Synopses & Reviews
Widely acclaimed for its superb portrayal of immigration and immigrant lives in the United States, this work, first published in 1990, has become a classic. This second edition has been thoroughly expanded and updated to reflect current demographic, economic, and political realities, and the vertiginous pace of historical change in the post-Cold-War era. The authors have written two new chapters, infused the entire text with new data, and added a vivid array of new illustrations. As immigration moves to the center of national debate, this new edition is indispensable for framing and informing issues that promise to be even more hotly and urgently contested.
The United States of the late twentieth century is a new nation of immigrants. Not since the peak years of immigration before World War I have so many newcomers made their way to America: During the 1980s about six million immigrants and refugees were legally admitted, and a sizable but uncertain number of others entered without legal status. This definitive new book offers a broad portrait of the multicultural people who comprise the latest wave of immigrants to the United States. Overwhelmingly Asian and Latin American yet defying widespread stereotypes of immigrants, they come in luxurious jetliners and the trunks of cars, by boat and on foot. Manual laborers and polished professionals, entrepreneurs and exiles, these immigrants reflect in their motives and origins the forces that have reshaped American society in the second half of the century.
Drawing on recent census data and other primary sources, Portes and Rumbaut revise our understanding of immigrant America in a sweeping and multifaceted analysis. They probe the dynamics of immigrant politics, examining questions of identity and loyalty among newcomers who are "in a society but not of it," and explore the psychological consequences of varying modes of migration and acculturation. They look at patterns of settlement in urban America, discuss the problems of English-language acquisition and bilingual education, and explain how immigrants incorporate themselves into the American economy. Portes and Rumbaut also dispel myths about that most oppressed and controversial immigrant group, the undocumented. Though much maligned in the popular imagination, these immigrantsoften positively selected men and women seeking opportunities for advancementcontribute importantly to many sectors of the American economy.
In this rich new study, which will appeal as much to the general reader as to the policy maker and social scientist, Portes and Rumbaut provide a fascinating and complex portrait of America circa 1990. It is a powerful and distinguished contribution to the literature in American and immigrant studies.
Synopsis
"Widely acknowledged as a masterful analysis of the distinctive features of the new immigration, this book is a lively classic, combining an innovative paradigm with rich empirical evidence. With commitment and discipline, its authors provide the best that social science has to offer."--Aristide Zolberg, author of
A Nation by Design"Because of its intellectual breadth, Immigrant America is a portrait of American life itself, its pressures and difficulties, its mosaic of repressions, as well as its possibilities, as seen through the eyes of those struggling for a place in the society."--Richard Sennett, New York University
"A fascinating and compelling window to our 'permanently changing' and amazingly diverse mosaic of peoples and cultures. The drama of newcomers' personal journeys from distant homelands combined with in-depth demographic research and history presents an invaluable resource for all students of America's unique immigrant tradition."--Al Santoli, author of New Americans
"Immigration is clearly in the news again, reflecting renewed interest and controversy over one of the oldest themes in our nation's history. In Immigrant America, Portes and Rumbaut tell us not only how America has become a mosaic of peoples and nationalities, but what the prospects for the future are as well. They have pulled together, in a readable fashion, a vast wealth of information and knowledge on the phenomena of immigration to the United States that is understandable to the layperson and provocative to the scholar."--Jerry M. Tinker, Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs
"A superb book. It is that rarest of combinations: a work of impeccable scholarship that is also accessible to the general reader."--Gary E. Rubin, The American Jewish Committee
"This book is essential for those who seek the facts upon which intelligent discussion of the immigrant problem must be based."--Charles Peters, Washington Monthly
"Immigrant America is a thoroughly updated and revised edition of a classic in the immigration field. More than just an excellent synthetic overview, this remarkably well-written and engaging book provides original and theoretically stimulating analyses of the recent immigration that is transforming American society."--Nancy Foner, author of In a New Land: A Comparative View of Immigration
Synopsis
"This book presents the experience of immigration as an economic, geographic, cultural, and psychological totality. The authors are superb researchers and clear writers; the result is that the reader senses this totality in all its complexity and its pain. Because of its intellectual breadth,
Immigrant America is a portrait of American life itself, its pressures and difficulties, its mosaic of repressions, as well as its possibilities, as seen through the eyes of those struggling for a place in the society."Richard Sennett, New York University
"Immigration is clearly in the news again, reflecting renewed interest and controversy over one of the oldest themes in our nation's history. In Immigrant America, Portes and Rumbaut tell us not only how America has become a mosaic of peoples and nationalities, but what the prospects for the future are as well. They have pulled together, in a readable fashion, a vast wealth of information and knowledge on the phenomena of immigration to the United States that is understandable to the layperson and provocative to the scholar."Jerry M. Tinker, Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs
"A superb book. It is that rarest of combinations: a work of impeccable scholarship that is also accessible to the general reader."Gary E. Rubin, The American Jewish Committee
"Immigrant America: A Portrait is a fascinating and compelling window to our 'permanently changing' and amazingly diverse mosaic of peoples and cultures. The drama of newcomers' personal journeys from distant homelands combined with in-depth demographic research and history presents an invaluable resource for all students of America's unique immigrant tradition. Professors Portes and Rumbaut have compiled a masterful and provocative document, challenging our ideals of justice and compassion."Al Santoli, author of New Americans: Immigrants and Refugees in the U.S. Today
"Immigrant America provides a fascinating and comprehensive up-to-date guide for understanding recent immigration to the U.S. and persuasive evidence that through immigration the nation has done well by doing good."Lawrence H. Fuchs, Former Executive Director of the U.S. Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy
"Chock-full of invaluable data for understanding immigration and immigrants."Julian L. Simon, The University of Maryland
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [323]-356) and index.
About the Author
Alejandro Portes is John Dewey Professor of Sociology and International Relations at Johns Hopkins University and coauthor of Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States (University of California Press, 1985) and Labor, Class and the International System (1981). He is the 2010 recipient of the W.E.B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award from the American Sociological Association. Rubén G. Rumbaut is Professor of Sociology at San Diego State University and author of The Agony of Exile (1990), The Structure of Refuge (1989), and other studies of the adaptation of refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Table of Contents
l. Introduction: Who They Are and Why They Come
The Origins of Immigration
Immigrants and Their Types
Overview
2. Moving: Patterns of Immigrant Settlement and Spatial Mobility
The Pioneers
Following in the Footsteps
Contemporary Settlement Patterns: A Map of Immigrant
America
Preferred Places
Persistent Ethnicity
Conclusion: The Pros and Cons of Spatial Concentration
3. Making It in America: Occupational and Economic Adaptation
mmigrants in the American Economy Explaining the Differences: Modes of IncorporationContexts of Reception
4. From Immigrants to Ethnics: Identity, Citizenship, and Political
Participation
Immigrant Politics at the Turn of the Century Immigrant Politics Today
The Future of Immigrant Politics
Conclusion
5. A Foreign World: Immigration, Mental Health, and Acculturation
Marginality and Freedom
Early Psychopathology: The Eugenics Approach to Mental Illness
From Nationality to Class and Context: The Changed Etiology of Mental Illness
Immigrants and Refugees: Contemporary Trends
Contexts of Incorporation: Mental Health and Help Seeking
Acculturation and Its Consequences
Conclusion: The Major Determinants of Immigrant Psychology
6. Learning the Ropes: Language and the Second Generation
Patterns of English Language Acquisition in the United States
Language Diversity and Resilience in the United States Today
Assimilation and Linguistic Pluralism in America Conclusion
7. Conclusion: The Undocumented, Immigration Policy, and the Future
Determinants of Unauthorized Immigration: The Push-Pull ModelL
An Alternative Approach (I): The Macrostructures of Labor Migration
An Alternative Approach (II): The Microstructures of Labor Migration Determinants of Unauthorized Immigration: A Summary
Immigration Types and the Law
Conclusion