Defining difference: the role of immigrant generation and race in American and British immigration studies

Abstract

This article reviews the ways in which Britain and the USA classify and analyse the integration of immigrants and their descendants. While both societies recognize racial differences in their official statistics and in the academic analyses of change over time, the USA tends to classify immigrants and their descendants by immigrant generation much more than Britain does. The importance of the concept of generation in American immigration research is highlighted and it is suggested that studies built on the importance of generation can illuminate social processes of integration in Britain. The complexities of defining and measuring immigrant generation are reviewed, including new developments in the measurement of generation that take into account age at migration, and historical period and cohort effects. Racial and ethnic minority groups formed through immigration may have very different characteristics depending on the average distance of their members from immigration – including the possibility of ‘ethnic leakage’, as more assimilated, later-generation individuals no longer identify with the group.     

Extensive long-distance pollen dispersal and highly outcrossed mating in historically small and disjunct populations of Acacia woodmaniorum (Fabaceae), a rare banded iron formation endemic

Background and Aims

Understanding patterns of pollen dispersal and variation in mating systems provides insights into the evolutionary potential of plant species and how historically rare species with small disjunct populations persist over long time frames. This study aims to quantify the role of pollen dispersal and the mating system in maintaining contemporary levels of connectivity and facilitating persistence of small populations of the historically rare Acacia woodmaniorum.

Methods

Progeny arrays of A. woodmaniorum were genotyped with nine polymorphic microsatellite markers. A low number of fathers contributed to seed within single pods; therefore, sampling to remove bias of correlated paternity was implemented for further analysis. Pollen immigration and mating system parameters were then assessed in eight populations of varying size and degree of isolation.

Key Results

Pollen immigration into small disjunct populations was extensive (mean minimum estimate 40 % and mean maximum estimate 57 % of progeny) and dispersal occurred over large distances (≤1870m). Pollen immigration resulted in large effective population sizes and was sufficient to ensure adaptive and inbreeding connectivity in small disjunct populations. High outcrossing (mean t_m = 0·975) and a lack of apparent inbreeding suggested that a self-incompatibility mechanism is operating. Population parameters, including size and degree of geographic disjunction, were not useful predictors of pollen dispersal or components of the mating system.

Conclusions

Extensive long-distance pollen dispersal and a highly outcrossed mating system are likely to play a key role in maintaining genetic diversity and limiting negative genetic effects of inbreeding and drift in small disjunct populations of A. woodmaniorum. It is proposed that maintenance of genetic connectivity through habitat and pollinator conservation will be a key factor in the persistence of this and other historically rare species with similar extensive long-distance pollen dispersal and highly outcrossed mating systems.     

云南师宗白背飞虱前期迁入种群的虫源地分布与降落机制

通过对1990—2012年云南省师宗县4—5月出现的白背飞虱灯诱高峰日进行轨迹模拟以及降虫高峰日的风场分析,得到以下结果:4月下旬,师宗上空盛行西风,白背飞虱虫源主要来自缅甸东北部,部分来自越南北部和金三角地区;5月份,西南风为盛行风向,其中上中旬的虫源地主要分布在越南西北部、老挝北部和滇西南,缅甸东北部可提供部分虫源;下旬则主要分布在滇西南,部分虫源来自越南西北部、老挝北部和缅甸东北部。对降虫高峰期的大气环流背景、峰日风温场、降雨等气象因子的分析结果表明,降水、风切变和气流垂直扰动是造成白背飞虱集中降落的主要因子。     

MIGRATION ENHANCES ADAPTATION IN BACTERIOPHAGE POPULATIONS EVOLVING IN ECOLOGICAL SINKS

Migration between populations can be a major evolutionary force. However, some disagreement exists as to precisely how migration affects population adaptation. Some theories emphasize the inhibitory effects of gene flow between locally adapted populations, whereas others propose that migration can enhance adaptation. Migration has also been theorized to rescue sink populations from extinction. In our experiments, we serially passaged bacteriophage Φ6 host range mutants under sink conditions on a novel host while manipulating the source and number of migrants into these experimental populations. Migrants from two sources were used: mutant Φ6 phage able to infect a novel host (treatment) and wild‐type Φ6 phage unable to infect a novel host (control). We used quadratic regressions to determine the relationship between the number of migrants per passage and the absolute fitnesses of experimental populations following 30 passages. Our results showed that migration from a control population had no effect on absolute fitnesses of our serially passaged populations following 30 passages. By contrast, the relationship between migrants per passage and absolute fitnesses for populations receiving migrants able to infect the novel host was best described by an upwardly concave curve. These results suggest that intermediate levels of migration can have favorable impacts on evolutionary adaptation.     

Effects of habitat size and isolation on species immigration–extinction dynamics and community nestedness in a desert river system

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The inherent multidimensionality of temporal variability: how common and rare species shape stability patterns

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Quantifying the contribution of immigration to population dynamics: a review of methods,evidence and perspectives in birds and mammals

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