Synopses & Reviews
It has become a major challenge for the United States public policy, educational system, and non-governmental aid organizations to help the vast numbers of young immigrants and refugees to have successful lives and careers and to fulfill their potential in their new country. In a unique effort, this book brings together, for the first time, scholarly analyses by eminent researchers of the historical, social, legal, and cultural influences on the young newcomers lives as well as reports by practitioners in major aid organizations about the concrete work that their organizations have been carrying out.
Review
"It is frequently claimed that contemporary immigration to the United States - the Post-1965 Immigration Wave - is unprecedented in its magnitude, diversity, and challenge to America's absorptive capacity. The chapters in this volume, written by leading scholars and practitioners, show the many parallels of the present situation with America's largely successful integration of earlier waves of immigrants. The central conclusion is that the openness of America's educational and economic opportunities for young immigrants, and the native-born children of immigrants, has been the key to America's successful past and can be again in the future." - Charles Hirschman, University of Washington
"Displaying a brilliant balance between lessons learned from past immigrant experiences, deep analyses of current immigrant groups, and the role of various factors affecting integration like education, culture, policies, and organizations, this is an excellent read." - Contemporary Sociology
Synopsis
In a unique effort, this book brings together, for the first time, scholarly analyses by eminent researchers of the historical, social, legal, and cultural influences on the young newcomers' lives as well as reports by practitioners in major aid organizations about the concrete work that their organizations have been carrying out.
Synopsis
Through the ethnography of a Catholic community in Northeast Brazil, Maya Mayblin offers a vivid and provocative rethink of gendered portrayals of Catholic life. For the residents of Santa Lucia, life is conceptualized as a series of moral tradeoffs between the sinful and productive world against an idealized state of innocence, conceived with reference to local Catholic teachings. As marriage marks the beginning of a productive life in the world, it also marks a phase in which moral personhood comes most actively-and poignantly-to the fore. This book offers lucid observations on how men and women as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, negotiate this challenge. As well as making an important contribution to the ethnographic literature on morality, Christianity, and Latin America, the book offers a compelling alternative to received portrayals of gender polarity as symbolically all-encompassing, throughout the Catholic world.
About the Author
Gerhard Sonnert is a Sociologist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and in the Department of Physics at Harvard University. Gerald Holton is Mallinckrodt Research Professor of Physics and Research Professor of History of Science at Harvard University.
Table of Contents
Introduction--Gerhard Sonnert & Gerald Holton * PART I: SETTING THE STAGE: THE HISTORIAL FRAMEWORK * Questions of Success: Lessons from the Last Great Immigration--Nancy Foner * Conceptual Frameworks for Obstacles to Immigrant Advancement: Perceiving Immigrants in the Context of Societal Change--Reed Ueda * PART II: LOOKING INTO THE PAST: SOME LESSONS FROM THE “SECOND WAVE” * Successful Young Refugees form Central Europe--Potential Lessons for Today--Gerhard Sonnert & Gerald Holton * The Second Wave and the American Jewish Community--Nathan Glazer * Helping Young Immigrants/Refugees Become Entrepreneurs--Clark Claus Abt * PART III: RECENT AND CURRENT WAVES OF YOUNG IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES * After the Cold War: Comparing Soviet Jewish and Vietnamese Youth in the 1980s to Todays Young Refugees--Steven J. Gold * Second Generation Advantages: An Optimistic Story--Mary Waters * The Changing Role of Race and Ethnicity in the Incorporation of Refugees, Immigrants and their Children--Philip Kasinitz * Young, Gifted and West African: Transnational Migrants Growing Up in America--Marilyn Halter & Violet M. Showers Johnson * Mexican Immigrant Legalization and Naturalization and Children's Economic Well-Being--Frank D. Bean, Susan K. Brown, Mark A. Leach, & James Bachmeier * PART IV: EDUCATING IMMIGRANTS * Schooling Pathways of Newcomer Immigrant Youth--Carola Suárez-Orozco & Francisco X. Gaytán * The Importance of Raising Mexican-American High School Graduation Rates--Joel Perlmann * Increasing Concrete Knowledge and Community Capacity: How CUNY and other Institutions Can Help Re-Shape Mexican Educational Futures in New York--Robert Smith * PART V: INSTITUTIONS PROVIDING AID TO YOUNG IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES * Tapping the Potential of Refugee Youth--Robert J. Carey & Jane S. Kim, International Rescue Committee (IRC) * Reasons for Living and Hoping: Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope--Julianne Duncan, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Migration and Refugee Services (USCCB/MRS) * Protection of Refugee and Migrant Children: The Role of Nonprofits--Annie Wilson, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) * A Framework for the Care of Unaccompanied Children--Kenneth Tota, Office of Refugee Resettlement, U. S. Department of Health & Human Services * PART VI: LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE * Home Country Farewell: The Withering of Immigrants “Transnational” Ties--Roger Waldinger * Is There a Looming Period of Liminality for Race and Ethnicity in the US?--Richard Alba & Hui-shien Tsao