Immigrants, Rights, and Incorporation in a Surburnban Metropolis

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0003938Brettell, Hollifield, & CordellThis project studies the immigrant experience of Asian Indian, Nigerian, Vietnamese, Salvadoran and Mexican immigrants who have established communities in the sunbelt metropolitan area of Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties, Texas, since 1980. The researchers, including cultural anthropologists, political scientists, historians and demographers, will document incorporation outcomes for each immigrant group, paying attention to variation by gender, economic status and activity, language use and social mobility, community institutions, intra- and inter-group relations and leisure time activity as well as civil and political incorporation through naturalization and political participation. The project will analyze the effects of variation in human and social capital such as education and social networks and variation in the auspices of immigration such as the conditions of arrival (the existence of family contacts, varieties of legal or unauthorized status) on the process of incorporation among these diverse immigrant populations and individuals. The project will collect qualitative and quantitative data including a demographic analysis of census data from the past 30 years, historical archives, in-depth unstructured and semi-structured interviews with government officials, heads of organizations, employers and immigrant entrepreneurs, a survey of households from each of the five immigrant groups, participant-observation, and a telephone survey of metroplex residents. This research will advance theory in modes of incorporation, globalization, and transnational research. The new knowledge to be gained will be useful to students of international migration and ethnicity, planners, decision makers, and social service deliverers.