The concept of segmented assimilation is both the most important and most controversial idea to have emerged over the past twenty years from the literature on the children of immigrants in the US. ...This article traces the origins of the concept, attempts to unravel the controversy surrounding it and to show how the concept has evolved. We consider the major findings from the largest and most widely cited research studies about the children of immigrants in the US. We find that segmented assimilation has been used both simply to describe the diversity of educational and economic outcomes among the children of immigrants and as a typology to explain those outcomes. The typology has been the more controversial use and has undergone several alterations since its introduction. We conclude that the emphasis on national origins in both description and explanation should be replaced with a focus on social contexts and processes.
This Land Is Our Land Stepick, Alex; Grenier, Guillermo; Castro, Max ...
04/2003
eBook
For those opposed to immigration, Miami is a nightmare. Miami is the de facto capital of Latin America; it is a city where immigrants dominate, Spanish is ubiquitous, and Denny's is an ethnic ...restaurant. Are Miami's immigrants representative of a trend that is undermining American culture and identity? Drawing from in-depth fieldwork in the city and looking closely at recent events such as the Elián González case,This Land Is Our Landexamines interactions between immigrants and established Americans in Miami to address fundamental questions of American identity and multiculturalism. Rather than focusing on questions of assimilation, as many other studies have, this book concentrates on interethnic relations to provide an entirely new perspective on the changes wrought by immigration in the United States. A balanced analysis of Miami's evolution over the last forty years,This Land Is Our Landis also a powerful demonstration that immigration in America is not simply an "us versus them" phenomenon.
Beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s, significant numbers of Haitian immigrants began to arrive and settle in Miami. Overcoming some of the most foreboding obstacles ever to face immigrants in ...America, they have diversified socioeconomically. Together, they have made South Florida home to the largest population of native-born Haitians and diasporic Haitians outside of the Caribbean and one of the most significant Caribbean immigrant communities in the world. Religion has played a central role in making all of this happen. Crossing the Water and Keeping the Faith is a historical and ethnographic study of Haitian religion in immigrant communities, based on fieldwork in both Miami and Haiti, as well as extensive archival research. Where many studies of Haitian religion limit themselves to one faith, Rey and Stepick explore Catholicism, Protestantism, and Vodou in conversation with one another, suggesting that despite the differences between these practices, the three faiths ultimately create a sense of unity, fulfillment, and self-worth in Haitian communities. This meticulously researched and vibrantly written book contributes to the growing body of literature on religion among new immigrants.Terry Reyis Associate Professor of Religion at Temple University. He is the coeditor (with Alex Stepick and Sarah Mahler) ofChurches and Charity in the Immigrant City: Religion, Immigration, and Civic Engagement in Miami.Alex Stepickis Professor of Sociology at Portland State University and Professor of Global and Sociocultural Studies at Florida International University. He is coauthor (with Alejandro Portes) ofCity on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami.In theNorth American Religionsseries
In addition to being a religious countryùover ninety percent of Americans believe in God--the United States is also home to more immigrants than ever before.Churches and Charity in the Immigrant ...Cityfocuses on the intersection of religion and civic engagement among Miami's immigrant and minority groups. The contributors examine the role of religious organizations in developing social relationships and how these relationships affect the broader civic world. Essays, for example, consider the role of leadership in the promotion and creation of "civic social capital" in a Haitian Catholic church, transnational ties between Cuban Catholics in Miami and Havana, and several African American congregations that serve as key comparisons of civic engagement among minorities.
This book is important not only for its theoretical contributions to the sociology of religion, but also because it gives us a unique glimpse into immigrants' civic and religious lives in urban America.
This article examines factors that affect interethnic relations in Miami, Florida. The theoretical framework, based on the 'contact hypothesis' argues that better interethnic relations stem from not ...only contact, but also contact in which individuals from opposing groups share equal status and a stake in outcomes, and when contact activities require cooperation. The contact hypothesis, however, does not address the factors that produce inequality in social relations. To address these factors ideas from international migration research are used to argue that those with power must create structures in which other groups feel welcome rather than rejected and that leaders must emphasize similarities rather than differences among groups. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
"The theoretical focus of this paper is the context of reception experienced by migrants in their new homeland. In particular the authors examine relations between established residents and newcomers ...or immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, and other Caribbean and Latin American nations in South Florida. Based upon long term fieldwork among late adolescents and young adults, they develop a framework and give ethnographic examples of established resident-newcomer relations that influence the contexts of reception for immigrants in South Florida. These contexts range from positive to negative, vary between national and local settings, and change over time." (author's abstract).
Although most immigrants are adults, their foreign and U.S.-born children are the fastest-growing component of the U.S. population. How these children integrate into U.S. society and the ways that ...they civically engage will greatly determine the nature of civil society in the United States over the next few decades. Using qualitative and quantitative data, this study compares the patterns of civic engagement of immigrant and nonimmigrant youth in Miami, Florida, a region of the United States with the highest proportion of immigrants. By almost all measures, immigrant civic engagement is statistically similar to that of nonimmigrants. Because immigrants engage more in civic actions that benefit their ethnic group, they are often missed by traditional civic engagement measures. Those of immigrant extraction, for example, devote considerable activity to using their bilingual skills and helping other immigrants. Like native minorities, immigrants also become heavily engaged in politically related activities in response to discrimination.
After presenting demographic data to demonstrate why immigrant youth are and will be important, this article addresses the limited literature on immigrant youth civic engagement. It also examines the ...historical literature of immigrant youth in the United States, specifically that of the last great wave of immigration approximately 100 years ago, along with the literature on contemporary adult immigrant civic engagement. It concludes that today's immigrant youth are Americanizing. Nevertheless, when U.S. society and particularly the U.S. state treats immigrant youth as different, the immigrant youth respond with pride by defending their cultural integrity, their right to be different. Contemporary immigrant youth also have the opportunity to maintain transnational ties with their homeland. In response to these forces and opportunities, immigrant youth maintain multiple identities, sometimes identifying with their homeland culture at other times with the United States. The unanswered question is what difference these multiple ties may make for civic engagement.
This article focuses on the different pathways that Haitian students follow to eventual success despite tremendous challenges. The authors give special attention to the notion of pathway and ...differentiate various avenues to attain success. Constant motivated achievers maintain a strong focus on academic goals and make sacrifices to achieve them. Persistent strivers have not achieved as readily or as highly as the previous category and, despite their effort, tend to do poorly in academic tests. Another group, not identified in previous writings, consists of late bloomers who did not do well in high school, often drifting along with average and low grades but who eventually come to recognize the value of education. The parent-child relationship is shown to play an important role in promoting effort. The desire to fulfill an obligation to one's parents through education, the authors argue, is based on Haitian cultural conceptions and social practices related to family.
Beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s, significant numbers of Haitian immigrants began to arrive and settle in Miami. Overcoming some of the most foreboding obstacles ever to face immigrants in ...America, they, their children, and now their grandchildren, as well as more recently arriving immigrants from Haiti, have diversified socioeconomically. Together, they have made South Florida home to the largest population of native-born Haitians and diasporic Haitians outside of the Caribbean and one of the most significant Caribbean immigrant communities in the world. Religion has played a central role in making all of this happen. Crossing the Water and Keeping the Faith is a historical and ethnographic study of Haitian religion in immigrant communities, based on fieldwork in both Miami and Haiti, as well as extensive archival research. Where many studies of Haitian religion limit themselves to one faith, Rey and Stepick explore Catholicism, Protestantism, and Vodou in conversation with one another, suggesting that despite the differences between these practices, the three faiths ultimately create a sense of unity, fulfillment, and self-worth in Haitian communities. This meticulously researched and vibrantly written book contributes to the growing body of literature on religion among new immigrants, as well as providing a rich exploration of Haitian faith communities.
