Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America

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	• Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America Rubén G. Rumbaut, Alejandro Portes University of California Press, 2001 - 353 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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This collection of studies by Rumbaut and Portes presents a highly detailed study of immigrant's children in the US from Asia, Latin American and the Caribbean. The studies cover the children's stories at various times while they are growing up making it easy to see how they deal with adolsence and coming of age. It deals with such important issues as educational ambitions, levels of discrimination, language usage (both in English and their parent's language), and relationships with their parents and the larger community around them.

Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America

Since 1965 the United States has been in the midst of a most profound demographic transformation. The non-European immigrant population has increased dramatically and by 1997 approximately 55 million people (20.5 percent) of the total U.S. population were foreign-born. These newcomers are concentrated in California, Florida, Texas, and New York/New Jersey. To study these important demographic and social changes to the foundation of the American landscape, Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut began in 1990 to follow 5, 262 students enrolled in the eighth and ninth grades in Southern California and Southern Florida. Students were eligible to enter the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) if they were U.S. born but had at least one foreign-born parent (second generation) or if they themselves were foreign-born and had come to the U.S. at an early age (before age 12) (1.5 generation). Five years later in 1995-1996 a second survey of the same group of children was conducted-- this time supplemented by separate-in-depth interviews with a large sample of their parents. The purpose of this follow-up effort, which succeeded in re-interviewing 82 percent of the baseline sample, was to ascertain changes over time in their family situation, school achievement, educational and occupational aspirations, language use and preferences, ethnic identities, experiences and expectations of discrimination, and psycho-social adjustment.
The outcome of this research was two volumes-- one entitled: Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation (2001). This volume focused on the patterns of acculturation, family and school life, language, identity, experiences of discrimination, self-esteem, ambition and achievement. The weakness of this work is that it does not probe very deeply into the importance of ethnicity and how it influences adaptation patterns and trajectories of the children of immigrants. The second volume entitled Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America (2001) presents seven individually authored case studies in an attempt to provide a closer look at the adaptation patterns and trajectories of youth from: Cuba, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Haiti, Mexico, Jamaica and other West Indian origins. To undertake this analysis, Rumbaut and Portes brought together a group of scholars who specialize in each of the major immigrant nationalities, made available to them the CILS data set, and invited them to combine their expertise to explain what each group was experiencing
The researchers came to a number of similar conclusions. The first was that second and 1.5 generation acculturation is being aggravated by troubles associated with coming of age in an era far more materialistic and individualistic than those encountered by immigrant children in years gone by. Today's youth often find themselves straddling different worlds and receiving conflicting signals. At home, they hear that they must work hard and do well in school to move up; on the street they learn a different lesson, that of rebellion against authority and rejection of the goals of achievement.
Unlike their European origin predecessors the present second and 1.5 generation is undergoing a process of segmented assimilation in which outcomes vary across immigrant populations and in which rapid integration and acceptance into the American mainstream represent just one possible alternative. A number of factors are decisive in determining this segmented assimilation. They include: (1) the history of the immigrant first generation, including the human capital brought by immigrant parents and the context of their reception; (2) the differential pace of acculturation among parents and children, including the development of language gaps between them; (3) the cultural and economic barriers confronted by second-generation youth in their quest for successful adaptation; and (4) the family and community resources avaliable for confronting these barriers.
Each chapter in Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America illustrates how varied the process of assimilation has become. In some instances, such as the Filipinos, a high human capital among immigrant parents combined with a relatively neutral or favorable context of reception produced a rapid mobility into the middle class. In other cases, socio-economic success depends less on advanced educational credentials in the first generation than on the possession of entrepreneurial skills and a favorable context of reception. The diverse Cuban enclave in Miami illustrates this type of assimilation as do the Vietnamese refugees whose positive reception by the U.S. government provided the grounds for reconstruction of families and communities.
In other cases, such as Mexicans, limited professional or entrepreneurial skills among the first generation, an unfavorable government reception, and a hostile societal reception means that their children seldom have the opportunity to assimilate into middle-class American circles but rather have every opportunity to sink into the native poor and underclass. Nicaraguans also face the possibility of downward assimilation because they have met with an unwelcome official reception and severe handicaps in the local labor market. The downward assimilation pattern is also evident among Haitian immigrants in Southern Florida. Hostile governmental reception, a low average human capital among the first generation, and a widespread social and labor market discrimination have produced what is arguably the most impoverished immigrant community in the region. Jamaican and other West Indian immigrants are subject to similar external discrimination, however in their case an unfavorable context of reception is partially balanced by the educational and occupational credentials of many parents, and their fluent (and distinctly accented) English.
Overall, the studies in this book provide an excellent overview of the situation faced by non-European second and 1.5 generation migrants. Rumbaut and Portes have once again established themselves as the leading research team on migration issues in the United States. A reliable source of longitudinal data accounts for the importance and richness of these studies. In addition, as members of the community they studied, many of the authors were able to offer more information or speculation as to the reasons behind the successes or failures of each particular group. In the past, immigrants (or more likely their children) first became ethnics and later plain Americans, today the journey is bumpy for non-white ethnic groups. There is no longer just one America that newcomers enter nor only one American identity that they may adopt. Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America highlights these realities and is highly recommend as a primary source to students doing upper level Sociology of Migration or Ethnic Studies courses. Individuals using this book will find helpful tools for understanding how the new non-European second and 1.5 generation immigrants build, remodel, and adapt to their lives in the United States.

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The new immigration to the United States is unprecedented in its diversity of color, class, and cultural origins. Over the past few decades, the racial and ethnic composition and stratification of the American population--as well as the social meanings of race, ethnicity, and American identity--have fundamentally changed. Ethnicities, a companion volume to Rubén G. Rumbaut's and Alejandro Portes's Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation, brings together some of the country's leading scholars of immigration and ethnicity to examine the lives and trajectories of the children of today's immigrants. The emerging ethnic groups of the United States in the 21st century are being formed in this process, with potentially profound societal impacts. Whether this new ethnic mosaic reinvigorates the nation or spells a quantum leap in its social problems depends on the social and economic incorporation of this still young population.
The contributors to this volume probe systematically and in depth the adaptation patterns and trajectories of concrete ethnic groups. They provide a close look at this rising second generation by focusing on youth of diverse national origins--Mexican, Cuban, Nicaraguan, Filipino, Vietnamese, Haitian, Jamaican and other West Indian--coming of age in immigrant families on both coasts of the United States. Their analyses draw on the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study, the largest research project of its kind to date. Ethnicities demonstrates that, while some of the ethnic groups being created by the new immigration are in a clear upward path, moving into society's mainstream in record time, others are headed toward a path of blocked aspirations and downward mobility. The book concludes with an essay summarizing the main findings, discussing their implications, and identifying specific lessons for theory and policy.
A Copublication with the Russell Sage Foundation

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