Abstract
Mexican Americans are the largest immigrant and second-generation group in the country. Their sheer size coupled with their low educational attainment have generated concerns that, unlike Asian groups like Chinese Americans, Mexican Americans do not value education—a claim wielded by opponents of affirmative action. Drawing on analyses of the Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles study, we challenge two underlying presumptions of this claim: the children of Mexican immigrants are less successful than the children of Chinese immigrants; and they are less committed to success. Centering our analyses on the hypo-selectivity of U.S. Mexican immigration, we maintain that how we measure success determines which group is more successful. Moreover, we show that second-generation Mexicans adopt diverse success frames that stem from cultural heterogeneity. Consequently, they pursue variegated strategies of action that include class-specific ethnic resources in their quest for success. Despite their remarkable intergenerational gains, the racialization of low achievement and the mark of a criminal record can be a death knell for mobility for the children of Mexican immigrants. Our research provides fruitful context to inform the current debate about affirmative action.
Highlights
After nearly one quarter of a century, a new generation of voters were presented with the opportunity to restore affirmative action in California, and overturn a ban on the consideration of race, sex, or ethnicity in public education, employment, and contracting since 1996
Drawing on analyses of the Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles (IIMMLA) study, we challenge two underlying assumptions of this logic: the children of Mexican immigrants are less successful than the children of Chinese immigrants; and the former are less committed to success than the latter
While Harding (2007) conceived of cultural heterogeneity to explain the differences in frames that middle-class and poor teenagers employ in their understanding of appropriate pre-marital sexual behavior and romantic relationships, we extend this theoretical concept to explain the diversity in frames that the children of Mexican immigrants employ in their understanding of success
Summary
After nearly one quarter of a century, a new generation of voters were presented with the opportunity to restore affirmative action in California, and overturn a ban on the consideration of race, sex, or ethnicity in public education, employment, and contracting since 1996. With the racialization that occurs in the U.S context, ethnic stereotypes about Chinese immigrants extend to East Asians as a group, regardless of immigrant selectivity and socioeconomic status (Lee and Ramakrishnan 2020) These so-called positive stereotypes affect the way teachers and guidance counselors perceive and treat Asian American students, resulting in enhanced educational opportunities and outcomes. The singular success frame, coupled with a bevy of institutional, ethnic, and social psychological resources to support it, helps to explain why the children of Chinese immigrants are more likely to graduate from college than all other U.S non-Asian groups, even after controlling for parental educational and socioeconomic status. Lee and Zhou (2015) solve the vexing Asian American achievement paradox that the classic status attainment model could not, while rejecting the cultural fallacy that Asian Americans attain exceptional educational outcomes because they value education more than other groups
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