Middle -class immigrant identities: Dominican-Americans in South Florida

Identity studies of immigrants are complex because of multiple influences affecting identity reconstruction during immigration and acculturation: nationality, socio-cultural differences, occupations, education, spatial and geographic locations, age, gender, and personal attributes. Most immigrant identity studies deal with lower-income immigrants, who do not have the resources of middle- and upper-middle-class immigrants. South Florida is “home” to many middle-class immigrants, including Dominican-Americans. This dissertation interviewed sixty-six Dominican immigrants in South Florida, in order to determine their reconstructed identities after immigration/resettlement and to discover what influences contributed to these changes in identities. ^ The research design of this dissertation utilized an inductive, qualitative model, with the “grounded theory” method of data collection, categorization, and analysis. Participants were selected by a snowball sampling and interviewed with an informal questionnaire. Results were transcribed, categorized, tabulated, and analyzed for conclusions and theorization on immigrant identity. ^ The dissertation addressed numerous influences relating to identity reconstruction: the differing circumstances of immigration, the unique resources of middle- and higher-class immigrants, the nurturing environment of South Florida for immigrants with education and professional skills, and the boundary protection offered by suburban spaces. The interviewees displayed a wide range of age, length of residence in the United States, reasons for immigration, entry ports, settlement, relocations, occupations, and claimed identities. Identity was cross-tabulated with the various influences, as a means of invalidating certain influences and indicating possible trends. ^ The dissertation concluded that middle-class immigrant identities are diverse and multiple, as are the related influences. None of these immigrants had become totally assimilated, nor have they retained dual, non-overlapping attachments or frames of reference. Instead, many of the immigrants seemed to have developed or negotiated two or more identities, according to need, context, and personal interest. A cosmopolitan community such as South Florida seems to have encouraged such multiplicity of identity. However, rather than forming free-flowing identities, most of these immigrants eventually developed diverse and hybrid identities that have bounded attachments to various networks, groups, and places in South Florida. ^

Temporal changes in immigration stress, adaptation, and the factors contributing to the immigration -adaptation process in newly immigrant parents

The adaptation process to a new land can be an arduous transition for families who migrate from their countries in an attempt to evade negative life conditions. Family-based immigration has been the cornerstone of immigration policy for the U.S. However, there has been a relative lack of attention given in immigration studies to the impact of immigration particularly on parents. Furthermore, little is known about their adjustment to their post-migration circumstances, particularly the initial phase of migration, where the psychological impact of immigration tends to be concentrated. It is even rarer that investigators have addressed longitudinally the dynamic process of parents' adaptation to a new ecology, which can shed a great deal of light on its mechanisms. In this dissertation, changes over time in levels of stress, adjustment (affect balance and life satisfaction), and the factors (social support, economic hardship, and discrimination) contributing to stress and adjustment were examined in newly immigrant parents from Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Haiti, and the West Indies. Moderating effects of gender and country-of-origin were examined as well. This study also aimed to investigate to what extent the contributing factors impacted stress and adjustment, not only concurrently, but also over the first three years of post-migration. Analysis of variance results showed that both affect balance and social support increased whereas life satisfaction decreased over time. There was no significant change in stress, however. Both gender and group effects were also observed. Mothers experienced higher stress whereas fathers experienced higher discrimination. Among groups, Haitians appeared at the greatest risk in terms of stress, discrimination, and economic hardship. A structural equation modeling analysis showed that the relative importance of contributing factors changed over time in the process of immigrants' adaptation. Yet, social support emerged as a powerful protective factor in that its effects carried over time, and discrimination was a primary mediator through which other predictors were related to stress and adjustment. These findings shed light on the "hows and whys" of the immigration-adaptation process, by demonstrating the significance of specific conditions of life change to psychological outcomes as newly immigrant parents adapt to their post-migration ecology.

The relationship of immigrant status to perceptions of reading and reading literacy among young Black students: A test of the Cultural -Ecological Theory of School Performance

This study tests Ogbu and Simons' Cultural-Ecological Theory of School Performance using data from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study of 2001 (PIRLS), a large-scale international survey and reading assessment involving fourth grade students from 35 countries, including the United States. This theory argues that Black immigrant students outperform their non-immigrant counterparts, academically, and that achievement differences are attributed to stronger educational commitment in Black immigrant families. Four hypotheses are formulated to test this theory: Black immigrant students have (a) more receptive attitudes toward reading; (b) a more positive reading self-concept; and (c) a higher level of reading literacy. Furthermore, (d) the relationship of immigrant status to reading perceptions and literacy persists after including selected predictors. These hypotheses are tested separately for girls and boys, while also examining immigrant students' generational status (i.e., foreign-born or second-generation). ^ PIRLS data from a subset of Black students (N=525) in the larger U.S. sample of 3,763 are analyzed to test the hypotheses, using analysis of variance, correlation and multiple regression techniques. Findings reveal that hypotheses a and b are not confirmed (contradicting the Cultural-Ecological Theory) and c and d are partially supported (lending partial support to the theory). Specifically, immigrant and non-immigrant students did not differ in attitudes toward reading or reading self-concept; second-generation immigrant boys outperformed both non-immigrant and foreign-born immigrant boys in reading literacy, but no differences were found among girls; and, while being second-generation immigrant had a relatively stronger relationship to reading literacy for boys, among girls, selected socio-cultural predictors, number of books in the home and length of U.S. residence, had relatively stronger relationship to reading self-concept than did immigrant status. This study, therefore, indicates that future research employing the Cultural-Ecological Theory should: (a) take gender and generational status into account (b) identify additional socio-cultural predictors of Black children's academic perceptions and performance; and (c) continue to build on this body of evidence-based knowledge to better inform educational policy and school personnel in addressing needs of all children. ^

Immigrant-Established Resident Interactions in Miami, Florida

This article examines factors that affect interethnic relations in Miami, Florida. The theoretical frame- work, 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 inter- national 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.

Global Capitalism, Immigrant Labor, and the Struggle for Justice

Around the world borders are militarized, states are stepping up repressive anti-immigrant controls, and native publics are turning immigrants into scapegoats for the spiraling crisis of global capitalism. The massive displacement and primitive accumulation unleashed by free trade agreements and neo-liberal policies, as well as state and “private” violence has resulted in a virtually inexhaustible immigrant labor reserve for the global economy. State controls over immigration and immigrant labor have several functions for the system: 1) state repression and criminalization of undocumented immigration make immigrants vulnerable and deportable and therefore subject to conditions of super-exploitation, super-control and hyper-surveillance; 2) anti-immigrant repressive apparatuses are themselves ever more important sources of accumulation, ranging from private for-profit immigrant detention centers, to the militarization of borders, and the purchase by states of military hardware and systems of surveillance. Immigrant labor is extremely profitable for the transnational corporate economy; 3) the anti-immigrant policies associated with repressive state apparatuses help turn attention away from the crisis of global capitalism among more privileged sectors of the working class and convert immigrant workers into scapegoats for the crisis, thus deflecting attention from the root causes of the crisis and undermining working class unity. This article focuses on structural and historical underpinnings of the phenomenon of immigrant labor in the new global capitalist system and on how the rise of a globally integrated production and financial system, a transnational capitalist class, and transnational state apparatuses, have led to a reorganization of the world market in labor, including deeper reliance on a rapidly expanding reserve army of immigrant labor and a vicious new anti-immigrant politics. It looks at the United States as an illustration of the larger worldwide situation with regard to immigration and immigrant justice. Finally, it explores the rise of an immigrant justice movement around the world, observes the leading role that immigrant workers often play in worker’s struggles and that a mass immigrant rights movement is at the cutting edge of the struggle against transnational corporate exploitation. We call for replacing the whole concept of national citizenship with that of global citizenship as the only rallying cry that can assure justice and equality for all.

Influences on immigrant students' perceptions of the chances of making it in the United States

This study examined immigrant minority students' perceptions of race relations and of the chances for social mobility in the United States (U.S.) using cohort samples of West Indian (N=173) and Haitian (N=191) students. The Students' responses collected during the 6th and 7th, 8th and 9th grades were analyzed to determine whether perceptions of racial mistrust, teacher derogation and social mobility varied depending on the student's length of stay in the U.S. or self-concept. Quantitative methodology was applied to data extrapolated from a larger epidemiological longitudinal study consisting of 7, 386 middle school students in Miami (Vega and Gil, 1998). Results show that West Indian and Haitian students' perceptions of racial mistrust, teacher derogation and social mobility were associated more with student's self-concept than length of stay. Students with more favorable self-concepts reported greater optimism toward social mobility than those with less favorable self-concepts. Results also indicate that in the context of parental education and SES that racial mistrust is the strongest predictor of these students' level of optimism towards social mobility.

Is unemployment and low income harmful to health? : Evidence from Britain

Peer reviewed

Is unemployment and low income harmful to health? : Evidence from Britain

Peer reviewed

Is unemployment and low income harmful to health? : Evidence from Britain

Peer reviewed

Women against S.1. (Unemployment)

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Unemployment demonstration in Washington, D.C.

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Unemployment office with unemployed seeking jobs

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Bella Abzug attends unemployment rally in Washington, D.C.

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Economic Policy Voting and Incumbency: Unemployment in Western Europe

The economic voting literature has been dominated by the incumbency-oriented hypothesis, where voters reward or punish government at the ballot box according to economic performance. The alternative, policy-oriented hypothesis, where voters favor parties closest to their issue position, has been neglected in this literature. We explore policy voting with respect to an archetypal economic policy issue – unemployment. Voters who favor lower unemployment should tend to vote for left parties, since they “own” the issue. Examining a large time-series cross-sectional (TSCS) pool of Western European nations, we find some evidence for economic policy voting. However, it exists in a form conditioned by incumbency. According to varied tests, left incumbents actually experience a net electoral cost, if the unemployment rate climbs under their regime. Incumbency, then, serves to break any natural economic policy advantage that might accrue to the left due to the unemployment issue.