“Whoever decides for you without you,s/he is against you!”: immigrant activism and the role of the Left in political racialization

Much of the migration literature neglects the questions of why and how “native” allies obstruct activism by immigrants and ethnic minorities. Left-wing organizations in particular are often assumed to be supportive of inclusion, and little research exists on the ways they have prevented the migrant population from having a voice in the political arena and from taking part in society as equals. Drawing on the critical theory literature, I introduce the concept of political racialization. This concept refers to mechanisms whereby political actors, in order to legitimize their work on immigration, have partially included immigrants in the political sphere, but in a relationship of “ethnic” or “racial” subordination. Through the analysis of 57 in-depth interviews with immigrant activists, I show how political racialization works within the Italian Left and how it contributes to marginalize the migrant population. I further explain how immigrant activists have challenged political racialization through their activism.     

Religion and the organizational context of immigrant civic engagement: Mexican Catholicism in the USA

This article complements emerging research on immigrant civic participation by examining how Catholic churches facilitate volunteer and political participation among first-generation Mexican immigrants. Drawing on interviews and ethnographic data, it identifies two reinforcing mechanisms that churches foster: small groups and organizational links. Specifically, small groups, like prayer groups, provide immigrants with intimate contexts for building networks, learning skills and sharing resources. On the other hand, churches cultivate links to secular organizations that sensitize immigrants to public debates and provide opportunities for civic participation. Put simply, church-going immigrants take advantage of broader civic opportunities because they gain resources and skills within small groups. Implications for understanding immigrant religion and civic participation more broadly are discussed.     

Bridging the gap: transnational and ethnic organizations in the political incorporation of immigrants in the United States

This study was prompted by concerns about the ways in which immigrant organizations, especially those of a transnational character, may retard or prevent political integration among recent migrants to the United States. For this purpose, we constructed an inventory of all organizations created by Colombian, Dominican and Mexican immigrants in the United States, interviewed leaders of the twenty largest organizations from each group in person, and conducted a survey of 178 additional organizations by telephone or Internet. Results reveal a near-absence of perceived conflict between transnational activism and political incorporation. Almost without exception, leaders asserted that there was no contradiction between home-country loyalties and activities and US citizenship and voting. These results appear to reflect genuine conviction, rather than any social desirability syndrome. Objective indicators show that most organizations maintain close ties with US political authorities at various levels and engage in a number of US-focused civic and political activities. Determinants of such engagement are examined. Implications of the results for theory and public policy are discussed.     

The politics of immigration locally: alliances between political parties and immigrant organizations

Alliances are a political opportunity that reinforce the claims made by different players in the political sphere. However, the literature on the political participation of immigrants pays little attention to the formation of alliances and their effects on the interaction between immigrants and institutional actors, especially under circumstances of politicization. This article aims to explain the emergence of alliances between political parties and immigrant organizations when immigration is politicized locally. I argue that the need to legitimize the political parties’ position on the politicization guide their alliances with immigrants. Using qualitative methods, I analyse the emergence of alliances in the anti-Romanian-Roma campaign in Badalona and the burka ban in Lleida, both in Catalonia, Spain. The findings portray these relationships as the outcome of strategic interactions that respond to the balance of power between institutional and non-institutional actors.     

Immigrants' Cultural Identities as Sources of Civic Engagement

Immigrant parents (first generation) and adolescents (second generation) from El Salvador and India (N = 80) took part in interviews on civic engagement. The immigrants were almost unanimous in regarding civic engagement as important. They also were engaged themselves, more so at the community than the political level. One third of immigrants were engaged in community activities that specifically had a cultural focus or occurred through cultural organizations, and the comparable number for political activities was 25%. Cultural motives (i.e., a cultural or immigrant sense of self) were twice as likely to be mentioned as sources of engagement rather than disengagement. Qualitative analyses of these cultural motives revealed seven engagement themes (e.g., cultural tradition of service) and three of disengagement (e.g., ethnic exclusion).     

Understanding the diversity of immigrant incorporation: a forms-of-capital model

This article develops the concept of forms of capital as the basis of a model of immigrant incorporation. The model sets out the manner in which the social, financial, and human-cultural capital of immigrant families predict the sorting of immigrants into various labour market trajectories. For example, immigrants arriving with low stocks of financial and human-cultural capital are most likely to find employment in the ethnic economy, whereas immigrants with human-cultural capital that is fungible in the host society tend to gain employment in the broader mainstream economy. Event history analysis is employed to demonstrate the model on four patterns of job mobility common among immigrants: entrepreneurship, professional-managerial-technical jobs, employment in the public sector, and semi- or low-skilled factory work and low-paid service jobs. The findings show that the mix of capital immigrants arrive with, and subsequently accumulate, shapes the trajectory of their incorporation into the host society. The research is based on a field study of Asian immigrants in the greater Los Angeles area.     

The Civic Engagement of Immigrant Youth: New Evidence From the 2006 Civic and Political Health of the Nation Survey

We present new evidence on the civic engagement of immigrants and the children of immigrant parents (ages 15 to 25). Utilizing the 2006 Civic and Political Health of the Nation Survey conducted by CIRCLE, we find that young immigrants report lower levels of civic engagement on most measures compared to natives. However, once observable demographic factors are controlled, many of these differences are eliminated. In contrast, the children of immigrant parents report levels of civic engagement that match or exceed those of natives.     

Revisiting the Asian second-generation advantage

Asian Americans comprise 6.4% of the US population, but account for over 20% of the country’s elite Ivy League students. While researchers have studied mechanisms that promote an “Asian second-generation advantage” in education, including immigrant hyper-selectivity, few have examined whether this advantage extends into the labour market. Focusing on the five largest Asian groups – Chinese, Indians, Filipinos, Vietnamese, and Koreans – we revisit the thesis of Asian second-generation advantage. We argue that how we define advantage – as outcomes or mobility, in education or in occupations – matters. Our analyses reveal that all five second-generation Asian groups attain exceptional educational outcomes, but vary in intergenerational mobility. Second-generation Vietnamese exhibit the greatest intergenerational gains, followed by second-generation Chinese and Koreans; second-generation Indians and Filipinos experience none. Moreover, this advantage disappears in the labour market for all groups, except for Chinese, revealing the domain-specific nature of the Asian second-generation advantage.     

Immigrant political socialization as bridging and boundary work: mapping the multi-layered incorporation of Latin American immigrants in Toronto

We present a longitudinal map of three overlapping organizational trajectories developed by Latin American immigrants in the city of Toronto. We propose the concept of bridging and boundary work to specify how new (1) intersectional political identities and organizational agendas are constituted by Latin American feminist women and artists in the interstice of (2) country-of-origin and (3) mainstream pan-ethnic organizations. Boundary work occurs as activists with intersectional priorities carve out a distinct political agenda; the ‘out-group’ relations based on a shared sectoral focus constitute bridging work. Tracing changes in the local and transnational political opportunity structures, we consider how negotiations over resources, representation and agendas between these three Latin American organizational forms generate multi-directional political learning and socialization and the coexistence of different Latin American political cultures. We define political socialization as in-group and out-group encounters between political cultures understood as civic toolkits or ways of doing politics.     

"They See Us as Resource": The Role of a Community-Based Youth Center in Supporting the Academic Lives of Low-Income Chinese American Youth

Based on a 15-week ethnographic-based research, this article examines the role of a community-based youth center in supporting the academic lives of Chinese American youth from low-income families in an east coast city I call "Harborview." This study demonstrates the significant role that community-based organizations play for low-income immigrant youth in providing them with social capital. This study also challenges the portrayal of Asian Americans as model minorities who do not face any barriers.  [Asian American education, community-based organizations, out-of-school-time programs, social capital]     

Beyond co-ethnicity: the politics of differentiating and integrating new immigrants in Singapore

This essay joins the ongoing debates about the role of co-ethnic ties in the making of diaspora identity by examining Singaporean Chinese perceptions of new immigrants from the mainland and the state's strategies in integrating the newcomers. The public discourses on new Chinese immigrants have produced three interlinked narratives: (1) newcomers are socially and culturally different from the mainstream and earlier immigrants; (2) newcomers have intensified the competition for scarce resources; and (3) newcomers are politically attached to China, whose rise as a global power only serves to reinforce such linkages. I argue that co-ethnicity and common cultural heritage play little role in shaping local Singaporeans' view of the new diaspora; instead, political pragmatism and new identity politics that prioritize the nation above ethnicity are the key factors influencing public attitudes and policy options regarding new immigrants. Furthermore, intra-diaspora differences/conflicts have reinforced interracial solidarity and contributed to the nation-building project.     

Migratory journeys and tuberculosis risk

After decades of decline, tuberculosis case rates in New York City more than tripled between 1978 and 1992. While the number of cases of those born in the United States declined after 1992, the proportion of immigrant tuberculosis cases continued to increase and reached 58 percent in 1999. This article questions the biomedical explanation of immigrant tuberculosis as being imported from immigrants' countries of origin. Illness narratives of illegal Chinese immigrants with tuberculosis detailing risks associated with migratory journeys are presented. The social and cultural nature of the concept of risk, as well as the adverse implication of biomedical identification of immigrants as being at higher risk of tuberculosis, are also discussed. The author concludes that the dominant biomedical explanation of immigrant tuberculosis could be modified with the incorporation of the migratory process as a risk factor.     

The ambiguities of political opportunity: political claims-making of Russian-Jewish immigrants in New York City

Abstract

How, and as what, are immigrant minorities incorporated into the political process? A set of prominent approaches focus on the political opportunity structure that immigrants encounter. Although promising in many aspects, these approaches fail to consider the internal heterogeneity of both immigrant populations and opportunity structures. This is partly a result of taking ethnic groups rather than political entrepreneurs as the unit of analysis and of not disaggregating the political context properly. I show how Russian-Jewish immigrant political entrepreneurs in New York City used very different strategies of ethnic mobilization, each emphasizing a different ethnic cleavage: one making claims in the name of Russians, the other downplaying Russianness and highlighting the Jewish identity dimension. Both strategies had good chances at success thus illustrating that political opportunity structures may encourage different claims-making strategies at the same time. Ethno-political entrepreneurs navigate complex political landscapes that are ex-ante only partially transparent.     

Rethinking the deserving body: altruism,markets, and political action in health care provision

Abstract

I seek to understand two dimensions in the evolution and practices of medical institutions in the USA. First, I ask, how and why do medical organizations limit, suspend, or redirect profit-oriented functions to abide by principles of altruism and still survive in a competitive market economy? Reaching out to poor and immigrant populations entails non-economic factors, including the deployment of religious and humanitarian narratives. Conversely, the extent and character of legislative actions supporting philanthropic endeavours is closely related to mobilization at the grassroots level. I investigate the ways in which community organizations bring about changes to support practices that confound, at least to some extent, market expectations and underscore the significance of political action to secure health care services on behalf of low-income populations, including immigrants.     

New Immigrant Youth Interpreting in White Public Space

ABSTRACT   Bilingual children are frequently called on to use their linguistic and communicative virtuosity to interpret for monolingual speakers. In this article, we theorize child interpreters' positionalities within the interstices of several borderlands: as children; as interpreters and translators interpreting different languages, registers, and discourses; and as immigrants seeking services within white public space. We analyze how youths are positioned to provide service and surveillance within overdetermined interpreter-mediated practices. In examining these practices, we raise to consciousness some of the social and ideological conditions that circumscribe working-class Latino/a and new Mexican immigrant children within inherently unequal subject positions. [Keywords: interpreter-mediated interactions, childhood, Mexican new immigrants, racialization, white public space]     

The apple,the tree,and a space to grow in

The idea for the study presented in Spanish Legacies: the coming of age of the second generation was sparked by the series of unrests from immigrant youths in a number of cities across Europe. The discontent expressed by the young generation of immigrants presented a sharp indicator of how little is known about young people of foreign origin growing up as immigrant residents in Europe, despite their significant number (10 per cent in France, 13 per cent in Spain and 15 per cent in Ireland by 2010). The success or failure of immigrants’ integrational processes, considering cultural factors and language barriers as challenges experienced by immigrants, can have major political and social impact on the regions where they reside. It is these challenges that are investigated in depth, in this book.     

The concentration of Asian Americans in STEM and health-care occupations: an intergenerational comparison

This article examines the concentration of Asian Americans in the STEM and health-care fields of study and occupations by generation, ethnic group and gender, compared to white Americans, based on the 2009–11 American Community Surveys. By making a generational comparison, it suggests that the selective migration of Asian immigrants is the most important factor to their concentration in these fields of study and occupations. Asian immigrants as a whole are highly selective in these fields of study and occupations, compared to white Americans, with some Asian groups showing much higher levels of concentration. While younger-generation Asian groups whose immigrant generations have an extremely high concentration have experienced significant reductions in STEM, the other groups have experienced moderate or significant increases. All younger-generation Asian groups apart from Filipino have significantly or moderately higher levels of representation in non-nurse health-care occupations than their immigrant counterparts.     

Segmented assimilation and socio-economic integration of Chinese immigrant children in the USA

Research on the new second generation has paid much attention to testing one of the hypotheses posed by segmented assimilation theory – downward assimilation into America's underclass – and has neglected to examine other possible outcomes. In this paper, I address a much understudied pathway – assimilation by way of the ethnic community – based on a case study of Chinese immigrant children in the USA. I show that the children of Chinese immigrants have made inroads into mainstream America through educational achievement, not only because of the strong value their parents put on education but also because resources generated in the ethnic community help actualize that value. The Chinese American experience suggests that, in order to advance to the rank of middle-class Americans, immigrant parents have chosen the ethnic way to facilitate children's social mobility and achieved success. Paradoxically, ‘assimilated’ children have also relied on ethnicity for empowerment to fight negative stereotyping of the racialized other.     

Resettled and unsettled: Syrian refugees and the intersection of race and legal status in the United States

ABSTRACT

In this article, I examine how the intersection of legal status and racialization shapes immigrant’s sense of security; or of legal and interpersonal safety. I draw on an ethnography of Syrian refugees who hold a permanent legal status, and who entered the United States in 2015, as Donald Trump was launching his campaign, amplifying anti-Muslim and anti-refugee sentiment. Following refugee experiences from their arrival, through the issuance of the first executive order banning travel in January 2017, I show how this group, racialized as Muslim and Arab, was categorized as a threat to national security. I also capture the uneven way they came to recognize their racialization. While a permanent legal status is likely a necessary condition for feeling a sense of security in the United States, I argue that it is an insufficient one. I show that Syrian refugees’ racialization attenuated their sense of security despite their legal status.     

Transnational family ties of immigrants in the Netherlands

Inspired by recent efforts in the United States to quantify the degree of transnational ties that immigrants possess, this article explores and analyses the prevalence and determinants of transnational family ties of immigrants in the Netherlands. Using data from a representative survey of four immigrant groups in the Netherlands, this paper also aims to fill the gap in knowledge regarding the effects of incorporation into an immigrant's host society on transnational family ties. Findings show that, while the vast majority of immigrants with relatives in the country of origin have frequent contact with these relatives, only a third of respondents contribute to the livelihood of family members in the homeland. Incorporation characteristics show distinct patterns over different types of involvement. While incorporation variables have a negative effect on the frequency of contact, they show little effect on remittances.