Doctoral Dissertation Research: Immigration and Trajectories to the Middle Class

博士论文研究：移民与中产阶级轨迹

• 批准号: 0623695
• 负责人: Jennifer Lee
• 金额: $ 0.7万
• 依托单位: University of California-Irvine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-09-01 至 2007-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0623695&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Immigration; Trajectories

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.

Jennifer LeeJody Agius加州大学欧文分校这项研究研究了墨西哥裔中产阶级的融入轨迹，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阶级文化的主要候选者。另一方面，实现向上流动的移民有望融入白人中产阶级。然而，一些学者最近推测，向上流动的移民及其子女可能会像墨西哥人一样，融入少数族裔中产阶级文化。这项研究的目标是检查向上流动的墨西哥人的轨迹，以确定他们是被纳入中产阶级白人还是中产阶级少数族裔。这项研究研究了三种不同的融合措施：回馈同种人的模式；参与墨西哥中产阶级的自愿协会；以及种族/民族认同。为了回答手头的研究问题，这项研究采用了多种方法：对墨西哥裔中产阶级成员的深入结构化访谈；对一个拉丁裔专业组织的参与者和非参与者的观察；以及对全国家庭和家庭调查的分析。这项研究在许多重要方面对移民和种族/民族文献做出了贡献。首先，本研究弥补了Portes和周(1993)的分段同化理论的不足，也验证了Neckerman，Carter和Lee(1999)的少数民族流动文化理论，该理论提出移民及其子女可能采取多种途径进入中产阶级。其次，这项研究考察了墨西哥裔中产阶级表现出的回馈模式是否反映了非裔美国人表现出的集体主义倾向，或者他们是否更接近中产阶级白人表现出的个人主义倾向。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黑人/白人二元范式，考察了在美国的墨西哥人的种族/民族认同选项和限制因素，他们既不认为自己是黑人，也不是白人。更广泛地说，这项研究将为墨西哥裔中产阶级人口的一代半、第二代和后代的经济和社会文化融合过程提供洞察力。这项研究对公共政策具有相关性，因为它提供了对中国人口的深入了解，这些人口经常被吹捧为没有吸引力，容易向下流动，并可能在未来几代人中保持贫困。