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INSIDE
Immigrants Continue to Shape America by Rubén G. Rumbaut In at least one sense, the so-called "American century" is ending much as it began: the United States has become a nation of immigrants and is again being profoundly transformed. Central to that transformation are the modes of incorporation of today's immigrants - and more consequentially still, of their offspring. Immigrant children and U.S.-born children of immigrants, the fastest growing segment of the U.S. child population, accounted for 15% of all American children in 1990, including about 60% of all Hispanic children and an overwhelming 90% of Asian-American children. Today, based on analysis of the 1997 Current Population Survey, they number 13.7 million, or nearly 20% of all American children. The last census counted 2 million foreign-born children under 18, and another 6 million U.S.-born children under 18 living with immigrant parents. Between 1990 and 1997, the immigrant population increased from 20 to 27 million, with the number of their children growing commensurately. By 1997, there were 3 million foreign-born children and nearly 11 million U.S.-born children under 18 with at least one foreign-born parent. The sheer magnitude of this demographic transformation is impressive. The United States' "immigrant stock" today numbers about 55 million people - persons who are either immigrants (26.8 million) or U.S.-born children of immigrants (27.8 million). That figure - one-fifth of the national total - does not include 2.8 million others who were born, as were their parents, in Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories, nor the number residing in Puerto Rico and other territories. If today's "immigrant stock" formed a country, it would rank in the top 10% in the world in population size - about twice the size of Canada and roughly the size of the United Kingdom, France, or Italy. Immigrant families are heavily concentrated in areas of settlement. One-third
resides in California and another third in Florida, Texas, and the New York-New
Jersey region, with still denser concentrations within key metropolitan
areas in those states. In Los Angeles County, an astounding 62% of the area's
9.5 million people are of immigrant stock, as are 54% of New York's and
Orange County's, 43% of San Diego's, and 72% of Miami's (tops in the U.S.).
Of the 27 million foreign-born, 60% arrived between 1980 and 1997, and an overwhelming 90% immigrated to the U.S. since 1960. Of those post-1960 "new immigrants," 52% came from the Caribbean and Latin America, including 28% from Mexico alone. Another 29% came from Asia and the Middle East; the Filipinos, Chinese, and Indochinese account for 15% of the total, or as much as all of those born in Europe and Canada combined. This "new immigration" is, by definition, of very recent vintage. For the record, the 1965 changes in U.S. immigration law did not usher in these new flows, as is often claimed: while the 1965 Act did open the door to previously excluded Asian and African immigration, it had nothing to do with the predominant flows from the Americas - in fact, the law actually sought to restrict the flows from the Western Hemisphere for the first time - or with the huge refugee resettlement programs that were a legacy of the Indochina War specifically, and of the Cold War generally. Immigration is mostly the province of the young. Of more than 24 million immigrants who arrived since 1960, 80% arrived 34 years old or younger. Only 10% immigrated after the age of 40. Nearly half of the post-1960 immigrants are Hispanic, and one-fourth are Asian. Of the 28 million who form the U.S.-born "second generation," or those with at least one foreign-born parent, about 56% are children under 18 or young adults - mostly the offspring of the new immigrants from Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. About a third, however, are over 55 - born before World War II to European parents who immigrated earlier this century. Of the U.S.-born second generation, almost half of those born since 1960 claim Hispanic ethnicity, compared to only 15% of those born between 1930-1959 and 5% of those born before 1930. The increasing size and concentration of this emerging population, added to its diverse origins, makes its evolution extraordinarily important. While the rapid growth of U.S. immigration over the last three decades has led to mushrooming research and intensified public debate over their impact on American society, little noticed has been the fact that a new generation of Americans raised in immigrant families has been coming of age. Over time, its members will decisively shape the character, success, and failure of their ethnic communities. Hence, the long-term effects of contemporary immigration will hinge more on the trajectories of these youths than the fate of their parents. The children of today's immigrants - a post-immigrant generation oriented not to their parents' pasts, but to their own American futures - are here to stay. They represent the most consequential and lasting legacy of the new mass immigration to the United States.
The Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) Since 1991, the CILS (the largest study of its kind to date in the U.S.) has followed the progress of teenagers representing 77 nationalities in two key areas of immigrant settlement - Southern California and South Florida. The original 1992 survey interviewed a sample of over 5,000 students enrolled in the eighth and ninth grades in the San Diego and the Dade and Broward County Unified School Districts; over 200 others were enrolled in private bilingual schools in the Miami area. The sample was drawn from the junior high grades, when dropping out is rare, to avoid the potential bias of differential dropout rates between ethnic groups at the senior high level. Eligible students were U.S.-born with at least one foreign-born parent, or were themselves foreign-born and had immigrated before age 12. The resulting sample is balanced between males and females, and between foreign-born and U.S.-born children of immigrants. Three years later, a second survey of the same group was conducted. This follow-up, which re-interviewed 82% of the original sample, sought to ascertain changes in family situations, school achievement, educational and occupational aspirations, language use and preferences, ethnic identities, discriminatory experiences and expectations, and psychosocial adjustment. By this time the youths, who were originally interviewed when most were 14-15 years old, had reached the final year of high school. The principal nationalities represented in the San Diego sample were
Mexican, Filipino, Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, and other Asians and
Latin Americans. The smaller groups of Asians were mostly Chinese, Japanese,
Korean, and Indian. In the South Florida sample, the groups consisted of
Cubans, Haitians, Jamaicans, Colombians, Nicaraguans, Dominicans, and others
from Latin America and the Caribbean. They represent the principal types
of immigrants in contemporary America - immigrant laborers, professionals,
entrepreneurs, and refugees with sharply contrasting origins and migration
histories. Mexicans constitute the largest immigrant population in the U.S. - in fact, they form part of the largest, longest, and most sustained labor migration in the contemporary world - and San Diego, situated along the Mexican border, has been a major settlement area. Since the 1960's, Filipinos have formed the second largest immigrant population in the country and are the largest Asian-origin immigrant nationality in California and the nation. Many arrived as professionals nurses, most conspicuously, and through military connections, particularly the U.S. Navy. The 1990 census showed Filipino immigrants have the lowest poverty rate of any sizable ethnic group in the U.S. Cubans form the third largest post-1960 immigrant group, diversifying from the huge waves of political exiles in the early 1960's, to the "freedom flights" of 1965-73, the Mariel boatlift of 1980, and the balseros of the 1990's. Over half-a-million Cubans are concentrated in South Florida, building one of the country's most visible ethnic enclaves in Miami, dubbed "Havana USA." Since the end of the Indochina War in 1975, refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos have formed the largest U.S. refugee population. The latest Current Population Surveys show the Vietnamese are the country's fifth largest foreign-born population, following Mexicans, Filipinos, Cubans, and the Chinese (including those from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan). The 1990 Census found the highest poverty and welfare dependency rates in the country among Laotians and Cambodians, many survivors of the "killing fields." Hatians and Jamaicans, who are concentrated in New York and South Florida, are among the top recent immigrant groups, in terms of size, and form the two largest groups of "black" immigrants whose children's experiences have underscored the salience of racial prejudice and discrimination in American life. Remarkably, although the 27 million immigrants in the U.S. in 1997 came from over 150 different countries, about 40% came from only four - Mexico, the Philippines, Cuba, and Vietnam. Children of those immigrants made up 60% of our survey.
The Immigrant Families Immigrants are anything but a homogeneous lot. Only a small proportion of Mexican and Indochinese fathers and mothers have college degrees, well below the 1990 U.S. norm of 20%. By contrast, 41% of Filipino mothers have college degrees. The contrast is made even sharper by looking at the proportion of parents with less than a high school education. Most of the recently-arrived foreign-born children from Mexico, Haiti, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have fathers and mothers who never completed secondary-level schooling. Rates of labor force participation vary widely by nationality, too. The Indochinese have low labor force participation rates, indicative of their eligibility for and use of public assistance (with the notable exception of the elite "first wave" of 1975 Vietnamese refugees), whereas most of the other groups have labor force participation rates exceeding national norms. Cubans, Jamaicans, Filipinos, and the "Other" Asians are most likely to have one or both parents working as professionals. Home ownership is another telling indicator of socioeconomic advancement and spatial stability. Slightly more than half of those sampled lived in family-owned homes in 1992; three years later that proportion had edged up to 62%. But there is a huge gap between ethnic groups, ranging from a low of 4% among Hmong families from Laos to over 80% of the Filipinos. There are also significant differences in family structure, with all of Asian-origin nationalities reflecting high proportions of intact families. Over 75% of these children live with both natural parents at home, followed by Latin American families (over 60%); fewer than half of the Haitians and West Indians lived in intact families. However, the quality of parent-child relationships varies significantly. Growing up in immigrant families is often marked by linguistic and acculturative gaps that exacerbate intergenerational conflicts, cause children to feel embarrassed about their parents as they try to fit in with native peers, or lead to role reversals as children assume adult roles prematurely by dint of circumstance. There are sharp inter-group differences in the degree of conflict and cohesiveness, with Latin Americans reporting higher family cohesiveness and Haitians the highest degree of parent-child conflict.
Language Shifts A perennial controversy in public debates on immigration concerns bilingual education and perceived threats to English as the common, national language. A popular initiative on California's June 1998 primary, called "English for the Children," would eliminate the state's bilingual programs and require all public school instruction be conducted in English. Editor's Note: California voters passed the measure June 3 by a margin of 61% to 39%, but opponents have vowed to fight implementation of the measure in the classrooms and courtrooms. Over 90% of these children report speaking a language other than English at home. But 73% of them preferred to speak English instead of their parents' native tongue. By the second study, the proportion who preferred English swelled to 88%. Even among the most mother-tongue-retentive group - the Mexican-origin youth living in a Spanish-named city on the Mexican border with a large Spanish-speaking immigrant population and a wide range of Spanish-language radio and TV stations - the force of linguistic assimilation was incontrovertible. Nearly a third of Mexico-born children preferred English in 1992 but, by the second survey in 1995, that proportion had doubled doubled. While 53% of the U.S.-born Mexican-Americans in San Diego initially preferred English, that proportion jumped to 79% three years later. Even more decisively, among Cuban-origin youth in Miami, 95% of both the foreign-born and the native-born preferred English, regardless of whether they attended public or private schools. A main reason for this rapid language shift in use and preference has to do with their increasing fluency in English. Respondents were asked to evaluate their ability to speak, understand, read, and write in both English and their native tongue. Over three-fourths of those surveyed spoke English "very well" compared to only about a third who reported an equivalent level of fluency in the non-English language. Even among the foreign-born, those speaking English very well surpassed, 69% to 41%, those who spoke the foreign language just as well. And the differences in reading fluency are sharper still. Those who read English "very well" tripled the proportion of those who read a non-English language very well. The ability to maintain a sound level of literacy - particularly in languages with different alphabets and rules of syntax and grammar, such as many of the Asian languages - is nearly impossible to achieve in the absence of schools that teach it, and of a community that values and regularly practices it. Consequently, the bilingualism of these children becomes increasingly uneven and unstable. The data vividly underscores the rapidity with which English triumphs and foreign languages atrophy - even in a city like San Diego with the busiest international border crossing in the world, or in Miami, the metropolitan area with the nation's highest percentage of foreign-born - as the second generation not only comes to speak, read, and write it fluently, but prefers it overwhelmingly over their parents' native tongue. These results occurred while the youths still resided in parents' home where the non-English mother tongue retains primacy. Once they leave the parental fold, particularly when living outside dense immigrant enclaves, the degree of English language dominance and non-English language atrophy accelerates. This pattern of rapid linguistic assimilation is constant across nationalities and socioeconomic levels. It suggests that, over time, the use of and fluency in foreign languages will inevitably decline - results which directly rebut nativist alarms about the perpetuation of foreign-language enclaves in immigrant communities. The findings suggest the linguistic outcomes for the third generation - the grandchildren of the present wave of immigrants - will be no different: they may learn a few foreign words and phrases as a quaint vestige of their ancestry, but they will most likely grow up speaking English. It is for this reason that the United States has been called a "language graveyard." Seen in this light, initiatives like "English for the Children" seem superfluous. English is alive and well among the new second generation. While public debate over English remains contentious, what is being rapidly eliminated is these children's ability to maintain fluency in the language of their immigrant parents, a significant loss of scarce and valuable bilingual resources. As others have observed, the rise of "global cities" in the international economy has triggered a growing need for bilingual professionals and managers. Among American cities, New York and Los Angeles are prime examples of global cities where fluency in a number of languages is much in demand. Other cities, like Miami, have become administrative and marketing centers for Latin American trade. Business leaders there have complained about the dearth of fluent Spanish bilinguals among the children of Latin immigrants - and a recent University of Miami study argues that young Hispanics are leaving school with such insufficient Spanish-language skills that Miami's position as an international marketplace is at risk. Although many children of Cuban and Latin American immigrants retain some language skills, their Spanish is not fluent enough to conduct business transactions.
Identity and Discrimination In both surveys, four main types of ethnic identities became apparent: a plain "American" identity; a hyphenated-American identity; a national-origin identity (e.g., Filipino, Cuban, Jamaican); and a pan-ethnic minority group identity (e.g., Hispanic, Latino, Chicano, Asian, Black). The way adolescents see themselves is significant. Self-identities and ethnic loyalties often influence behavior and outlook independent of the status of the families or the types of schools they attend. They may also be a bellwether of potential long-term political alignments. In 1992, 27% of the sample identified by national origin; the largest proportion, 41%, chose a hyphenated-American identification; 11% identified as plain "American;" and 17% selected pan-ethnic minority identities. Whether they were U.S.-born made a great deal of difference in the type of identity selected: the foreign-born were four times more likely to identify by national origin than others. Conversely, the U.S.-born were more likely to identify themselves as American or hyphenated-American than were the foreign-born. Those findings suggested a familiar assimilative trend between generations. But the results of the 1995 survey, conducted after the passage of Proposition 187 in California, turned conventional expectations on their head. The San Diego and Miami stories diverge here. In Southern California, the biggest gainer, in terms of self-definition, was the foreign nationality identity, chosen by 32% in 1992 and by 48% in 1995. This shift occurred most notably among the Mexican and Filipino - the two largest immigrant groups in the U.S. - an apparent backlash in a period of growing anti-immigrant sentiment and at times overt immigrant bashing. Pan-ethnic identities remained at 16% in 1995, but that figure conceals a steep decline among Mexican-origin youth in "Hispanic" and "Chicano" self-identities and a sharp upswing in the proportion of youths identifying themselves as "Asian" or "Asian American." The rapid decline of the self-identities of plain "American," to below 2%, and hyphenated-American, dropping from 43% to 30%, points to the growth of a reactive ethnic consciousness. In South Florida, the biggest gains were in pan-ethnic identities such as "Hispanic" and "Black," doubling from 17% to 38%, mainly among Latin Americans and Jamaicans. The percent identified by national origin remained unchanged; plain "American" identities dropped sharply from 19% to less than 4%, and hyphenated-American identities fell to 30%. Haitians were the sole and interesting exception in Florida. The proportion selecting a denationalized pan-ethnic identity decreased while those identified as "Haitian" and "Haitian-American" increased notably - responses given after the Fall 1994 U.S. invasion of Haiti when the interests of the U.S. government for once coincided with those of Haitian émigrés. Change has not been toward assimilative mainstream identities among these youths (only 13% of whom self-report racially as "white"), but rather toward a more proudly militant or nationalistic affirmation of the immigrant identity for a few key groups, and toward pan-ethnic minority group identities for almost all others as they become increasingly aware of the ethnic and racial categories into which they are persistently classified by mainstream society. In both cases, the results point to the rise of "reactive ethnicity" and a growing identification with U.S. minority groups that may portend potentially significant political alignments and commitments in later years. In California, for instance, immigrant-bashing may provoke long-term opposition to politicians and political parties so perceived by children of immigrants in a state that will shortly become the first "majority minority" state in the country. There have been unprecedented increases in the number of immigrants applying for naturalization and voter registration - with some notable and unexpected consequences. In 1996, in California, a Hispanic newcomer was elected over a long-term Republican incumbent in one of the nation's most conservative congressional districts. To what extent such outcomes may be extrapolated from present trends remains an open question. Growing ethnic awareness among the children of immigrants in the survey is evident in their experiences and expectations of racial and ethnic discrimination. Reports of discrimination increased from 54% to 62% between surveys. Virtually every group reported more experiences of rejection or unfair treatment. Such experiences are associated with higher incidences of depressive symptoms and the development of a more pessimistic outlook about the chances of reducing discriminatory treatment through higher educational achievement. Still, it is important to underscore that, despite growing awareness of the realities of American racism and intolerance, almost two-thirds of the youth in the sample continued to affirm a confident belief in the promise of equal opportunity through educational achievement. Even more tellingly, 60% of these youths agreed that "there is no better country to live in than the United States." That endorsement grew to 72% three years later - despite the growing anti-immigrant mood in the country.
Ambition and Achievement Children of immigrants are ambitious. When they were in the eighth and ninth grades, 67% aspired to advanced degrees and another 24% would be dissatisfied with less than a college degree. Three years later, these proportions remained the same. In 1992, 42% "realistically" expected to earn advanced degrees and another 37% would not be satisfied with less than a college degree. The proportion of those who believed they would not receive a college degree dropped from 21% in 1992 to 18% in 1995. Given their modest family origins and material resources, their aspirations and expectations may be disproportionate with what they may achieve. But ambition and a sense of purpose clearly matter. The research literature shows that high expectations are necessary for subsequent achievement. While most of these youths aim high, the least ambitious expectations are exhibited by the Mexicans, Cambodians, and Laotians. Thus, there are major differences in aspirations by family socioeconomic status, and this gap remains over time. Children from better off families have predictably higher and more secure plans for the future. Even more ambitious are their parents. Asked what their parents' expectations were for their educational futures, the students felt that their parents had higher aspirations. For many immigrants, that is precisely the purpose of bringing their children here. In 1995, while 44% of the students expected to attain an advanced degree, 65% of their parents did; and while 18% of the children expected to stop short of a college degree, only 7% of the parents held such low expectations. And parental expectations, in turn, are significantly correlated with the students' school performance. In contrast to the perceived parental pressure to achieve are the plans of the students' close friends - and here again, the peer groups in which they are embedded vary, in part, by socioeconomic status. The sharpest contrast is between the Jamaicans, Filipinos, and other Asians, most of whose friends intended to attend 4-year institutions, and Mexican students, only a quarter of whom had friends planning to attend 4-year colleges and about 8% of whom reported most of their close friends had already dropped out. These social circles are a powerful influence in reinforcing or undercutting their aspirations and confidence. Still, the children of immigrants almost universally value the importance of a good education. Out of a variety of choices, 90% ranked a good education as "very important," more than any other value, and another 85% deemed becoming an expert in one's field "very important." The majority of these children invest a substantial amount of time on daily homework. Although wide variations are seen among the different groups, about 80% of the sample spent more than an hour each day on homework, and over 40% spent over two hours daily, well above the national average of less than an hour a day. The Asian-origin groups invested the most time on homework, while the Latin Americans invested the least. A key question raised by this study was whether the achievements exhibited by these children matched, exceeded, or fell below the average for the respective school districts overall - and hence, how they compared to children of non-immigrants. A major finding is that, in both school districts on both coasts, a significantly greater proportion of students district-wide drop out of school than do the youth from immigrant families. The multi-year dropout rate for grades 9-12 in the Miami-Dade public schools was 17.6%, or about double the rate for the original CILS sample - that is, of the 2,296 Miami-Dade public school students who were originally interviewed in 1992 in eighth and ninth grades, 8.9% were officially determined to have dropped out of school by 1996. On the other coast, the differential was even greater. The multi-year dropout rate for grades 9-12 in the San Diego schools was 16.2%, nearly triple the rate of 5.7% for the sample there. Since the district-wide figures include all students - both the children of immigrants and of non-immigrants - the comparison is probably a conservative estimate of the extent to which the children of immigrants are more apt to stay in school overall. The CILS dropout rates were also noticeably lower than the district-wide rates for preponderantly native non-Hispanic white high school students (13.6% in Miami-Dade, and 10.5% in San Diego). Lower dropout rates for children of immigrants were seen for both genders and every racial-ethnic category. In Miami-Dade, the highest dropout rate in the district was found among non-Hispanic black students (20.2%), but the rate among Haitian, Jamaican and other West Indian children was only 7.5%. In San Diego, the highest dropout rate was 8.7% for "Hispanic" students, but even that rate was noticeably lower than the 26.5% norm for all Hispanics and slightly lower than the rate for non-Hispanic whites. Finally, the lowest dropout rates on both coasts were those of Asian-origin students, and again the rates were lower for those with immigrant parents. These findings, from two of the nation's largest school districts most affected by mass immigration, are remarkably consistent and, in general, undercut public concerns raised about an expanded multiethnic underclass in the new second generation. Another key measure of school performance, academic grade point averages (GPAs), can be examined comparatively with data from San Diego. The results show that, at every grade level, the children of immigrants outperformed the district norms, although the gap narrowed over time and grade level. Only 29% of all ninth graders had GPAs above 3.0, compared to 44% of the ninth graders from immigrant families. While 36% of ninth graders had GPAs under 2.0, only 18% of the children of immigrants performed as poorly. Those differentials declined over time by grade level so that the advantage, by twelfth grade, was reduced to a few percentage points in favor of the children of immigrants-a narrowing due primarily to the fact that a greater proportion of students district-wide drop out than do youth from immigrant families. These results are striking, and raise yet another question: what explains them? We can address this question by examining the effect of variables measured in the 1992 survey, when these young people were in junior high, upon selected school outcomes by the end of senior high in 1995-96.
Predictors of Ambition and Achievement There are large differences in educational outcomes by national origin - results which portend a significant ethnic segmentation as they make their transition into the adult labor force. The Chinese finished high school with the highest GPAs and the lowest dropout rates, as well as ambitious educational goals matching those of other Asian-origin, high-status immigrant groups, especially those from India, Japan, and Korea. Exhibiting above average performance were the Vietnamese and the Filipinos, followed by the Laotians, and Cambodians. The latter two groups also exhibited the lowest educational expectations; they have the highest poverty rates in the U.S., although they have also received substantial government assistance. Jamaicans and other West Indians had lower GPAs, yet those Afro-Caribbean groups reported above-average ambitions. Overall, the poorest performance was registered by Latin American youth, with the lowest GPAs found among the Dominicans, and, unexpectedly, the highest dropout rates among Cubans in Miami public schools, followed by Mexican-origin youth in San Diego. The dropout rate for Cubans (10.1%, though still lower than the district average for non-Hispanic whites) was particularly surprising given they are a highly assimilated group with longer U.S. residence than most "new" immigrants, have experienced less discrimination than others in the survey, and uniquely formed a majority group in a dense and diversified immigrant enclave - half of the well over one million U.S. Cubans are concentrated in the Miami metropolitan area alone. Among the Latin Americans, Mexican, Dominican, and Central American children showed the lowest educational expectations, while Cubans and South Americans were the most ambitious in their expressed educational aspirations. While gender makes only a small difference in terms of dropping out or leaving the school district, it strongly affects grades and ambitions, with females exhibiting superior performance compared to male students, as well as having a significant edge in educational expectations. Children from intact families, with both natural parents present at home, clearly do better than children raised in stepfamilies or single-parent homes. This is even more pronounced in families with lower levels of parent-child conflict. The greater the family stability, both structurally and emotionally, the greater the educational achievement and aspirations. Youths whose parents were college graduates and had higher status occupations achieved higher grades were more likely to remain in school and to have higher aspirations than those whose parents had less education, low-wage jobs, or were not in the labor force. Similar patterns were evident for other indicators of socioeconomic status, such as home ownership and neighborhood poverty rates. It is not surprising that a more cohesive, stable, and socioeconomically resourceful home environment leads to higher educational achievement. Students who had been classified as LEP (Limited English Proficient) by the schools in 1992 remained associated with lower academic achievement and more modest aspirations in 1995. More noteworthy, however, was the finding that FEP (Fluent English Proficient) students achieved higher GPAs and lower dropout rates than both LEP and English-only students, reinforcing previous research findings on the positive link of fluent bilingualism with cognitive achievement. Students who had dedicated more hours to school work in junior high did significantly better in educational achievement three years later - a clear illustration of the positive, long-term effects of disciplined work habits and school engagement. Conversely, students spending many hours in front of the television by age 14 were more prone to perform poorly in subsequent years. Educational and occupational goals and values in early adolescence are closely associated with school and better educational performance. The higher the parents' achievement expectations, as perceived by their children, the higher the students' GPAs and ambitions, and the lower the dropout rates. Taken together, these results show that, even among student from low socioeconomic backgrounds, work discipline and a clear sense of future goals pay off in achievement dividends. More significant still was the influence of peers. The worst outcomes in all the main outcome measures in 1995 were associated with having close friends who had dropped out or had no plans for college while, conversely, the best outcomes were attained by students whose circle of friends consisted largely of college-bound peers. Finally, the lower the youths' self-esteem score in 1992, the worse their school performance and the lower their ambitions three years later. Pan-ethnic self-identities selected in junior high were linked, three years later, with lower GPAs, somewhat higher dropout rates, and lower aspirations (but not with lower self-esteem or higher depression scores). No such effects were observed for any other type of ethnic self-identities. That supports earlier analyses suggesting that a defensive development in the adolescent years of "oppositional" or "adversarial" identities, while protective of self-esteem, may disparage doing well in school as "acting white" and a betrayal of ethnic loyalty, with counterproductive consequences for educational achievement. In short, these results shed additional light on the challenges that children of immigrants confront. In some respects, the patterns are quite similar to what one expects to find among non-immigrant, non-minority youth. In others, they show that these children of immigrants, overwhelmingly from Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and exhibiting wide variations among national origin groups in their vulnerabilities and resources, face complex circumstances that significantly add to the developmental stressors of adolescence. Despite these added challenges - or perhaps, more provocatively, because of them - the overall picture emerging is one of noteworthy achievement and resilient ambition. Whether that can be sustained as they make their entry into the working world of a restructured U.S. economy, form new families, and seek to carve out a meaningful place in the society of which they are the newest members, remain, as yet, unanswered questions. Rubén G. Rumbaut is Professor of Sociology at Michigan State University and currently a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York City. Born in Havana, Cuba, he received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Brandeis University and taught at the University of California, San Diego, and San Diego State University from 1978 to 1993. He is the Founding Chair of the Section on International Migration of the American Sociological Association, and a member of the Committee on International Migration of the Social Science Research Council. The author of numerous papers on a wide range of aspects of the incorporation of immigrants and refugees in the United States in recent decades, his books include Origins and Destinies: Immigration, Race and Ethnicity in America (1996), and California's Immigrant Children: Theory, Research, and Implications for Educational Policy (1995) - both co-edited volumes of essays - and the critically acclaimed Immigrant America: A Portrait (new edition, 1996), co-authored with Alejandro Portes, with whom he is currently collaborating on two volumes based on the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS), the largest research project of its kind to date in the U.S., which they have directed throughout the 1990's. August Departure Scheduled JSRI Director heads to Smithsonian Refugio ("Will") I. Rochín, Julian Samora Research Institute's Director and a professor at Michigan State University, has been named the first Director of the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives in Washington, D.C. Rochín was selected from among 80 applicants nationwide. The announcement was made May 11 by Smithsonian Secretary I. Michael Heyman and has already been hailed by many as a major step in recognizing Latinos' contributions to America's culture, heritage, and history. "We welcome Dr. Rochín as a new voice in the Smithsonian community," Secretary Heyman said. "His scholarly work, as well as his leadership in research and policy issues affecting Latinos, are the qualities we were looking for in the director of our new center. We look forward to working with him and his staff in creating, in the nation's capital, a major center for Latino studies." The Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives will feature research, curatorial, and educational programs focusing on Latino history and culture. Rochín, 57, is scheduled to begin work at the Smithsonian in August. As the Center for Latino Initiatives' Director, Rochín will oversee a variety of projects, including Latino exhibitions, programs, collections, and studies. The Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives was established by the Institution's Board of Regents in 1997 and will be housed in the Smithsonian Institution Building known as the "Castle" on the National Mall. The challenges are immense, Rochín added, as the Latino population grows not only in size, but in its diversity. "I have worked within, and researched, Latino communities for more than 30 years," said Rochín. "I look forward to establishing the center as a national entity. Our aim is to bring the best representations of Latino history and culture, and inspire a positive awareness of U.S. Latinos." His past accomplishments include 2-year stints with the Ford Foundation as a program officer in rural development in Colombia, and as program assistant in agricultural development in Pakistan and Bangladesh. As one of the earliest Peace Corps Volunteers, Rochín worked with Colombian farmworkers. He earned his doctorate in agricultural economics and his master's degree in communications at MSU and received another master's in agricultural economics and anthropology at the University of Arizona in 1967. He earned his bachelor's in economics at the UC-Berkeley the previous year. Rochín taught agricultural economics, sociology, and Chicano and Latino studies while at Michigan State University and the University of California-Davis. At MSU, he is Professor of Agricultural Economics and Professor of Sociology. At UC-Davis, where he is professor emeritus, Rochín co-founded the Chicano Studies Program and served as its director before taking the JSRI Director's post in 1994. Under Dr. Rochín's guidance, JSRI became a nationally-recognized Latino research center focusing on social-historical Latino issues throughout the Midwest. At JSRI, Rochín founded the Rural Latino Studies Network and established Latino databases and electronic outreach programs. He helped thrust Latinos into the limelight through traditional publications and electronic access, organized events, and a self-led public relations blitz. He continued his research, which focuses on Chicano entrepreneurs in the Southwest, the rural poor, and Midwestern immigration and settlement, while at MSU. During his tenure at JSRI, the institute produced more than 140 publications in print and on the web. Scores more are in the works. Rochín is an accomplished author who has written numerous articles, edited several books, and contributed to countless publications. Among his recent works are: Immigration and Ethnic Communities: A Focus on Latinos, Towards a New Chicana/o History, and Rural Latinos: Cross National Perspectives, which is scheduled for publication in 1999. Rochín is a member of the Board of Economists of Hispanic Business Inc., and serves on the boards of directors of the Inter-University Program for Latino Research and the Midwest Consortium for Latino Research; he also is a member of the Advisory Committee on Latino Employment of the National Council of La Raza. He was appointed by U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman to the National Board of Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics in 1997. He was active in California's farmworker movement, under the leadership of Cesar Chavez, and in the campaign to create Chicano studies programs at America's colleges and universities. Rochín was born in Colton, Calif. and "grew up Chicano" in Carlsbad, where his parents operated several businesses, including a restaurant and grocery. He and his wife, Linda, have four children and one grandchild. JSRI Interim Director Appointed Among his many attributes - accomplished educator, proven researcher,
noted scholar, diversity champion, dedicated family man - Dr. Jorge Chapa
can add another title JSRI Interim Director. Dr. Chapa, an Associate Professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs is scheduled to arrive next month and officially assumes his Interim Director's post, for a year, in August. He replaces Dr. Refugio Rochín, JSRI Executive Director since 1994, who heads to the Nation's Capital with the Smithsonian Institute as its first Director of the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives. As Associate Dean of the Office of Graduate Studies and Director of the Graduate Opportunity Program at the UT-Austin from 1993-97, Chapa was responsible for the recruitment and retention of minority students in all of that school's graduate and professional programs, except its School of Law. At UT-Austin, he displayed a unique ability to identify, recruit, and retain countless minority scholars and students. The percentage of Latinos entering these graduate and professional programs increased 25% and the percentage of African Americans increased by about 15% during this time, according to university sources. These improvements are attributable to his aggressive recruitment programs and concomitant efforts to increase funds for fellowships, which more than doubled during his appointment there. This increase came from private and government funds and by an increased commitment from UT-Austin's central administration. The Hopwood decision in 1996 ended all race-conscious affirmative action programs in Texas higher education so Chapa returned to his faculty position at the LBJ School. His research this past year has been on how racial and ethnic diversity in higher education can best be promoted in the post-Hopwood and post-Proposition 209 era. Dr. Chapa, who was born in Monterrey, Mexico, is a demographic specialist whose teaching and research interests include population perspectives on policy analysis, race relations, minorities in higher education, and applied demographic analysis. His areas of expertise are in statistics, demography, economic development, and information systems for data processing and analysis. His publications include a co-authored book, The Burden of Support, that analyzes the social, economic, and political consequences of ethnic population trends in California. He has authored scores of journal articles, reports, and technical papers and the focus of his research is Hispanic population characteristics and growth. Above all, he is a researcher whose devotion to that work is the driving force in his professional life. "For me, research is the process of answering compelling questions," he explained. "Rather than being the fruit of a particular philosophy, research is the expression of a love of knowledge that is central to my identity and character." He earned an undergraduate degree in biology, with honors, with the intent of pursuing a career in biomedical research. But he switched disciplines as a graduate student because he wanted to learn more, and teach, about Latinos. "As a teacher, my ultimate goal is to share my knowledge, particularly my knowledge about Latinos, with students of all backgrounds," the father of two said. "Sharing knowledge about Latinos is also the core of my service activities." A major part of his personal philosophy is to act as mentor and role model for students, friends, and family. Even appearances in public events reflect his commitment to helping others. "Much of this is simply acting as a teacher for people who are not formally my students. Another major component of his service is advising public organizations on how they can best serve Latinos within their own communities. "I find this to be particularly rewarding because it is evidence that my knowledge and research can be used and may," he added, "in some small way, make the world a better place." It is that mindset, that devotion and commitment, that lead to his recommendation and appointment by Michigan State University as the Julian Samora Research Institute's Interim Director. Interim Director No Stranger to JSRI For more than a decade, Dr. Jorge Chapa has maintained a relationship,
as colleague and friend, with numerous JRSI researchers, faculty, and scholars.
For several years, he taught workshops on Latino Research Issues as part
of the Inter-University Consortium on Social and Political Research (ICPSR)
in Ann Arbor. His periodic proximity to East Lansing provided the opportunity
for frequent visits to MSU and, one summer, he was named as a Martin Luther
King-Rosa Parks-Cesar Chavez Fellow at JSRI. During this time, he met and
spoke with Julian Samora, JSRI's namesake. Over the years, as Chapa observed, JSRI built its reputation as the Midwest's premier Latino Research Center, established its social capital network, and accumulated the faculty and staff that sustains it as one of the nation's top Latino research institutions. Now, as JSRI's Interim Director for the next year, Chapa believes his new role will be more of "student" than "teacher." "My top priority is to listen and learn," he said. "I want to hear what MSU's faculty, staff, students, and administrators say about what JSRI could and should do. I want to know how we can best work together to achieve those goals." Chapa, who has a B.A. in Biology, a Master's in Sociology and one in Demography, and a Ph.D. in Sociology, believes Latinos and MSU will reap the benefits of his predecessor's appointment to the Smithsonian Institute. "We will all benefit just from the fact that Dr. Refugio Rochín served here before taking his prestigious and important appointment in Washington, D.C." he said. There may also be many other future benefits to JSRI, he added, but it is Latino communities nationwide who stand to gain the most. "The principal beneficiaries will be America's Latinos who will now be represented as part of the nation's history and culture," Dr. Chapa professed. "Reciprocally, Latino representation in the national museum will make the other treasures of the Smithsonian more accessible to Latinos."
From the Director(s) | Conference Highlights | Employment Opportunities | News You Can Use | Call for Papers | Money Matters | JSRI News | Reading Matter Childbearing Among Youths Studied By Melissa L. Riba and Maxine Baca Zinn For more than two decades, teenage childbearing has captured the attention of researchers and policy makers. Today, the national clamor over "children having children" shows no sign of subsiding. Although racial patterns of teen pregnancy and childbearing have changed dramatically in recent years, the public discourse is oversimplified, leaving out young Latinas who account for a growing proportion of teen mothers. A common assumption is that African Americans are responsible for the rising number of births to teens. But in fact, while birthrates in the 90's have remained highest among Black teens, they have risen more rapidly among Latinas. We recently examined the research on teen childbearing with an eye to
how Latinas are included in the national discussion. The paradox is that
most mainstream research rarely addresses the fact that Latinas are the
fastest growing group of teenage mothers in the U.S. Yet, we also found
that the Latino research community has produced an extraordinary amount
of high quality research on topics pertinent to teen pregnancy including
family, poverty, education, and immigration. Such works are rarely incorporated
into the national discussion about adolescent childbearing. What do we know about Latinas? The increase in births to unmarried Latina teenagers is correlated with three trends: (a) the youthful age structure of the population; (b) the economic status of Latinos at large; and (c) their educational patterns. Put simply, Latinos now constitute the largest category of minority children, their poverty rates have recently superseded those of Blacks, and they have high school dropout rates. According to the most recent information from the National Center for Health Statistics, in 1996 Latina teens became most likely of all racial-ethnic groups to give birth. As the table illustrates, the question of who becomes a Latina teenage mother varies considerably by national origin. Mexican-origin and Puerto Rican teenage births are high, but among Cuban origin groups, teenage childbearing is less common. Latinas, like most young women in the United States, exist within a conflicting set of double standards - they are under pressure to abstain from premarital sexual activity, yet they live in a society which seems to support it. Latinas are least likely to report premarital sexual intercourse, but, because they are also least likely to use contraception, they are most at-risk for pregnancy. Studies show they are also most likely to marry their baby's father. For a Latina teen, contraceptive use is mediated by a complex array of factors: length of time in the United States, level of acculturation, immigration status, and her perception of support or stigma for such action. Childbearing patterns of young Latinas are profoundly affected by the economic environment in which they live. In particular areas of the country where the Hispanic population is large, poverty rates for this group are higher than that of any other minority group. The literature unequivocally agrees that a poor teen is more likely to become a mother than her non-poor counterpart. However, relatively little is known about how poverty specifically affects Latinas. Latina teenage mothers are less likely than African Americans to use welfare, and there are differences by national origin. Mexican-origin teenage mothers are twice as likely to leave welfare as their Puerto Rican counterparts. Education is also a factor influencing whether or not a Latina becomes a teenage mother. Teenage females who have educational and career goals are less likely to become mothers. But, such goals are increasingly difficult for Latina adolescents to achieve because Latino families exhibit the lowest rates of educational attainment; less than half of Latino births are to mothers who have completed 12 or more years of school, and once a high school drop out, Latina teenage mothers are least likely to go back and complete their educations. Harriet Romo and Toni Falbo's landmark 1996 study, Latino High School Graduation: Defying the Odds, demonstrates that difficulty in school stems from low academic achievement, low expectations of teachers and administrators, peer contexts that make teen childbearing seem socially acceptable, and family contexts where parents are relatively uninvolved in their daughter's life. These problems preceded, rather than followed from, pregnancy and early childbearing. Latina teenage childbearing occurs in a unique and complex web of circumstances that have largely been overlooked. The inclusion of Latinas in the national conversation about "children having children" will paint a more comprehensive picture. We argue against simplistic, polarized explanations that revolve around the purported declining moral standards of racial-ethnic groups. Instead, social and economic shifts in the U.S. landscape are producing new patterns of childbearing. By understanding the multiracial dimensions of teen pregnancy, researchers and policy makers can develop an important new perspective on this social issue. The complete version of this paper will appear in a forthcoming issue of Sage Race Relations Abstracts. Melissa L. Riba is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at Michigan State University. Maxine Baca Zinn is Professor of Sociology and Senior Research Associate at the Julian Samora Research Institute. Oral Histories Preserve Memories Mexican Voices, Michigan Lives
We should be proud of what we are and where we came from, we should share and teach our culture, our feelings, what we went through and what we are going to do I was born in San Juan, Texas. I remember we lived in a rancho near San Juan. I lived there until I got married and my husband and I left the rancho. My father used to say to my sisters and me: "The day you get married, you know that you have to go where your husbands take you" I never liked to work in the fields, despite the fact I was born on a rancho. My father earned $25 per week. He, my brothers, and sisters worked there de sol sale a sol se mete, es muy duro. On the rancho we grew carrots, lettuce, green chili, and we ate from there so my parents did not have to spend too much on food since we were such a large family, we were 12 brothers and sisters, to support his salary was not enough. My mother had to buy flour and she made our dresses with the flour sacks. We did not attend church in San Juan because it was too far and my father had no car. He and my mother walked to town to buy groceries, and then the store owner brought them back, but they had to buy everything from him. We did not know the town until we started going to school. The first times we went we were scared, I always walked holding my brother's hand. We attended the Mexican school, it was just a large room for all grades, and we had only one teacher for all the students. She taught us about everything, in Spanish. I learned a lot in the short period I went; I learned to read and write. My father was from Linares, Nuevo León, Mexico, and my mother was born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, also in Mexico. I don't know when they moved to Texas, but it seems to me that they got married there too young, because she had 16 children, though only 12 survived. It was too hard a life for having so many kids, wasn't it? I decided to get married when I was 18 years old. I had known my boyfriend
for five years then. When he asked me, "Why don't we get married?"
I told him "I know my dad and mom won't let me do it right now."
He then said, "pues we don't need their permission, pues you just come
with me." Then I said. "pues bueno!" That night I didn't come home. My father asked my mother: "Y Margarita, where is she?" She answered "pos who knows? She must have stayed at Polo's (Margarita's brother) because she worked last night." Then my brother asked his wife, "Hey, didn't Maya stay over here last night?" And she said, "No, I think she headed to the rancho." They didn't find out until my husband's grandmother went to see my parents and told them I was in her place. My mother dió un guatazo! But my dad said: "What are we gonna do about it? She already made up her mind and decided to get married, so Dios que la ayude. There is no way to make her come back home." We got married in 1954 at my husband's house. I didn't work anymore in the drugstore, but made money washing and ironing for three señoras in town. I received the money and took it to my mother, just like my dad and brothers did. Then she gave what she thought was convenient and we all agreed. In 1955, my son Juan Antonio was born and the next year we had another boy. The first time I came to Michigan was in 1948. My grandmother took my brother and me with her to see Florentino and Felipe Velázquez, two sons she had here. The trip was really long, three or four day in a small troque that brought people to work in the cucumber fields. I liked being in Michigan very much, I loved the snow and that it wasn't as hot as in Texas. I loved the school here because Americans were nicer than in the West (West Texas). Everywhere we found the Americans were friendlier than in the West. Over there they put public signs on the doors stating that they didn't allow Mexicans in. Especially in bars and restaurants, they looked down on you and if you walked in they said no, and threw you out. In San Juan our income never amounted to very much, we couldn't put money
aside. In 1957 my brother, who settled in Lansing, Mich., visited San Juan
and told us how much money he was making here, and that we could even buy
a solar build a house. But I also thought that coming back and forth is
too much, it is too dangerous, and I didn't want my kids switching houses
and schools every season. So I told my husband: "We're going to Michigan,
but once the children start school, we'll have to make a decision considering
their future too, not only yours and mine. We're going to stay permanently
here in San Juan or there in Michigan. So we came to Lansing, the first
year we couldn't return, nor the second. We remained four years here and
by then the children were already in school. Then I said, "Que felicidad!" What I wanted the most for my family was to live by ourselves, to have our own place so that I could say this is ours. When we lived at my brother's, a house in the block was vacated, and the word was that it was for sale. I did not say anything to my husband, I just went there by myself to find out how much money they wanted. The owner told me they were asking $250 as a downpayment. Can you imagine that? It was nothing! I had $50 and asked him: "Could you wait? Right now I'll give you $50 and in two weeks you'll have the rest." He agreed. I wrote to my father, telling him that I needed $200, without saying anything to my husband, because I really wanted that house. When he found out it was too late, he just said "Ay Margarita!" And I still live there. When we bought a record player, huy! I just went crazy, because we could get Mexican records, since the radio here didn't play them, and sometimes we even received them from Texas. My husband really liked the trio Los Panchos, Los Tecolines and the bolero in general. He was very romantic, a brother-in-law used to say that we could dance on a dime. My dad had an accordion, but he didn't play very well, so my mother used to say "Ay Dámaso, mejor cállate." The Cristo Rey community in Lansing is a beautiful thing, there is an incredible friendship there. When my husband passed away, I developed amistades bien bonitas there. We used to go to Cristo Rey's church since we first came to Michigan, when it was on Main Street. Now I dedicate more time to the church because it is there where I found genuine friendship, authentic brotherhood I sing in the choir and teach Sunday school, both are beautiful and rewarding experiences for me. We have to live day by day the way we are, the way we want to be, not what other people want us to be, because we have a future ahead, and it's us who will build it. I hope that when my grandchildren grow up, if they watch this video, they'll be proud of knowing who they are, where they come from, who their ancestors were: their parents, grandparents, on both sides of the family, because, in God's eyes, we are all only children. I hope that they might learn a little from my story and that they might become a little more than us.
The Social Capital: An International Conference Bridging Disciplines,
Polic 1998 JSRI Psychology Conference
From the Director(s) | Conference Highlights | Employment Opportunities | News You Can Use | Call for Papers | Money Matters | JSRI News | Reading Matter Assistant Professor. Puerto Rican/Latino Studies and Education. The Institute for Puerto Rican and Latino Studies and the School of Education at the University of Connecticut are seeking candidates for a tenure-track position of assistant professor to begin on Sept. 1, 1999. We seek candidates whose research and teaching interest lie primarily in the fields of teacher education, special education, school psychology, educational leadership and policy, or early childhood with a special focus on Puerto Ricans and Latinos. A Ph.D. in Education or related discipline is required. The position is a joint appointment between the Institute and the School of Education. Requirements include appropriate methodological skills and a commitment to teaching and policy-related research involving the comparative study of Puerto Rican, Mexican American, and other Latino populations in U.S. urban school systems. Salary is competitive and screening begins Nov. 15, 1998. Send curriculum vitae, three letters of recommendation, evidence of teaching excellence and publications, and a letter of interest to: Dr. Scott Cook, Interim Director, Institute of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, 354 Mansfield Road, Beach Hall, U-137, Storrs, CT 06269-2137. The University of Connecticut actively solicits applications from minorities, women, and people with disabilities (Search #98A435). Assistant Director of Admissions for Latino Recruitment. The University of Chicago. The chosen candidate will develop and implement an admissions strategy for a geographic area; includes up to seven weeks of travel in the Fall and up to three weeks in the Spring while visiting high schools, recruiting and training alumni volunteers, and participating in conferences and career fairs. The selected applicant will also interview and correspond with prospective students, their families, and school representatives, and assist the University's admissions office. Qualified applicants will possess at least a Bachelor's Degree, excellent written and verbal communications skills, and at least two years of experience in an educational foundation or University admissions, aid, or counseling environment. Submit a resume, cover letters, and three references to: The University of Chicago, Employment Office (EPCH8490), 956 E. 58th Street, Chicago, IL 60637. AA/EOE. Area Extension Education Director. Iowa State University Extension, North Central and Northeast Iowa Areas. Area Extension Education Directors (AEED) lead the ISU Extension Educational programs within a 15-county area. Responsibilities include program delivery for issues identified by county extension councils. AEEDs challenge staff to use their imagination in programming and create entrepreneurial environments where council partners create new resources addressing the educational needs of local populations; duties include direct and shared supervision. AEEDs lead staff efforts in maintaining partnerships with elected County Extension Councils, community colleges, and other area organizations. Requirements include a Master's degree with evidence of continuing professional improvement and a minimum of 10 years Extension experience, or its equivalent with administrative/supervisory experience. Successful contract and grant knowledge and experience is desired. Salary is commensurate with education and experience. Send resume, letter of interest, transcripts, and a list of five references, including complete addresses and telephone numbers to: Bruce S. Stoll, Assistant to the Vice Provost, Human Resources, Iowa State University, 109 Curtiss Hall, Ames, IA 50011-1050. The application deadline is July 30, 1998 or until the position is filled. Assistant Professor. The Department of Psychology at Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania seeks applicants for a tenure track position at the Assistant Professor level beginning in August 1998. This position requires a Doctorate in Psychology and interest in teaching a variety of Undergraduate courses including various clinical courses and Psychometrics. Willingness to teach courses in Child Psychology, Cognitive Psychology and /or History and Systems would be a plus. Gannon University is a Catholic, Liberal Arts University located in downtown Erie. Salaries are competitive. Send letter of application, vita, three letters of reference and graduate school transcript to: Director of Personnel, Gannon University, University Square, Erie, PA 16541. EOE. Program Officer. The Ford Foundation. The Program Officer will develop and manage program activities in the education field with an emphasis on educational access from K-12 through college. Program Officers focus on strengthening opportunities for disadvantaged students to enter post-secondary education, including policy options to promote equal access to quality education. The Program Officer will also lead the unit's efforts to relate education to the broader social and economic development of disadvantaged communities and will focus on efforts to build on prior Foundation initiatives, including a focus on community colleges, evaluating education reform models and efforts that involve communities in school reform. Responsibilities include: developing program initiatives, proposal review and response, preparing background materials and recommending actions for possible Foundation funding, and collaborating with non-profit and academic grantees, government and donor agencies. Qualifications include increasing responsibility in the field of education reform with some combination of research, policy analysis, training, and/or implementation of significant demonstration models, excellent interpersonal, analytical, communication skills, and an advanced degree in education policy, education and law, or in a relevant social science discipline. To apply, send cover letter, resume, and brief writing sample to: Ms. S. Gordon, The Ford Foundation, 320 East 43rd Street, Box 311, New York, NY 10017. Director, Chicano Studies Program. The University of Wyoming seeks a Director to bring effective leadership to the teaching program as well as support and sponsorship to the university's Chicano student community. Preference is given to candidates who are tenurable at associate or full professor rank in a discipline relevant to Chicano studies, and are knowledgeable in programs and fields of teaching and research in Chicano/Chicana studies. Letters of application should briefly articulate the candidate's understanding of issues and possibilities for the future of Chicano Studies in higher education. Applicants should send letter, vita, and names, addresses, and telephone numbers of three references to: Associate Dean Mark Booth, Chair of CHST Search Committee, College of Arts and Sciences, Box 3254, Laramie, WY 82071. Evaluation of applications began March 1 and continues until the position is filled. For additional information, call (607) 255-5533. University Professor, Tenure Track. Latin American Studies/Social Sciences. Governors State University seeks applications and nominations for a tenure-track position beginning this Fall. Candidates should demonstrate a commitment to excellence in teaching, a desire to work in a culturally-diverse student environment, and the potential for scholarship and service. The campus is in Chicago's sourthern suburbs. Responsibilities for the proposed position include teaching graduate and undergraduate Latin American Studies in the Social Sciences and Integrative Studies Programs. Courses include Latin American History, Culture, Economic and Political Systems with an emphasis on course development emphasizing policy-oriented issues like immigration, gender, and human rights. A Ph.D. in one of the sciences is preferred. Interdisciplinary education/training and a background reflecting an integrative approach, plus relevant experience, is required. Review of applications began June 1, 1998 and continues until the position is filled. Send a letter of interest addressing qualifications, a current curriculum vitae, a statement of teaching philosophy, and three references to: Susan Inman, Division of Liberal Arts, Governors State University, University Park, IL 60466-0975. Coordinator, Bilingual Education Program. Southern Connecticut University. SCSU seeks a talented coordinator for a 1-year TESOL/Bilingual Education Program beginning Aug. 24, 1998. A permanent Coordinator is also sought beginning Fall 1999. Candidates may apply for either or both positions. Duties include coordinating an M.S. program in TESOL/Bilingual Education, TESOL teacher certification, and teaching graduate courses in TESOL, second-language acquisition, or bilingual education. Salaries are competitive for these tenure-track Assistant or Associate Professor positions. A Ph.D. in TESOL or applied linguistics is required; competence in linguistics and Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, or Latin is desired. Send vitae, 1-page letter of teaching philosophy, transcripts, and three letters of recommendation to: Prof. Joseph Solodow, Chair, Dept. of Foreign Languages, SCSU, 501 Crescent Street, New Haven, CT 06515-1355. From the Director(s) | Conference Highlights | Employment Opportunities | News You Can Use | Call for Papers | Money Matters | JSRI News | Reading Matter Surveys Describe Latinas Surveys for the Dia de la Mujer Conference, held Feb. 27 at Michigan State University's Kellogg Center, revealed the following:
The next Latina Conference will held Feb. 28, 1999.
More Revealing Survey Results Hispanics in the U.S., according to a recent survey, reveal strong optimism about their futures and express confidence that America is on the right track. Democratic pollster Mark Penn and Republican pollster Mike Deaver conducted the survey for a nonpartisan television-broadcasting company and the results were presented at "The Power of the Hispanic Vote," an April conference in Washington, D.C. Most Hispanics (68%) expressed satisfaction with both the economy and their personal economic situations (78%). They strongly supported President Clinton (82% job approval) and 94% said they intend to vote in the 1998 election. While more Hispanics (62%) feel the Democratic Party best reaches out and represents their views, many (47%) feel the Republican Party ignores them. But, they also identify with traditional Republican concerns, like crime and violence, weakened family values, and the quest for economic opportunity. The study revealed high approval ratings for Republicans aggressively courting Hispanics, like Texas Gov. George W. Bush (81%) and Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar (66%), and poor ratings (26%) for politicians like California Gov. Pete Wilson, who fought illegal immigration there.
From the Director(s) | Conference Highlights | Employment Opportunities | News You Can Use | Call for Papers | Money Matters | JSRI News | Reading Matter
The Midwest Consortium for Latino Research seeks papers and panel proposals on the following topics for its 4th Annual Roundtable Conference being held Aug. 20-24, 1998 at Indiana University-Bloomington.
There are also opportunities for Roundtable discussions addressing the tenure process, linking universities and communities, scholarship and activism, mentoring, and Faculty-Student Recruitment and Retention. Proposals may be submitted for individual papers or entire panels. Conference and Roundtable topics are not limited to the aforementioned topics. Although the Midwest will be the focus, papers and panels from other U.S. geographical areas are welcome. For information, contact MCLR, 203 Paolucci Bldg. MSU, East Lansing, MI 48824-1110 or call (517) 432-1150. Organizers of the XXI International Congress Of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) have issued a Call for Papers for their Sept. 24-26, 1998 event being held in Chicago. "Social Justice: Past Experiences and Future Prospects" is the designated theme of the Congress. Proposal submitters are asked to select the proper form and indicate the track for which a panel, workshop, or paper should be considered. Two hard copies of the proposal must be sent by regular or express mail to reach the LASA98 Program Office by Nov, 1, 1998. Additional forms, available on the LASA Website <http://www.pitt.edu/~lasa/>, may be printed and filled out, but the printed and completed version must be submitted with the proposals. More information can be obtained by contacting:, LASA98, LASA Secretariat, 946 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; Tel: (412) 648-7929 / Fax: 624-7145; E-Mail <lasa@vms.cis.pitt.edu>. The Fifth Conference of Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage is being held Dec. 4-5, 1998, at the University of Houston. Reconstituting the literary legacy of Hispanics in what has become the United States, from colonial times to 1960, will make accessible a vast corpus of works that represents the collective voice of a vital segment of American society. Its emergence will usher in analysis and scholarly research in literature, history, linguistics, library and information sciences, folklore, and other areas across the Humanities. Its recovery will influence all levels of curriculum. Papers are invited on any of the following themes: Analytical Studies of recovered Authors and/or Texts, Critical and Theoretical Approaches to Recovered Texts, Preparation of Critical Editions, Curriculum Development, Folklore/Oral Histories, Historiography, Language and Linguistics, Preservation and Access, Library and Information Science. Presenters will be asked to provide a publication-ready paper in hard copy and Wordperfect 5.1 diskette prior to the conference. Submit a 150-word abstract and curriculum vitae by Aug. 15, 1998 to: Lynn Cortina, Coordinator, Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage, University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun, E. Cullen Performance Hall, Room 254, Houston, TX 77204-2172. Phone: (713) 743-2138 Fax: (713) 743-3142 or Email: artrec@jetson.uh.edu. From the Director(s) | Conference Highlights | Employment Opportunities | News You Can Use | Call for Papers | Money Matters | JSRI News | Reading Matter The Hagley Museum and Library sponsors Residential fellowships for out-of-state scholars to pursue their research for 2-6 months and to participate in the interchange of ideas among the Center's scholars. Application deadlines are June 30 and Oct. 31. The fellowships support serious scholarly work and enable scholars to pursue advanced research and study in the library, archival, and artifact collections of the Hagley Museum and Library. The Fellowships are for persons who have already completed their formal professional training; consequently, degree candidates and persons seeking support for degree work are not eligible. Residential fellowships and recipients are required to reside at Hagley. Fellows must devote full time to their studies and may not accept teaching assignments or undertake any other major activities during their tenure and must participate in periodic events and public programs. Stipends are no more than $1,500 per month. For info, contact: Dr. Philip B. Scranton, Hagley Museum and Library, P.O. Box 3630, Wilmington DE 19807. Tel (302) 658-2400. Fax: (302) 655-3188. E-mail: crl@udel.edu. Ten $1,000 Scholarships available based on academic achievement, personal contributions to the Hispanic community, and financial need. Applicants should send requests, along with self-addressed, stamped envelope, to: The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Scholarship, 1030 15th St. N.W. #206, Washington, DC 20005 by July 20, 1998. For more information, call (202) 842-1212. The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) Student Support Systems offers a variety of funds and other educational opportunities through partnerships with government agencies and various corporations, including the HACU Student Support Fund, Hispanic Education Leadership Fund sponsored by Miller Brewing Company, the HACU-GM Engineering Excellence Awards Program, and the HACU/Motorola Fund. The amount of funds vary. For information, contact: Antonio Hernandez, Director of special projects, HACU, 4204 Gardendale St., #216, San Antonio, TX 78229. Or call (210) 692-3805. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and National Educational Service Centers Inc. have several scholarship opportunities, such as the Starr Foundation/LULAC Scholarship, the Kraft/LULAC Scholarship Program, and the LULAC National Scholarship Fund, for Hispanic students. Contact Brent Wilkes, LULAC, 777 N. Capitol St. N.E., #305, Washington, DC 20002 or call (202) 408-0060 for more information. Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project is a 10-year research project identifying, locating, preserving, making accessible, and publishing literary works written by Hispanics in what is now the U.S., dating from the Colonial Period to 1960. The project includes the following programs: archival preservation, grants-in-aid for scholars, bibliographic database, periodicals recovery, and publications. The Grants-in-Aid program provides stipends to scholars for research and expenditures like photography, photoduplication, microfilming, travel to collections, translation, transcription, indexing, scanning, or other expenses connected with research that advances a project to the next stage. Scholars at different stages of their careers and advanced graduate students are encouraged to apply for a stipend of up to $3,000 for investigative work. Projects recovering and preserving Hispanic women's voices are encouraged. Proposals must be postmarked by Oct. 1, 1998. For application and guidelines, contact: Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage, University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun, E. Cullen Performance Hall, Room 254, Houston, TX 77204-2172. For more information, call (713) 743-3128, fax (713) 743-3142, or e-mail Artrec@jetson.uh.edu. The FY 1999 USDA Small Business Innovation Research program is currently open for proposals. Program description and application materials are available at <http://www.reeusda.gov/sbir>. The submission deadline is Sept. 3, 1998. Grants are awarded to qualified small businesses for innovative research on problems facing American agriculture and/or Rural America. Small businesses apply for a 6-month, Phase I $65,000 grant to conduct a technical feasibility studies on new scientific or technological concepts leading to innovations in products or services. Applicants must conduct two-thirds of the research and the principal investigators must work at least 51% of their time for the small business during the grant period; no more that one-third of the grant can be used for university personnel. Topics include Forests and Related Resources, Plant Production and Protection, Animal Production and Protection, Air, Water and Soil, Food Science and Nutrition, Rural and Community Development, Aquaculture, Industrial Applications, and Marketing and Trade. E-mail psb.reeusda.gov or call the SBIR program office at 202/401-4002 or fax your request to 202/401-6070. From the Director(s) | Conference Highlights | Employment Opportunities | News You Can Use | Call for Papers | Money Matters | JSRI News | Reading Matter
From the Director(s) | Conference Highlights | Employment Opportunities | News You Can Use | Call for Papers | Money Matters | JSRI News | Reading Matter
New JSRI Pubs Off the Presses and On the Web JSRI's Publication Series, which includes Occasional Papers, Working Papers, Research Reports, and CIFRAS Breves, now has more than 110 titles. Printed copies can be ordered from JSRI or web versions of most publications are available at http://www.jsri.msu.edu. OC-33 Comparing Latino and Asian Film Narratives, by Mario Barrera OC-35 The Conflicting Borders Between "Popular" and "Classical" Music and Eddie Palmieri's Compositions, by Noel Allende-Goitia OC-36 The Contribution of Latino Studies to Social Science Research on Immigration, by Silvia Pedraza WP-35 Facing Violent Crime Among Latinos, by Ramiro Martinez WP-36 Hispanic/Latina Women and Aids: A Critical Perspective, by Lydia Blasini WP-37 Agricultural Hierarchy and the Legal Condition of Chicana/os in the Rural Economy, by Guadalupe Luna WP-40 The Historian as Curandera, by Aurora Levins Morales WP-41 Family and Culture: Are Minorities Smart Enough to Learn Science?, by Sunethra Karunaratne WP-42 Neither Here Nor There: Nuyorican Literature, Home, and the "American" National Symbolic, by Monica Brown Award-winning poet and writer Luis J. Rodriguez has had a pair of books, an illustrated children's book and a collection of poetry, published this year. The children's book was printed in both English and Spanish. América is Her Name/La Llaman América (ISBN 1-880684-40-3/41-1), the children's book illustrated by Carlos Vásquez and translated by Tino Villanueva, was released in April. This is Rodriguez's first children's book and is based on his own experiences teaching poetry to Latino children in the Chicago communities of Pilsen and Rogers Park. Vásquez's rich, 4-color illustrations are inspirational and provide a vivid sense of the barrio. The heroine, América, is an elementary school student from Oaxaca who is unhappy in school until a poet visits the class and inspires students to express themselves creatively. Trochemoche (ISBN 1-880684-50-0)) is Rodriguez's third book of poems and is scheduled for release this month. The title, Trochemoche, is derived from a Spanish word meaning "helter skelter." Drawing from more than a decade of poetry, Rodriguez writes about urban youth, family, the plight of neglected communities, while exploring the rich cultural roots of his Chicano ancestry. The poetry also addresses recovery, personal growth, knowledge, revolution, and the power of poetry. "[Rodriguez's poetry] is of the barrio yet stubbornly refuses to be confined in it," according to Publishers Weekly, a national literary publication. "[His] perceptive gaze and storyteller's gift transport his world across boundaries." Both books are available in bookstores or through Consortium Book Distributors. The Latino/a Condition, edited by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, brings together a broad range of Latino and Latina voices, and some of the pioneers in law, sociology, history, politics, and literature to address questions like:
Collecting a wealth of perspectives from more than 50 authors, Delgado and Stefancic offer a broad portrait of Latino/a life in the United States at the end of the 20th Century. "Buildings, Boundaries, and Blood: Nation-Building and Medicalization on the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1910-1930" This article, which appears in next February's edition of Hispanic American Historical Review, examines the role that medicalization and eugenics played in the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border and the racialized category of "Mexican" in the first half of the 20th Century. Focusing mainly on El Paso, it demonstrates that the activities and ideologies of the United States Public Health Service along the border represented a continuation of scientific practices formulated largely in the context of U.S. colonialism. Using inspection records, oral histories, and medical publications, this article sheds light on a previously unstudied aspect of U.S. nation-building and reveals the extent to which ethnic and racial differentiation can be influenced by theories of disease and difference. Author Alexandra Stern is a graduate student completing her dissertation on eugenics in the U.S. and Mexico at the University of Chicago. She is also a Research Associate at the Historical Center for the Health Sciences, University of Michigan Medical Center. "Building the Bridge from Client to Citizen: A Community Toolbox for Welfare Reform." A new paper from the Asset-Based Community Development Institute demonstrates how five "tools" successfully used for community-building activities may be adapted to help former welfare recipients move toward economic independence and more fulfilling lives. Three of the tools are inventories and two involve support groups:
"Building the Bridge," by John P. Kretzmann and Michael B. Green (1998,) also offers sample capacity inventories, illustrates associational support for community-building activities, and supplies questions for interviewing local business owners. The paper is available from IPR's Publications Department for $5.00. The address is 2040 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-4100 and prepayment is required. It will soon be available for downloading on IPR's web site at: www.nwu.edu/IPR/abcd.html. From the Director(s) | Conference Highlights | Employment Opportunities | News You Can Use | Call for Papers | Money Matters | JSRI News | Reading Matter |
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Social Capital
Conference has International Appeal
ies, and Communities conference was like
no other held at MSU. With considerable input by JSRI's Marcelo Siles, it
drew speakers, presenters, and audience members from around the globe. Educators
and administrators from some of the world's most respected universities,
like 
Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Oxford,
George Mason, George Washington, and, of course, Michigan State University,
were among more than 300 people attending the 3-day conference. Those numbers
also included representatives from many international organizations like
the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, United Nations Economic
Commission for Latin America, and even the U.S. government. Three prominent
scholars, Robert Putnam, Amitai Etzioni, and Francis Fukuyama, each internationally
recognized for their work with the concept of social capital, delivered
the April conference's main speeches. Seven concurrent sessions, addressing
areas like migration, family, community development, and education, were
intermingled with a pair of international sessions on global inequalities
and international firm development. Conference organizers said the purpose
the event was to assemble social capital experts, attempt to define the
term "social capital," and examine how social capital is used
globally.
Monica Brown will be teaching the Evolution of American
Thought next quarter at MSU. Monica received her Ph.D. from the Ohio State
University this Spring.
Associate
with JSRI.
her Ph.D. Her appointment
at MSU began in June and she is scheduled to teach a course next Spring
that overlaps criminal justice and the Latino Specialization.
SCHOLARSHIP WINNER -- Dr. Refugio
Rochín, JSRI's Director, presents a $500 scholarship to Humanities
Senior Allison Daniels. She was one of four recipients of the 1998 Michigan
Educational Opportunity Fund Scholarships who were honored during JSRI's
"Innovations in Chicana/o Psychology" Conference in April. Other
scholarships were awarded to Interior Design Freshman Maureen Bazan; Political
Science and Pre-Law Sophomore Maria Mejia; and International Relations Freshman
Viviana Solarte. The MEOF awards went to Latino/a undergraduates demonstrating
high levels of academic accomplishment at MSU. Selection was based on biographical
sketches and creative works, which include the students' poetry, essays
and writings, and artwork, like videography, painting, and photography.
Submissions were judged on creativity, reflection of ethnic heritage, and
artistic merit.