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This article assesses how two key institutions differentially shape immigrants' relationship to their rights in American society. We draw on over 200 in-depth interviews to argue that there is a stark difference between how schools encourage undocumented youth to view themselves as equal members of US society and how undocumented workers are marginalized in the workplace. We find that even as schools track and stratify students, they also foster a culture of meritocracy between documented and undocumented youth. Schools ultimately render immigration status irrelevant as undocumented youth learn to navigate the primary institution of this stage of their lives. Conversely, immigration status is central to the experience of undocumented workers, who develop a particular set of survival skills that help them live and work successfully in the United States without being detected while also erecting a barrier between themselves and any additional rights they may be afforded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews a corpus of 40 Chinese American contemporary realistic fiction picturebooks published in the United States. These picturebooks feature Chinese immigrants adjusting to American culture, Chinese American celebrating heritage culture, bridging two cultures, and connecting with their home country. The findings reveal that these picturebooks authentically reflect the Chinese American's lived experiences, celebrate their heritage culture, and emphasize their value of family and intergenerational relationships. Some picturebooks depict the tension of the language barrier. Other than immigrant life and poverty, none of these picturebooks witnesses issues around race, gender, and same‐sex families, although most picturebooks feature female main characters. Instructional implications are provided for teachers to use Chinese American picturebooks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As we go to press in a COVID‐19 world, the topic of anxiety is foremost on our minds. While each situation has to be considered in its own context, how to manage different anxieties has common denominators. There is currently a sharp increase in forced migration around the globe so mental health professionals must develop effective skills, like the ability to adapt services to different contexts and cultures, to manage the needs of immigrant people. Problem‐Solving Brief Therapy, as developed at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, is a systemic model of therapy, which aims at promoting change in the complaint the presenting client (the 'talker') cares about. The model's roots in Constructivism foster integrating the clients' beliefs and values into therapy to allow the therapists to adapt to the clients' particular needs. This paper is the analysis of a single case where the therapist worked with an immigrant family because their child suffered from severe anxiety related to the parents' threatened deportation. The paper focuses on premises and strategies that allowed minimising cultural barriers between therapists and family members, thus facilitating a strong therapeutic alliance conducive to improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the role of culture in determining whether, or not, an individual is a homeowner. We use data on first‐generation immigrants who arrived in the United States under 6 years old. Following the epidemiological approach, any dissimilarity in the proportion of homeowners by country of origin may be interpreted as a consequence of cultural differences. Our estimates indicate that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between the cultural proxy and the immigrants' choice of home‐ownership. Additionally, we present evidence of different mechanisms of transmission of culture, which reinforces our results on the cultural effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How receiving society members perceive and respond to immigration are crucial factors that shape the context of reception for immigrants coming to a new country. In this paper, we examine these processes through the lens of intergroup contact research, with a focus on relations between immigrants and members of receiving societies, to discern ways in which receiving societies are or are not welcoming toward immigrants. Reviewing recent theorizing with illustrative empirical studies and ongoing programs of research that focus on new immigrants in Germany and the United States, we describe how direct and indirect forms of positive and negative contact can serve either to facilitate or inhibit positive immigrant‐receiving community relations. We also discuss factors that may contribute to the emergence of positive and negative contact experiences between immigrants and receiving society members. We close with a discussion of policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how Peruvian migrants fare economically in two historically and culturally distinct host countries, Japan and the US, drawing upon a survey and interviews conducted in both countries. Peruvian migrants surveyed share similar socio-economic backgrounds and migrated to both countries for similar reasons roughly around the same time. Yet, over time, they achieved more occupational upward mobility in the US than in Japan. Japan has not done quite as well as the US in providing immigrants with occupational opportunities due to its less diversified immigrant labor market, limited entrepreneurship opportunities, and restricted modes of immigrant incorporation. Does it mean, however, that Peruvian migrants are less successful in Japan than the US? Although occupational mobility is a commonly used measure of social mobility, the definitions and meanings of 'success' are context-dependent. Peruvians in the US do experience more occupational mobility, but diverge more greatly in economic achievement amongst themselves. In Japan, on the other hand, while they experience little occupational mobility, they have had more economic equality with relatively stable and high wages. The paper examines Peruvian migrants' distinct economic trajectories over time, focusing on their occupational mobility. We conclude that occupational mobility matters, not necessarily because it accompanies higher income, but because it shapes migrants' aspirations. In the context where immigrants' destinations have become more diverse in the world, the paper provides insights into how immigrants 'make it' and what it means to 'make it' in recent destinations, such as Japan, in comparison to more traditional immigrant countries, such as the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between immigrants' genetic diversity and economic development in the United States during the late nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, a period commonly referred to as the age of mass migration from Europe to the New World. Our panel model estimates show that during this period, immigrants' genetic diversity is significantly positively correlated with measures of U.S. counties' economic development. There exists also a significant positive relationship between immigrants' genetic diversity in 1870 and contemporaneous measures of U.S. counties' average income. (JEL J11, O51, Z13) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends the utility maximization model of migration by introducing income and unemployment-related uncertainties as determinants of utility, and analyzes the effects of the in-formational advantages of migrants. The paper maintains that migration would expand an individual's economic choices and opportunities and allow diversification. Consequently, diversification advantages influence the location decisions of migrants, an effect captured by the correlation of incomes at the ori-gin and potential destinations. We use the discrete choice model based on random utility maximization as the framework for our empirical investigation of migration from the United States rural to urban counties. This paper takes advantage of an equivalent relation between the conditional logit model and Poisson regression to study the migration decisions using aggregate data among a large set of spatial alternatives. The results show that the diversification concerns have significant effects on location decisions of the rural-urban migrants in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the determinants of remittance behavior relying on a dataset of migrants living in the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States who remit to Ghana and Nigeria. Controlling for endogeneity of several independent variables, the model measures the effects on the amount sent of the following variables: Home Country (Ghana or Nigeria), Host Country (United States, United Kingdom or Germany), Remittance Fees, Relationship to the Receiver, Purpose of Remittance, Financial Obligations in the Host Country, and Demographics. The results indicate that remittances are primarily influenced by the purpose of the remittance and from where the remittance is sent. It appears that different generations chose to migrate to different countries, creating differences in income, education and age. These differences along with financial obligations in the host country contribute to higher remittance levels. In regards to the development affects, the results of this paper hint that altruistic reasons for remitting may be associated with higher levels of remittances, while more self-interested reasons for remitting are associated with lower levels of remittances. These results indicate that it may be difficult to design policies to encourage the use of remittances for development purposes, as remittances are primarily used for basic needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the scholarship on transnationalism and citizenship, this paper examines the politics of difference in HIV/AIDS prevention programmes in the United States and their impact on Haitian migrants and immigrants. It finds that there is a tremendous amount of complex movement of knowledge production and expertise among various constituents who work in the field of HIV/AIDS, and these individuals circulate ideas and technologies of HIV/AIDS across different fields in multiple ways. Through these circulations, information about HIV/AIDS becomes entangled in the debates about relevant knowledge bases, and as a result, questions over culture and modernity. This paper traces how such discourses become framed under the rubric of risk and difference and operate at the level of situated experience. Through ethnographic fieldwork observations and interviews, this paper argues that notions of individual responsibility in HIV/AIDS risk management often become inseparable from notions of racial, ethnic and immigrant identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of English language proficiency and country of origin on the occupational choice of high-skilled immigrants in the United States. The findings reveal that high-skilled immigrants with limited proficiency in English, or whose first language is linguistically distant from English, are more likely to be in occupations in which English communication skills are not very important, such as computer and engineering occupations. Interestingly, the degree of exposure to English prior to immigration is found to have little influence on selecting occupations in the United States. Nonetheless, the paper also shows that some immigrants with little exposure to English, and whose native language is highly distinct from English, are present in some “speaking-intensive” occupations, in particular social services occupations. These occupations may not require workers to be fluent in English if they mostly provide services to immigrants from the same linguistic background. The study also raises questions as to how heavily US immigration policy influences the decisions of highly-skilled migrants before they even leave their home countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, based on dissertation fieldwork among Mexican migrant organizations in New York, examines differing modes of mobilization in two Bronx parish-based voluntary associations. Even though the Mexican community in New York is consistently described as “new”, “young” and its migration as “recent”, there are some migrants who arrived decades ago, in the early 1980s, whose children and grandchildren have been born in the United States and whose experiences are quite different than those of newer migrants. Nonetheless, the network of fraternal societies founded on Guadalupan devotion which together comprises the largest and most visible Mexican organization in the city assumes commonalty of experiences, identity, faith and needs, based on the premise, “We are all undocumented”. In this paper I will unpack that “we” using ethnographic data from two Bronx parish Guadalupan committees to examine how a collective we is produced, contested, and complicated through time. What are the implications for the organizational strategies of the city-wide association if some of the most established activists are no longer undocumented? What kinds of tensions exist within a community imagined to be unified but constantly faced with class and ethnic differences? These organizations posit a “citizenship” premised on all human beings sharing the same mother, the Virgin of Guadalupe, and ensuring the dignity and rights of all, irrespective of migratory status or nationality. What does it mean when some involved in the production of this discourse “regularize” their migratory status and are no longer in need of an alternative mode of citizenship? How effective will assertions of Mexican national identity linked to Guadalupan devotion be among second-generation youths who are US citizens and have possibly never seen Mexico? What happens when activists begin to say “I was an immigrant”? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the growth of the fastest growing Latino immigrant communities in the nation during the 1990s and the impact of this growth on the public schools. Much of the highest growth occurred in regions that were quite unprepared to integrate this immigrant group into the educational mainstream. The result in many cases has been a growing “de facto” segregation of immigrant students in terms of standardized test scores, drop-out rates, and resources vis a vis mainstream students. This segregation is occurring sometimes within the same classroom and sometimes takes on more traditional forms where immigrant students are physically isolated from the mainstream educational milieu. This paper first documents the rapid Latino immigrant growth in northwest Arkansas, central North Carolina, and the Atlanta suburbs. I then focus on the impact that this immigration has had on K-12 public schools in these high-immigrant growth regions. Finally, I present some promising practices and policy implications and recommendations for local, state, and federal organizations aimed at a more successful integration of Latino immigrants into the public education systems in these regions. My study is primarily a series of comparative case studies consisting of 108 semi-structured interviews with teachers, parents, principals, district administrators, community leaders, governmental officials, and students in the impacted communities. In addition to this ethnographic work, I also draw upon federal population statistics such as the US Census and Current Population Survey to document Latino immigrant population growth. My paper concludes that unless increasing resources and attention is given to the growing disparity in Latino immigrant and mainstream student education achievement outcomes, then the school districts in these regions risk inadvertently becoming re-segregated by ethnicity much as they were prior to the Civil Rights initiatives of the 1950s and 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coptic Church has a very unique historical trajectory that includes an early separation from the Greco-Roman Byzantine Christian world in the fifth century followed by a legacy of subordination in Egypt after the Arab Conquest. This paper looks at how the Coptic Church narrates this history particularly as it transcends the national boundaries of Egypt to serve migrant Copts in Western societies. The historical narrative of the Coptic Church celebrates its contributions to early Christianity; defends its stance in the Chalcedon Council in 451 CE; and celebrates a legacy of triumph and survival after the Arab conquest. Building on theories on collective memory, this paper shows how the present and the past shape one another in a very complex way. The paper is based on interviews with both lay and clerical members of Coptic immigrant communities in Canada and the United States and on textual analysis of books, bulletins and websites launched on and by the Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes geographic patterns of population concentration and deconcentration among the foreign-born population during the 1990-2000 period. A goal is to examine whether the foreign-born population, including recent arrivals, are dispersing geographically from metro gateway cities into rural and other less densely populated parts of the country. The paper also evaluates the so-called balkanization hypothesis, which is that immigration flows run counter-cyclical to the redistribution trends of the native-born population, while reinforcing spatial isolation and immigrant segregation. Data for U.S. counties or county equivalents come from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. Census (Summary Files 1, 3 and 4). Our results suggest that America's immigrant population is dispersing spatially. Immigrants are less concentrated today than in the past and they are less segregated from other population groups, including their own racial group and whites. However, changes over the past decade have been modest. The immigrant population, even in 2000, remained considerably more concentrated than the native-born population. The empirical results provide little evidence of geographic balkanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigations of immigration politics usually focus on national scale debates and policy initiatives. Immigrant settlement, however, is often highly concentrated in select regions and cities and it is in these places that immigration politics is most contentious. This paper examines these subnational politics of immigration in the United States and explores their relation to national immigration politics. The concentrated geography of immigrants in the United States intersects with a federalised system for dispersing welfare and other social costs of immigration. This creates tension between a central government with the responsibility for controlling admission and state/local governments who pay the social costs of immigrant incorporation. This dynamic of conflict has been exacerbated in recent years by the neoliberal governance strategy of downloading. Geographic concentration has other consequences for the ways in which immigration politics develops, specifically the challenges that visible difference in the landscape poses to national identity. In regard to the latter, the paper echoes Vron Ware by suggesting that an important challenge for diverse immigrant societies is to reimagine all of the nation's territory as multiethnic/multicultural, not just the locations where immigrants cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the effects of acculturation and acculturative stress on the self-esteem of Hispanic/Latino adolescents. The study is comparative in that it focuses on variations among both immigrant and native born Hispanics. The data were derived from a longitudinal study of adolescents (n = 6,760) being conducted in Miami, Florida. The sample for this paper (n = 4,296) consisted of all the adolescents of Hispanic heritage. A complex patterning of acculturative strains was found for US. and foreign-born adolescents. Acculturation strains and family pride have more powerful effects on sell-esteem as acculturation increases among the foreign born, but the opposite is true for the U.S. born. The proportion of variance explained by the acculturation strains and family pride is greater for the U.S. born adolescents (range = 21% to 29%) than for those who are foreign born (range = 15% to 19%). The findings indicate that much of the research on this subject has failed to reflect the differential processes of psychosocial adjustment faced by immigrant and nonimmigrant adolescents. There are differences in the types of strains reported, as well as in the effects of the strains on self-esteem. Low acculturation adolescents who are U.S. born have an especially problematic profile of strain, whereas bicultural adolescents born in the United States appear to have the best profile. The results suggest a need to advance from simple linear explanations to multifactorial stress models that will increase our understanding of the acculturative process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an abstract of the study `The Chinese Cemetery at Karluk, Kodiak Island, Alaska: A Biological Interpretation of Immigrant Life at the Karluk Cannery' by E. Miller, E.B. Jones, et al.

This article explores the ways that farmworkers, many of whom come from a culture deeply rooted in food and agricultural practices, cope with food insecurity by utilizing their agricultural and nutritional knowledge. Food assistance providers in the USA often treat farmworkers' inability to afford healthy food as a lack of knowledge about healthy eating, reinforcing racialized assumptions that people of color don't know 'good' food. I argue that in contrast to food banks and low-income nutrition programs, home and community gardens provide spaces for retaining and highlighting agricultural, cultural, and dietary practices and knowledge. This paper investigates the linkages between workers' place in the food system as both producers and consumers, simultaneously exploited for their labor, and creating coping strategies utilizing agrarian and culinary knowledge. I argue that food security and healthy eating, rather than being a matter of consumers making healthy 'choices', is a matter of class-based and racial differences in the food system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper examines how group specific metropolitan level factors affect the earnings of six major Asian immigrant groups in the United States: Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. Drawing upon the theoretical perspectives of structural assimilation and ethnic economies, we develop several testable research hypotheses which are examined for the six Asian groups utilizing group specific multilevel regressions models. What is novel in this analysis is the comparison of the six Asian groups in different metropolitan areas in order to examine how variation in metropolitan context interacts with individual characteristics to influence individual earnings in wage or salaried occupations. The results show that the impact of metropolitan context is not uniform, but varied across and within the groups according to their different group and individual characteristics. We argue that future research strategy to establish the relationship between assimilation factors and immigrant earnings should put high priority on considering the distinctiveness of each immigrant group and the recent geographic diversification of immigrant destinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current debates around US immigration policy are playing out against a backdrop that has changed significantly in the past 20 years: immigrants have increasingly gravitated towards 'new destinations'; a large and growing portion of immigrants are undocumented; and the federal vacuum in responding to the promise and problems of these new immigration trends has devolved policy to the states. As a result, we have seen innovation on the state level as policymakers seek to accommodate, welcome or resist immigration, with varying degrees of success. In this paper, we explore the case of Utah as a new immigration destination, seeking to understand its transformation from a state with very inclusive immigrant policies as late as 1999 to one currently adopting highly restrictive immigrant policies. To explain this trajectory, we test three prominent materialist theories of public policy: instrumentalism, structuralism and strategic-relational approaches. We draw on a decade's worth of primary data - including data on state-level legislation, key economic indicators, public statements concerning immigration from the private business sector and the LDS Church, and the editorial content of the state's two major newspapers regarding immigration - to examine the policy explanations that grow out of interest-based theories of the state. Whereas these theories provide robust explanations for a large and diverse array of public policies, we find that they fall short in explaining immigration policy. While conventional wisdom - and extensive scholarly research - suggests that economic interests drive policy, we find that the policies around immigrants challenge this economic reductionism, suggesting the need for more complex and ideational accounts of this important phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Columbus, Ohio has witnessed rapid growth in its Latino population as immigrants settle in the city to access jobs and a generally low cost of living. Immigrants also face discrimination as they settle in Columbus and interact with the city's citizens. In this paper, we note how discrimination plays out in social and economic isolation; a lack of programmes to support the incorporation of Latinos in the city; and state laws that target immigrants. We present results of ongoing ethnographic work with the Latino community in Columbus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper delves into the factors, which determine the attractiveness of regions in Europe for migrants. Contrary to the literature on the United States, which has increasingly focused on the role of amenities, existing research in Europe tends to highlight the predominance of economic conditions as the main drivers of migration. Differentiating between economic, sociodemographic and amenity-related territorial features, we examine the appeal of various regional characteristics for migrants by analyzing net migration data for 133 European regions between 1990 and 2006. Our results show that, in addition to economic, human capital-related and demographic aspects, network effects and-in contrast to existing literature-different types of regional amenities exert an important influence on the relative attractiveness of sub-national territories across the European Union. Our findings therefore indicate that locational choices in Europe may be much more similar to place-based preferences in the United States than originally thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latino immigrant families with children with disabilities experience multiple sources of oppression during their settlement process in the United States. Unfair social structures and dominant cultural values and norms and the way they influence the immigrants' personal life stories generate a cycle of oppression very difficult to break. This paper presents a case study of how a group of Latino parents carried out a process of liberation fueled by the generation of empowering community narratives (critical awareness leading to transformative action) that resulted from a community-university partnership. Participants initiated a process that led them to discover their own stories of oppression and create new stories; to deconstruct the dominant cultural narratives and modify existing ones; and to understand contexts for power sharing. This joint reflection and increased awareness propelled group members to take action by founding a grassroots organization to redress some of the injustices that were partly responsible for their oppression, thus generating shifts at the personal, relational, and collective levels. In light of the theory of liberation, we discuss the participants' development of critical awareness that led them to take action to address their unmet needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our goal in this paper is to identify how recent escalations in immigration enforcement and changes in migration practices affect the ability of the state to continue to serve two of its key 'productive' functions: protecting capital accumulation within industry and ensuring the state's own political legitimacy in the eyes of the public. We draw on our ethnographic research on Latino migrant dairy farm workers in Wisconsin to examine the ways in which a group of migrant workers experiences the process of being enforced as 'illegal' bodies. We find that migrant dairy workers' palpable sense of 'deportability' articulates with the specific structure of dairy work in ways that make the economically and politically 'ideal' migrant: compliant at work and invisible otherwise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to understand the process by which immigrants decide whether or not to return to their home countries. It aims to analyse the potential for return migration rather than the actual migration process. Empirically, it is based on the narratives of 30 Turkish immigrants living in the United States. The findings indicate that: (1) multiple controllable and uncontrollable, micro- and macro-level factors in both the home and the host countries interact over time to tip the scales towards - or away from - return migration; and (2) most immigrants live in a perpetual state of ambivalence about whether or not to engage in return migration. These findings are discussed, and implications are presented for both practice and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of immigrant populations in the United States over the past 20 years has increased the need to enhance understanding about the risk factors that influence their substance abuse and HIV risk behaviors. Today, Latinos account for the largest majority of immigrants gaining entry into the United States. As the largest and fastest growing minority subgroup in the United States, they bear a disproportionate burden of disease and death compared to non-Latinos. Latinos are confronted with escalating HIV and substance-abuse problems, particularly Latinos between the ages of 18-34. This paper is based on our longitudinal study on the drug using and HIV risk behaviors of 527 recent Latino immigrants between the ages of 18-34 who have lived in the United States less than 1 year. The data collection activities of this study have provided insights in identifying, recruiting, interviewing, and retaining Latinos in community-based studies. Strategies, such as utilizing a combination of translation techniques, ensured the development and implementation of culturally appropriate questionnaires. Respondent-driven sampling facilitated identifying participants. Establishing rapport and trust was critical for interviewing, and maintaining a tracking protocol was most important for retention. The lessons learned from this study can guide substance abuse and HIV researchers when recruiting, interviewing, and retaining recent Latino immigrants in future epidemiologic studies. (Am J Addict 2011;21:11-22) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the phenomenon of West African parents living in Europe and North America who send their older children back home: from places of high immigrant aspiration to those of hardship and privation. Drawing on a project on West African immigration to Europe and on previous field studies in Africa, we conclude that West African immigrants fearing the consequences of their children’s indiscipline in the West, where racism and hostility can endanger the entire family, may send unruly children back to the home country. In doing so, we believe, they build on long-standing African disciplinary efforts in hopes of toughening their children’s resilience to the challenges in the new place and wait for the risk to dissipate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the consequences of parental migratory strategies for children in three types of Mexican families: those living with their migrant parents in the United States, those living with parents who migrated and returned to Mexico, and those living in Mexico with parents who have never migrated. Using data on 804 children from the Health and Migration Survey (HMS), we found significant differences in children’s health across the three types of families. Results also revealed robust effects on child health of the size of immediate and extended social networks and migration experience after controlling for potential mediators such as mother’s general health, receipt of social support, and child’s age and sex. Findings suggest that social networks and migration affect children in complex ways, offering health benefits to those with migrant parents in U.S. households but not to those living with parents who migrated in the past and returned to Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, the failure to achieve immigration reform at the national level has resulted in numerous responses in local communities that have been most impacted by the settlement of new immigrants. Some of these responses have emerged in suburban communities that have experienced a rapid rise in the foreign-born population during the last twenty years. This essay offers an in-depth analysis of one such community, Farmers Branch, Texas, covered nationally for a series of anti-immigrant ordinances passed by its City Council. Following a description of the history of this community, the growth of its foreign-born population, and the legal manoeuvres to control unauthorized immigration, the essay argues that anti-immigrant legislation in local places like Farmers Branch is at its core a reflection of a debate about and anxiety over American identity -- how it is defined and how it is changing. In particular, these responses are about a perceived threat to middle class status and identity. This is discussed first in relationship to issues of home ownership and income and then, in relation to cultural dimensions of class, including matters of taste and the spatializations of middle class identity. Finally, the paper unpacks the concept of 'rule of law'. By invoking the claim that Americans are law abiding while unauthorized immigrants have broken the law, lawfulness becomes an exclusionary tool and gives those who support anti-immigrant ordinances a platform for legislating a certain quality of life, and de-Americanizing those who do not fit their conceptualization of what it means to be American. Rule of law becomes a weapon in the fight for middle class status and the status quo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on familial experiences has documented the important role of receiving family support, but has not examined the effects of providing such support. Empathic family stress refers to the stress that individuals experience in response to difficult life circumstances of family members. The current study took a first step in examining the empathic family stress of 134 Haitian immigrants. Results from hierarchical regressions indicate that empathic family stress is a significant predictor of depressive symptoms, but not acculturative stress, for Haitian immigrants. Findings from the study are examined from a strengths-based perspective, where empathic family stress is viewed as a sign of strong family connections among Haitian immigrants. Recommendations are provided for clinicians working with Haitian immigrants to help them experience empathic family stress in a healthy manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the translation styles of court interpreters in New York City and the styles' social and pragmatic implications for multilingual interactions in court. Interpreters are found to vary between using first or third person to represent the voice of a translated source speaker, thereby varying between adherence to explicit institutional norms that require first person and accommodation to non-professional interpreting practices that favor the use of reported speech. In a quantitative and qualitative analysis, this variation is shown to be influenced by several pragmatic and social factors, and to index the interpreters' stances towards source speakers and towards the immigrant court users who are the recipients of translations from English. It is argued that translation styles have profound consequences for limited English speakers, as the insistence on institutional norms in translating to them is viewed as a gatekeeping behavior that may impede their full participation in the proceedings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. This paper is a report of a study designed to explore the caregiving experiences of Korean Americans. Background. Increasing numbers of older people in the Asian population place important long-term care demands on Asian caregivers, yet minimal attention has been given to the issue of caregiving in this group. The current study attempts to fill the gap by describing Korean American caregivers' unique caregiving experiences from their perspectives. Method. A qualitative research design using a focus group approach was employed to discuss caregiving experiences in a cultural context. Data were collected over an 8-month period in 2005. Twenty-four informants, mostly women, at varying points surrounding caregiving participated in a focus group interview. Each focus group lasted about 1 ½-2 hours. Thematic analysis was conducted by two bilingual researchers. Findings. Three key themes were identified: the caregiver role - competing priorities and beliefs, the extent and impact of caregiving, and the need for education and culturally-tailored support systems. Ten subthemes were identified within the three major themes: (1) facing double challenges; (2) changing attitudes about filial piety ( Hyo); (3) providing care; (4) feeling out of control; (5) going through changing family dynamics; (6) being connected vs. providing connection; (7) paying back; (8) learning by themselves; (9) recognizing differences and (10) reconsidering geriatric care systems. Conclusion. The caregiving experiences described by Korean American families point to the need to identify and develop more focused outreach programmes as well as more culturally appropriate support services for this rapidly increasing population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1990 and 2000, the foreign-born population in the United States increased by 57 per cent, compared to a 13 per cent increase in the native-born population. This growth has fueled considerable media attention and has fomented some anti-immigrant sentiments. Although a number of authors have charted changes in support for restrictionist immigration policies, few have examined their determinants. In this paper, we focus on region of residence and use data from a 2004 telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 1888 adults to test the hypothesis that rural Americans are more likely to support restrictive immigration policies than individuals in urban and suburban communities. In a series of regression analyses, this hypothesis is confirmed; rural residents hold the most restrictionist views. Additional analyses indicate that this effect of rural residence on policy attitudes is mediated by attitudes toward multiculturalism, the perceived traits of immigrants, and perceptions about the costs of immigration. Ultimately, the analyses indicate that the perceived cost of immigration is the single strongest predictor of support for restrictive immigration policies, and that it best accounts for rural residents’more restrictionist views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporary migrants in the United States face the challenge of adapting to their host society while maintaining a cohesive social network within their newcomer communities. Among the principal factors affecting Mexican migrant social networks is bilingual competence. Most Mexican migrants plan to live in the United States for only a few years, sending money to support their families and communities in Mexico. While in the United States, they work long hours in jobs largely invisible to the public, often alongside other Spanish speakers and with little exposure to English. They have few opportunities and little motivation to integrate into the English-speaking community. In upstate New York, where few people in the host community speak Spanish, Mexican migrants remain largely dependent on English speakers as they negotiate housing, employment, health care, and other basic resources. Lack of English language is a barrier to obtaining local cultural information essential for migrants to navigate these resources successfully. On the other hand, migrants’maintenance of a close-knit transnational social network provides invaluable resources both for those living in the United States and those in Mexico. Young migrant children immersed in English at school with little positive valuation of Spanish are socialized in a network from which their parents are excluded, and risk losing the social capital provided by their Mexican social networks. To maintain and strengthen communal social capital in their transnational migrant communities, these temporary Mexican migrants must preserve their close-knit internal social networks while simultaneously forming social links with outsiders in the host society. In this paper, I examine the interplay of language and social networks in a recently formed Mexican migrant community in upstate New York. I suggest that, despite the challenges Mexican migrants face in obtaining fluent Spanish-English bilingualism, some degree of bilingual competence is well within their reach. The expansion and adaptation of local language programmes in English and Spanish could contribute significantly to migrants’bilingual competence, increasing their communal social capital and facilitating successful adaptation into their host community, as well as reintegration into their sending community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the historical development of cricket in America and seeks to explain why, despite having a significant initial impact, the game ultimately became culturally marginal. It is argued that class and cricketing relations in England in the mid-nineteenth century had a significant and hitherto unacknowledged impact on the diffusion of the game to America, and that this unplanned social process can only be understood in the light of the specific interdependencies between the British and Anglo-Americans, between upper and lower class English immigrants, and between English immigrants and “Native White Americans”. Correlatively, this analysis spreads new light on the establishment of baseball as America’s national game, illustrating a greater level of dependence on the English and English sport than is traditionally attributed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migrant voluntary associations are a pervasive feature of migrant communities in the United States. Migrant organizations help meet the basic needs of newly arrived migrants and provide introductions to social and economic networks in receiving communities. Over time, many of these mutual aid migrant associations morph into development-related organizations that foster transnational ties. These more transnationally oriented associations focus their attention on sending communities, making monetary and in-kind contributions to home villages, helping to launch political careers, and contributing to the building of political movements in the country of origin. Evaluating the potential of migrant associations to improve the lives of migrants and those in the country of origin requires a transnational focus, since the socio-political context of home and sending communities simultaneously affects and is affected by migrant associations. Given the diversity and specificity of transnational contexts, migration patterns, and political contexts, evaluating the impact of migrant associations can be a daunting task. As a result, accounts of the scope and activities of migrant associations tend to be descriptive in nature, providing detailed accounts of the transnational contexts in which these organizations operate but steering clear of an explicit evaluation of effectiveness. In this paper, I describe the range of types of Belizean associations in Chicago and identify the primary factors that have impacted the effectiveness of these migrant voluntary associations. I make recommendations for overcoming these challenges to ensure that the transformative potential of Belizean migrant voluntary associations is realized for the benefit of Belize and Belizeans. I conclude with suggestions for comparative research on migrant voluntary associations that will further allow these organizations to be leveraged for positive social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. This paper reports the findings of a study that explored characteristics of relationships of Japanese immigrant women partnered both intraculturally and interculturally, and analysed the role of Japanese culture in these relationships. Background. Immigration can cause shifts in interpersonal structures with partners. When there are large discrepancies in gender roles and communication styles between the original and host cultures, the psychological impact on both partners may be significant. However, currently no empirical data are available to support this assumption. Methods. Ten cases selected from the 68 medical records of Japanese-speaking women seen at a mental health clinic from September 2001 to September 2004 were analysed. All of the 10 women met DSM IV-TR criteria of major depressive disorder and were taking antidepressants. Half of the10 women were in intimate intercultural partnered relationships and the remainder of the matched cases were in intracultural relationships at the time of treatment. The two cohorts were matched in age (36.2 and 43.2 years), length of stay in the United States of America (12 and 16.2 years), and length of treatment (1.2 and 1 years). The length of time of the sample in individual psychodynamic psychotherapy ranged from 20 to 317 hours, depending on the intensity of therapy. Findings. Inductive data analysis revealed two themes: (1) Lack of awareness of differences in culturally bound communication by Japanese women in intercultural partnerships; (2) Lack of individuality in Japanese women in intracultural partnerships. Neither group appeared to consider relational aspects of partnership, or to make efforts to improve direct communication with their partners. Conclusion. The influence of Japanese culture on gender role and communication styles functions contrary to the mainstream Western culture of the United States of America. In the future, interpersonal elements of cultural differences between host and original cultures in immigration should be considered in research related to immigrants' mental health. This approach should lead to effective interventions to facilitate mental health among immigrants, and regardless of purposes of immigration or length of stay in a psychosocially foreign environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies suggest that the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in 1986 signalled a deterioration in the labour market conditions of Mexican migrants. In this paper, we examine whether and how labour market conditions worsened for Dominicans and Nicaraguans after 1986, and the extent to which these shifts were comparable to those experienced by Mexicans. Our analysis relies on a new source of data that offers comparable data across the three national origins. We estimate multivariate models that capture the effects of demographic attributes, human and social capital, migration-specific human and social capital, legal status, period of trip, national origin, and other controls on the hourly wages earned by household heads and whether they received cash wages on their last US trip. Models with interaction terms reveal significant pre- and post-1986 wage effects, but few differences in these effects between Mexicans and Dominicans or Nicaraguans. In contrast, group differences appear in the risk of cash receipt of wages. Dominicans and Nicaraguans experienced a greater increase in this risk relative to Mexicans pre- and post-1986. Together, these findings depict a broader, negative impact of IRCA on Latino migrant wages than has been documented elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper's model, undocumented workers are endogenously sorted into secondary labor markets. When further illegal immigration occurs, some new migrants follow their fellows into already migrant-dominated jobs, lowering migrant wages and raising real incomes of host-country labor and capital. Some submarkets switch from employing legal workers to employing migrants, lowering demand for and wages of legal workers. Undocumented immigration is Pareto-improving when enforcement reserves primary-sector jobs for legal workers. Pareto-dominant policies target the number of migrant-dominated submarkets, not the number of migrants. This appears consistent with U.S. enforcement practices. The effects of deportations, employer sanctions, and amnesties are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the initial location choice of legal employment-based immigrants to the United States using Immigration and Naturalization Service data on individual immigrants, as well as economic, demographic, and social data to characterize the 298 metropolitan areas we define as the universal choice set. Focusing on interactions between place characteristics and immigrant characteristics, we provide multinomial logit model estimates for the location choices of about 38,000 employment-based immigrants to the United States in 1995, focusing on the top 10 source countries. We find that, as groups, immigrants from nearly all countries are attracted to large cities with superior climates, and to cities with relatively well-educated adults and high wages. We also find evidence that employment-based immigrants tend to choose cities where there are relatively few immigrants of nationalities other than their own. However, when we introduce interaction terms to account for the sociodemographic characteristics of the individual immigrants, we find that the estimated effects of location destination factors can reverse as one takes account of the age, gender, marital status, and previous occupation of the immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New York, Los Angeles, and Miami are primate immigrant centers within the U.S. metropolitan system, attracting new immigrant arrivals as well as serving as focal points for internal migrants. Using the segmented assimilation framework as a foundation, this paper emphasizes the role of geography and migration within the assimilation process. Focusing upon selected origin groups, migrant selectivity and the determinants of migration are evaluated and compared, highlighting the differential role of primate centers. While the New York and Miami metropolitan centers clearly dominate Dominican and Cuban migration systems respectively, the role of primate centers is less clear among other national origin groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the economic assimilation of first, 1.5, and second generation Israeli Jewish immigrants in the United States. The empirical analyses are based on the 1990 public use sample (PUMS) that enables the identification of adult children of Jewish Israeli immigrants. The analyses show that all groups of Jewish Israeli immigrants in the United States are doing very well relative to a benchmark of native-born Americans. The comparisons also indicate that children of immigrants — both men and women — are even more successful economically than the immigrants themselves. The economic success of Israeli immigrants and their offspring in the United States is due not only to their high level of education, but also to unmeasured traits that help them earn more than demographically comparable natives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major urban areas in the United States have undergone rapid shifts in their ethnic compositions. However, ethnic change is not limited to urban areas; rural areas, likewise, have witnessed substantial changes in recent decades. Scholarship, though, has paid minimal attention to the day–to–day lives of migrants in non–urban, and ethnically–homogenous, locations. And yet the ‘migrant experience’ is fundamentally different. Using Friedman’s concept of a ‘geographics of identity’, this paper provides insight into the day–to–day activities of two Filipinas as they adjust to living in rural northeast Ohio. Findings suggest that difficulties may accrue at a multitude of social scales, including tensions and contestations not only between Filipinas and non–Filipinas, but also among the Filipinas themselves. Moreover, the constant ‘becoming’ of identity is highlighted through their experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions of immigration, settlement and adjustment within the U.S. do not typically refer to immigrant status (i.e., refugee versus family preference), and instead refer to the foreign–born population as an aggregate. Distinguishing between refugees and other immigrant arrivals likely means differences with respect to their geographic distribution and embodied human capital owing to differences associated with the reasons for immigration (forced versus voluntary), period of arrival, and immigration policy. The lack of differentiation by group within the existing literature is typically due to a shortfall of detailed information relating to admission status within publicly released data files. Yet concrete knowledge of differences by admission category is important in understanding overall patterns of settlement and adjustment within the foreign–born population. This paper therefore explores potential differences with respect to settlement and endowed human capital between immigrants and refugees. Identification of the major sources of refugees within Immigration and Naturalization Service data files allows the refugee population to be identified within the 1990 Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS), therefore increasing the range of variables and measures associated with the refugee population available to researchers, and points to the diversity of the refugee population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows that religion continues to be an important identity marker for new immigrants in the United States. However, immigrant groups differ in the ways they integrate religious and ethnic identities and the emphasis they place on each. In this paper, we argue that majority or minority status of their religious affiliation in the home and host countries is an important, but overlooked, factor in understanding strategies concerning religious and ethnic identities. By comparing two Chinese congregations, a Chinese Buddhist temple and a Chinese Christian church in Houston, Texas, we analyze what happens when an immigrant group moves from majority status in the home country to minority status in the United States (Chinese Buddhists) and when a minority group (Chinese Christians in China) become part of the Christian majority in the United States. We conclude by arguing the importance of going beyond U.S. borders and taking into account factors in their home countries in attempts to understand patterns of adaptation of the new immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior work finds declining immigrant quality in the postwar period that is linked to source-country and skill-composition changes associated with the 1965 Immigration Act. This paper uses a unique panel of foreign- and native-born American Economic Association members to show that the highly skilled experienced a similar shift away from European migrants toward those from Asia. However, the findings do not indicate that this change in source-country composition has been accompanied by a decline in quality; rather, the most recent cohorts of foreign-born economists appear to be more productive than their native counterparts. (JEL J61) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore the racial and ethnic self-identification of Dominican immigrants in the United States. This issue is central in understanding how immigrants experience the process of incorporation into American society. We argue that as Dominican immigrants incorporate to American life, they adopt a Hispanic or Latino identity. This identity serves both as a form of racial identification within the American racial stratification system and as a form of assertive panethnic identity. This identity, however, does not supersede national identification, which remains the anchoring identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we utilize GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping data to locate eleven immigrant congregations and the residential addresses of their members in Houston. Texas combining this information with ethnographic data allows us to understand how ecological variables impact organizational characteristics of religious institutions Specifically, we combine GZS and ethnographic data on immigrant congregations in Houston, Texas, to analyze characteristics that make them more part th or niche-like in structure We demonstrate that the combination of GIS techniques and standard field methods yields the greatest potential to provide a comprehensive understanding of what congregations mean to their members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to uncover the mytho-symbolic parallels between the social-psychological theories of noted sociologist W.I. Thomas and the vision of moral-religious transformation recorded in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. Thomas' emphasis on the "definition of the situation," precise stages of moral development, and the four wishes are seen to be derived from Bunyan's themes of spiritual instruction along Christian's journey, his progress through various stages of sanctification, and the various spiritual polarities established by Bunyan as structuring principles of his text. Thomas is understood to have distorted Bunyan's vision of ultimate transcendence by equating salvation with adoption of the Protestant ethic and its institutional context of the American political and economic status quo.
The present essay attempts to demonstrate that W.I. Thomas' classic analysis of the cultural life of Polish immigrants, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, similarly devalued traditional peasant morality and called for its complete transformation in the direction of middle-class Protestant moral strictures. Furthermore, Thomas' analysis will be seen to have utilized John Bunyan's classic narrative of religious conversion, The Pilgrim's Progress, as its implicit structural myth, adopting specific themes and symbols from The Pilgrim's Progress to characterize the Polish immigrant, like Christian, as abandoning a morally retrograde milieu, undertaking a dangerous journey in search of moral improvement and, according to specific stages of conversion, discovering a morally higher way of life in a new place. As with Watson's behaviorism, Thomas' analysis sought to enhance the moral stature of an increasingly defensive Protestant elite even while denigrating the moral character of the new immigrant life in the new American cities.
In this analysis we have tried to uncover the extensive mytho-symbolic connections between W.I. Thomas' sociology of... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]