perspective of transnationalism to explore the motives of Israeli immigrants in the U.S. Integrating insights from both micro and world systems perspectives, findings emphasize the importance of personal and macro-level networks as well as Israelis' international culture and experience as both facilitating and giving meaning to their presence in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]