Doctoral Dissertation Research: Immigration and Trajectories to the Middle Class

SES-0623695詹妮弗·李乔迪·阿吉斯加州大学欧文分校这项研究研究了墨西哥裔中产阶级的合并轨迹，这是美国墨西哥人口中经常被忽视的一部分。 一些学者认为，墨西哥移民及其子女在经济和社会文化方面成功融入中产阶级的前景有限，墨西哥移民及其子女是向下流动进入少数下层文化的主要候选人。另一方面，实现向上流动的移民有望融入白色中产阶级。然而，一些学者最近提出理论，认为向上移动的移民及其子女，如墨西哥人，可能会融入少数中产阶级文化。 这项研究的目标是检查向上移动的墨西哥人的轨迹，以确定他们是作为中产阶级白人还是作为中产阶级少数族裔融入社会。该研究研究了三种不同的纳入措施：回馈同种族的模式;墨西哥中产阶级参与自愿协会;种族/民族认同。 为了回答手头的研究问题，这项研究借鉴了多种方法：在墨西哥裔中产阶级的成员进行深入的结构化访谈;参与和非参与观察的拉丁裔专业组织;和分析的全国家庭和Households.This研究有助于移民和种族/族裔文献在一些重要的方式。首先，本研究弥补了Portes和Zhou（1993）分段同化理论的缺陷，并检验了Neckerman，Carter和Lee（1999）的少数民族文化流动理论，该理论提出移民及其子女可能通过多种途径进入中产阶级。其次，研究探讨墨西哥裔中产阶级是否表现出反映非裔美国人所表现出的集体主义取向的回馈模式，或者他们是否更接近中产阶级白人所表现出的个人主义取向。 第三，这项研究超越了对第二代青少年的研究，重点放在成年人身上。 最后，这项研究超越了传统的二元黑/白色范式，通过研究种族/民族身份的选择和限制在美国的墨西哥人，谁的身份既不简单的黑色或白色。 更广泛地说，这项研究将提供深入了解墨西哥裔中产阶级人口的一个半，第二代和后代的经济和社会文化融合过程。 这项研究对公共政策具有相关性，因为它深入了解了一个经常被吹捧为不可比拟的人口，容易向下流动，并可能在未来几代人中保持贫困。

SES-0623695Jennifer LeeJody AgiusUniversity of California, IrvineThis research studies the incorporation trajectories of the Mexican origin middle-class, an often neglected segment of the U.S. Mexican population. A number of scholars contend that Mexican immigrants and their children face limited prospects for successful economic and socio-cultural incorporation into the middle-class, and that Mexican immigrants and their children are prime candidates for downward mobility into a minority underclass culture. On the other hand, immigrants who achieve upward mobility are expected to incorporate into the white middle-class. However, some scholars have recently theorized that upwardly mobile immigrants and their children, like Mexicans, may incorporate into a minority middle-class culture. The goal of this study is to examine the trajectories of upwardly mobile Mexicans to determine whether they are incorporating as middle-class whites or as middle-class minorities. The research studies three distinct measures of incorporation: patterns of giving back to coethnics; participation in voluntary associations among the Mexican middle-class; and racial/ethnic identification. To answer the research questions at hand, the study draws on multiple methods: in-depth structured interviews with members of the Mexican-origin middle-class; participant and nonparticipant observation of a Latina professional organization; and analysis of the National Survey of Family and Households.This study contributes to both the immigration and race/ethnicity literatures in a number of important ways. First, the research remedies the shortcoming in Portes and Zhou's (1993) theory of segmented assimilation, and also tests Neckerman, Carter, and Lee's (1999) theory of the minority culture of mobility that proposes that immigrants and their children may take multiple pathways into the middle-class. Second, the research examines whether the Mexican-origin middle-class displays patterns of giving back that mirror the collectivist orientation exhibited by African Americans, or whether they more closely resemble the individualistic orientation exhibited by middle-class whites. Third, the research goes beyond the study of second-generation adolescents and focuses on adults. Finally, the study moves beyond the traditional binary black/white paradigm by examining the racial/ethnic identity options and constraints among Mexicans in the United States, who identity neither as simply black nor white. More broadly, the study will provide insight into the economic and sociocultural incorporation processes of one and a half, second, and later generations of the Mexican origin middle-class population. The study has relevance for public policy since it offers an in-depth understanding of a population that is often touted as unassimalable, vulnerable to downward mobility, and likely to remain poor for generations to come.