Immigration History Research Articles

Work Trajectories of Female and Male Immigrants in Spain

AbstractThis article aims to examine in depth the work trajectories of individuals over time, in order to provide a wider perspective of the employment history of immigrants compared to native people, by gender and for more than one decade (2005–2017) in Spain. We use microdata (cohort and multivariate analysis) from the Labour Force Survey and carry out a comparison for three groups: the Spanish born in Spain, the Spanish born abroad, and the non‐Spanish born abroad. The results confirm that the non‐Spanish born‐abroad group is characterized by the existence of segmented assimilation. All foreigners suffered a loss in their work trajectories, since their employment rate in 2017 has as yet neither reached the level of the last years of the previous economic expansion nor the level of the previous cohorts at the same age.

‘Publish and Be Damned?’ Race, Crisis, and the Press in England during the Long, Hot Summer of 1976

ABSTRACT The summer of 1976 is an under-cited moment of significance in the history of race and immigration in post-war England. A series of major incidents appeared to highlight lasting racial fractures in English society, often exacerbated by the provocative editorial decisions of the press. This article, focused particularly on events in the Lancashire town of Blackburn, analyses some of the ways in which constructions of a ‘crisis of race relations’ were developed in local and national newspapers during this tumultuous summer.

Sugar, Cigars, and Revolution: The Making of Cuban New York

Lisandro Pérez's Sugar, Cigars, and Revolution is a valuable study, filling gaps in the histories of both New York City and Cuban immigration to the United States. Drawing on personal correspondence, newspaper articles, and census data, as well as other government information, the book provides a fresh and clarifying view of the development of an often-overlooked nineteenth-century community. The book reveals an evolution of Cuban-American relations from the first half of the century, when the sugar trade brought young aristocratic Cubans to New York for an education, through the end of the century when the city's Cuban community had changed greatly. The first immigrant families were wealthy and found grand homes in the city's most affluent neighborhoods. Even in the early days when New York became the top American immigration destination for wealthy Cubans, an undercurrent of Cuban revolutionary aspirations helped define the community. Before the American Civil War, Cubans pushed for U.S. annexation of the island because Cuba, like the American South, depended on the institution of slavery to maintain its prosperous trade relationships. However, Spain had no interest in giving up the productive colony.

Between Two Worlds: Chinese Immigrant Children and the Production of Knowledge in the Era of Chinese Exclusion

Between Two Worlds: Chinese Immigrant Children and the Production of Knowledge in the Era of Chinese Exclusion

Parenting practices during middle adolescence and high school dropout

IntroductionDespite inconclusive findings, educational researchers have long considered adequate parenting practices instrumental in preventing high school dropout among adolescents. The present short-term retrospective study focuses on parenting practices during middle adolescence when dropout typically occurs. MethodsThe culturally diverse, high-risk sample of Canadian adolescents (N = 108; Mage = 16.0 years) from low-income neighborhoods included very recent dropouts and matched still-in-school students. A global score reflecting the quality of parenting practices during the period preceding dropout (or comparable period) was derived from adolescents’ answers to a well-established structured interview protocol. Transcripts of interviews were also used to identify the potentially disruptive challenges (e.g., parental incarceration) that families faced. ResultsResults show a robust relationship between current parenting practices and dropout that was not moderated by challenging family circumstances or immigration history. Descriptive findings indicate that extreme and relatively rare cases of parental neglect were associated with a high dropout risk, but that most dropouts lived in families where communication and supervision, although not entirely absent, were minimal. ConclusionOffering systematic support to parents of middle adolescents could help to prevent dropout in high-risk communities.

Syrian refugee resettlement and the role of local immigration partnerships in Ontario, Canada

We examine Canada's recent Syrian Refugee Resettlement Initiative (SRRI) paying close attention to the resettlement role played by mid‐sized urban communities. We elaborate on a key policy dimension at work at this scale of action: local immigration partnerships (LIPs). We start with a very brief review of Canada's history of mass refugee resettlement. Second, we assess the policy of LIPs, particularly how they have been presented as a form of “place‐based policy,” and third, we offer an overview of the role the LIPs played in three case study communities (Hamilton, Ottawa, and Waterloo) during the SRRI. Finally, we present three overarching themes that emerged from our research in each of these communities: the importance of each community's history of immigration and refugee resettlement; the embeddedness of the LIP and its leadership in the local community; and how the positioning of each LIP relative to the three levels of government and its official Resettlement Assistance Program agreement holders impacted its ability to act. The history, location, and place characteristics of each community influenced the nature of intersectoral and intergovernmental relations in distinctive ways, and differentially shaped the effectiveness of each LIP's ability to contribute to the SRRI.

The Spatial Integration of Immigrants in Europe: A Cross-National Study

Throughout much of Europe, new waves of immigration have raised concerns about cultural fragmentation and disunity, interethnic conflict, and growing antipathy toward immigrants. Our goal is to provide evidence of uneven patterns of immigrant population distribution and residential integration, both within and between countries of the European Union. Our analyses focus on the spatial concentration of the foreign-born population in 27 countries and 1396 sub-regional areal units (called NUTS3), which in turn are nested within larger economic and cultural regions (i.e., NUTS2). Estimates of new forms of multiscale segregation (i.e., using the index of dissimilarity) are calculated from data drawn from Eurostat and a variety of other sources. Descriptive multivariate models of population concentration or macro-segregation center on key economic (i.e., GDP per capita), social (i.e., education), and ecological (i.e., urbanization) predictors of segregation within and between European countries. New forms of spatial segregation are expressed demographically in substantial regional heterogeneity among immigrants throughout Europe. Multivariate analyses indicate that immigrant-native patterns of population concentration and distribution vary widely between and within European countries with very different economies, demographic conditions, and histories of immigration. In almost all European countries, immigrants from outside of Europe are less spatially integrated with the native population than are immigrants from other countries within Europe. Differences in immigrant-native spatial integration are clearly reflected in the large numbers of immigrant regional “hot spots,” which are driven by public policy and idiosyncratic political considerations at the national and regional levels. Our comparative approach provides an overview of country-to-country differences in European immigrant settlement patterns and multiscale patterns of integration and segregation.

Factors to Keep in Mind When Treating Asian American Patients

Factors to Keep in Mind When Treating Asian American Patients

‘History’s Attic’: The Role of Legends and Family Stories in Gendering and Decolonizing US Immigration and Ethnic History Through Laurie Fabiano’s Family Saga Elizabeth Street (2006)

Abstract This article explores the role of legends and family stories in gendering and decolonizing US immigration and ethnic history, particularly through the lens of Italian/American literature and culture. Using the theoretical framework of the politics of representation, the analysis concentrates on the function of mythic and passed-down stories not only as naturalizing agents of cultural norms but as a means to destabilize hegemonic narratives, particularly gendered history and media influence. Laurie Fabiano’s family saga Elizabeth Street (2006) is a debut novel that intertwines the strands of history, autobiography and journalistic research, among others. Precisely the status of this novel as a hybrid genre sheds light into the additional use of alternative sources such as legendary and familial narratives to study migration and ethnic history, as well as to (re)imagine the past from a feminist perspective.

Mapping Heterotopia: Port B’s Excavation of Asia in Tokyo

Abstract. The term mapping can literally mean the pinpointing of coordinates on a map, but also the more general task of taking stock of what can be seen and the frameworks that limit or expand that vision. For French philosopher Jacques Rancière, asking the question ‘Where are we?’ means two things at once: “how can we characterize the situation in which we live, think and act to-day?” but also, by the same token, “how does the perception of this situation oblige us to reconsider the framework we use to “see” things and map situations, to move within this framework or get away from it?” In other words, “how does it urge us to change our very way of determining the coordinates [not just of the map but] of the “here and now”?”The Tokyo based collective Port B, led by Akira Takayama, has inventively used tour performances as a process of mapping, of transforming the frameworks that shape our understanding of everyday spaces in the city. Port B’s smartphone application Tokyo Heterotopia is a self-guided tour of 13 ‘locations of difference’ that emphasizes not only the spatial but also the historical dimension of mapping. Based on the premise of a fake Asian gourmet tour, it encourages users to reconsider in a tactile way the historical significance, presence and personal histories of Asian immigrants to Tokyo. Users navigate themselves to locations across Tokyo, including Asian restaurants, food stalls, supermarkets, and student dormitories. These nondescript sites are made visible not by markers or monuments but by the user’s presence which triggers dramatized stories of personal narratives of migration to Tokyo and their relationship to wider global forces of colonialism, capitalism and postwar independence movements. Tokyo Heterotopia rewrites the history of Asia in Tokyo “media artistically, that is, taking into account the materialities through which history is articulated, not relying on written narrative as the only way of producing historical, temporal knowledge.” Tokyo Heterotopia immerses the user not only in the heterogenous elements or ‘locations of difference’ of the city, but in a heterochronia where the overlooked past can be joined with the experience of the everyday in the present to incrementally re-map our understanding of the city.

Introduction: Immigration History and the End of Southern Exceptionalism

Introduction: Immigration History and the End of Southern Exceptionalism

Pakistani in the UK and Norway: different contexts, similar disadvantage. Results from a comparative field experiment on hiring discrimination

ABSTRACT Experimental research on ethnic discrimination in labour markets is often concerned with individual-level mechanisms. Structural macro-level drivers of discrimination, however, are more difficult to address. We present the results of a harmonised correspondence test conducted in Norway and the UK, two contexts that differ significantly along several dimensions expected to matter for the prevalence of ethnic discrimination. We focus on discrimination towards a particular minority group that holds a socio-economically disadvantaged position in both national contexts: Pakistani migrants and their descendants. Based on differences in labour market flexibility and anti-discrimination policies, we expect there a lower level of discrimination than in Norway. In addition, colonial ties and a longer history of immigration in Britain could potentially reduce discriminatory behaviour towards ethnic minorities in general. We show that in both countries Pakistani applicants receive significantly fewer positive responses from employers than the majority group. In line with expectations, discrimination is more severe in Norway, although this cross-national difference is only statistically significant when using a strict definition of positive callbacks. More nuanced analyses reveal an additional negative effect of disclosing one’s affiliation to Islam, which further reduces the likelihood of Pakistani applicants to receive a callback in Norway.

Neolithic millet farmers contributed to the permanent settlement of the Tibetan Plateau by adopting barley agriculture.

ABSTRACTThe permanent human settlement of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) has been suggested to have been facilitated by the introduction of barley agriculture ∼3.6 kilo-years ago (ka). However, how barley agriculture spread onto the TP remains unknown. Given that the lower altitudes in the northeastern TP were occupied by millet cultivators from 5.2 ka, who also adopted barley farming ∼4 ka, it is highly possible that it was millet farmers who brought barley agriculture onto the TP ∼3.6 ka. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from 8277 Tibetans and 58 514 individuals from surrounding populations, including 682 newly sequenced whole mitogenomes. Multiple lines of evidence, together with radiocarbon dating of cereal remains at different elevations, supports the scenario that two haplogroups (M9a1a1c1b1a and A11a1a), which are common in contemporary Tibetans (20.9%) and were probably even more common (40–50%) in early Tibetans prior to historical immigrations to the TP, represent the genetic legacy of the Neolithic millet farmers. Both haplogroups originated in northern China between 10.0–6.0 ka and differentiated in the ancestors of modern Tibetans ∼5.2–4.0 ka, matching the dispersal history of millet farming. By showing that substantial genetic components in contemporary Tibetans can trace their ancestry back to the Neolithic millet farmers, our study reveals that millet farmers adopted and brought barley agriculture to the TP ∼3.6–3.3 ka, and made an important contribution to the Tibetan gene pool.

Collaboration Across Borders, or Piiride-ülene Koostöö: Estonians and Americans Working Together Towards Accessible Archival Collections

A collaborative project to improve global description and thus discovery of library material is shared and analyzed after a decade of activity. The Immigration History Research Center Archives and the National Archives of Estonia work together to arrange and describe archival collections, utilizing the assets of the two different institutions. This project recognizes that the unique research material located in Minnesota holds importance to patrons in many countries, are a result of cultural and informational migration, and that access to this multilingual source material relies on robust description. The article provides the project’s context, and describes its administration.

“Nikkei Food” for Whom? Gastro-Politics and Culinary Representation in Peru

Peru is undergoing a gastronomic “boom.” The government, together with the private sector, actively promotes “its” food as an engine of growth and national unity and branding. One key component of this gastro-politics is the emergence of elite gastronomy, such as Nikkei food. Broadly defined as Peruvian and Japanese fusion food, Nikkei food is celebrated as emblematic of the nation’s immigration history and rich ethnic diversity. Today, it is arguably the most successful subgenre of Peruvian food to have made its mark in the global culinary market. How has Nikkei food “made it,” and who is behind the process? In this paper, I examine Peru’s gastro-politics in explaining the emergence and success of Nikkei food, focusing on the role of elite chefs and the Japanese-Peruvian community. Drawing on document and historical analysis, as well as field research in Lima, I argue that a key lies in how different actors promoted “their” food within the framework of Peru’s gastro-diplomacy--namely, (1) how Peru’s gastro-elites promoted Peruvian food globally, mostly through gourmet fusion food, (2) how the Japanese-Peruvian community capitalized on it by promoting Nikkei food as their own, and (3) how different actors came together in defining Peruvian gastronomy as “fusion” made up of diverse culinary traditions. Nikkei food has succeeded, partly because of its association with Japanese food, already popular in the global culinary market, and partly because of the resources and status of Lima’s prosperous Japanese-Peruvian community; but what also mattered was Peru’s gastro-politics, of how Peru’s gastronomy was promoted, by whom, and for whom.

Immigration history, Nationality and Legal status of Korean-chinese

Immigration history, Nationality and Legal status of Korean-chinese

Hrvati u Brazilu kao nevidljivo iseljeništvo

U članku se obrađuje iseljenička zajednica u Brazilu pridošla iz Hrvatske, koja do sada nije bila sustavno istraživana, pa se smatra gotovo nepostojećom, tj. nevidljivom. Razlozi „nevidljivosti” te zajednice u Hrvatskoj, osobito njezinoj akademskoj zajednici, prepoznati su u pretpostavci da je Brazil bio često „odlagalište” nepoželjnih skupina iseljenika. Da bi se potkrijepila ta pretpostavka i opisalo mehanizme koji su doprinijeli toj nevidljivosti, u sažetom je obliku prikazan proces useljavanja u tri faze: do 1918., između dva svjetska rata i nakon 1945., s osvrtom na glavna povijesna događanja na području Hrvatske i Brazila vezana uz iseljeništvo, s naglaskom na državu i grad São Paulo. Da bi se što potpunije raspravila pitanja važna za razumijevanje ovoga fenomena, korišteni su razni modaliteti: kritička analiza prethodnih istraživanja, historiografski i statistički podaci te tiskovine.

It's Time to Center War in U.S. Immigration History

War is central to U.S. immigration history. Yet too often that fact has been obscured by folktales that rhapsodize about the feel-good Ellis Island story: lured by the American Dream, strangers come to a promised land, put down roots, and triumph over adversity through industry, resolve, and pluck.

Undesirable Britons: South Asian Migration and the Making of a White Argentina

AbstractThis article examines the history of South Asian immigration to Argentina before the First World War. The arrival of a relatively small group of Sikh laborers in 1912, alongside other Japanese and Chinese immigrants in the preceding decade, sparked a huge reaction from Argentine politicians and immigration bureaucrats. They restricted entry, pushed for labor market exclusion, and engaged in diplomatic exchanges with British imperial authorities. In their view, mass migration not only had the power to make a white, European nation but also threatened to undermine that same project. This article argues that the dominant vision of Argentina as a white nation was built on not only transatlantic immigration but also Asian exclusion. Drawing on archival research in Buenos Aires and London, it casts new light on both Argentine nationalism and the language of racial hierarchies mobilized in discussions of immigration.

Racial Inclusion in Education: An Australian Context

Racism in various forms exists worldwide. In Australia, racism is inextricably linked to the history of Australian immigrants and early setters. Although the Australian education system has adopted inclusive education, evidence shows several incidents of racial exclusion. With the public education system experiencing an increased cultural diversity in student population, schools are required to develop inclusive education policies. While policies related to disability inclusion have been in practice for many years, only recently has there been an increasing awareness of racial inclusion. This research paper explores the importance of racial inclusion in education by examining the causes and effects of racial exclusion in the Australian education context. This paper considers existing practices at the national level and in schools to explore racial discrimination. It identifies the factors contributing towards racism and proposes a framework employing key strategies at the macro, meso and micro levels to achieve racial inclusion in education. It also suggests opportunities based on research to strengthen the response against racism.