Immigration, Institutions, and Inter-Group Relations

SES-0921414 Maria KrysanNilda Flores Gonzalez Pamela Popielarz Andy Clarno伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校该奖项由2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助。个人和社区如何接收新移民，特别是拉美裔移民？这项研究是在社区内进行的，在那里移民和非移民之间的群体关系得到了直接的体验。社区的关注很重要，因为联邦政府在移民立法上的不作为已经为州和市一级的政治行动铺平了道路。该项目将研究芝加哥大都市区，那里的许多社区居住着越来越多的拉丁裔移民。但是，就像个人对移民的态度从反感、冷漠到积极重视多样性一样，社区的反应也不同，从制定限制移民获得就业和教育机会的法律，到建立明确帮助移民的机构。这项研究试图解释个人对移民的态度以及市政对移民的政治反应的这种差异。由于具有相似移民特征的社区的反应不同，这项研究超越了仅仅针对这些解释因素的人口变化。调查人员假设，当地制度背景的各个方面塑造了个人对移民的态度和社区政治结果。地方背景包括(1)连接社区内个人和社区外其他人的社会网络，(2)活跃在社区内并与社区相关的自愿协会，(3)社区的正式和非正式政治权力结构，以及(4)与移民有关的当地事件的历史。这项研究探讨了四个不同移民背景的芝加哥地区社区的群体间态度、当地制度背景和政治结果。它使用多种方法收集数据，包括对个人的电话调查、对社区主要线人的采访、公众观察以及对市议会文件和地方报纸等档案材料的研究。由于这项参与式研究关注的问题无疑将是未来几年国内政策议程的首要问题，其潜在的更广泛影响来自于它对如何解决移民问题的学术和政策辩论的贡献。传播调查结果的计划包括但不限于传统的学术渠道(期刊文章和书籍)。具体地说，调查人员与政府和公共事务研究所以及UIC的拉丁美洲和拉丁美洲研究方案合作，计划公共活动、广泛分发和可供查阅的研究摘要以及社区会议，他们将在这些会议上介绍和讨论研究结果。此外，该项目还与芝加哥地区研究相联系，这是伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校(UIC)的一项跨学科研究方法实践。因此，由于UIC的学生群体多样化，该项目的更广泛影响还包括培养人口结构多样化的研究生和本科生群体(包括许多来自传统上代表人数不足的群体)。

SES-0921414Maria KrysanNilda Flores GonzalezPamela Popielarz Andy ClarnoUniversity of Illinois-ChicagoThis award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). How do individuals and communities receive new immigrants, particularly Latino immigrants? The research is situated within communities, where inter-group relations between immigrants and non-immigrants are experienced directly. The community focus is important because federal inaction on immigration legislation has paved the way for political action at the state and municipal level. The project will study the Chicago metropolitan area, where many communities are home to an increasing number of Latino immigrants. But just as individual people's attitudes about immigration range from antipathy to indifference to actively valuing diversity, community reactions also differ, ranging from enacting laws that limit immigrants' access to employment and education, to building institutions that explicitly assist immigrants. The research seeks to explain this variation in individual attitudes toward immigration and municipal political reaction to immigrants. Because reactions vary across communities with comparable immigration profiles, the research reaches beyond demographic change alone for these explanatory factors. The investigators hypothesize that various aspects of the local institutional context shape individual attitudes and community political outcomes concerning immigration. Local context includes (1) the social networks connecting individuals within the community and bridging to others outside the community, (2) the voluntary associations active within and relevant to the community, (3) the formal and informal political power structure of the community, and (4) the history of local events concerning immigration. The study addresses inter-group attitudes, local institutional context, and political outcomes in four Chicago area communities with different immigration profiles. It uses a multi-method approach to data collection, including a telephone survey of individuals, interviews with key community informants, public observation, and a study of archival materials such as city council documents and local newspapers. Because this engaged research study focuses on an issue that will undoubtedly be at the top of the domestic policy agenda in the coming years, its potential broader impacts come from its contribution to the scholarly and policy debate on how to address issues of immigration. Plans for the dissemination of the findings include, but are not limited to, traditional academic outlets (journal articles and books). Specifically, in partnership with the Institute of Government and Public Affairs and the Latin American and Latino Studies Program at UIC, the investigators plan public events, broadly distributed and accessible research summaries, and community meetings, where they will present and discuss research findings. In addition, the project is linked with the Chicago Area Study, an inter-disciplinary research methodology practicum at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Because of UIc's diverse student body, the broader impacts of this project therefore also include training a demographically diverse group (including many from traditionally underrepresented populations) of graduate and undergraduate students.