Synopses & Reviews
In virtually all advanced industrialised countries, the explosive topic of immigration has engendered heated argument, political anger, cultural anxieties, and blatant racism. In the United States, most of the attention is on the stream of Mexicans crossing the border in such numbers that early in the next century Latinos are expected to surpass African Americans as the largest minority group. This book focuses on key aspects of the problem, including the puzzling differences between Mexico-born adolescents and adolescents born in the United States. Whereas Mexico-born adolescents are highly motivated to learn English and use the educational system to improve their lot, US-born adolescents seem angry, frustrated, and less interested in academic achievement. In a psychological and cultural study of four groups of adolescents this study seeks to account for this difference.
Synopsis
“While Transformations focuses on Mexicans in California, the authors place their study in a much wider context—the global context. This perspective is on of the books most insightful features. . . . The information presented provokes educators, researchers and policymakers to take a hard look at how we are educating immigrant children.”—Harvard Educational Review
Synopsis
This book explores key social and cultural issues surrounding the Mexican immigrant community in the United States.
Synopsis
Focusing on the puzzling differences between adolescents born in Mexico and those born in the U.S., this psychocultural study examines why second-generation Latinos lose the desire to achieve.
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. Civilization's new discontent: immigrants and refugees in a post-utopian moment; 2. Uncertain journeys: Latinos in the United States; 3. Between paradoxes; 4. Family and peers; 5. Achievement motivation and attitudes toward school; 6. Anxious neighbors; Epilogue: the need for strangers: proposition 187 and the immigration malaise; Appendix: statistical tables.