Immigrant Incorporation Research Articles

Racialized and Geopolitically Charged Contexts of Reception in New Immigrant Destinations

We conceptualize racialized and geopolitical contexts of reception as a comprehensive framework for understanding the incorporation of recent immigrants in new destinations. Racialization is the fluid assignment of racial meanings to physical characteristics, religion, cultural presentation, and language. Geopolitics encompasses national boundaries, border security, regulation of border crossers, and populist–nativist anxieties about identity. We use data derived from a documentary film depicting the 2001 contact between Somali immigrants and a host community in Maine. The reception of these immigrants was profoundly racialized due to their sudden arrival and stark differences in phenotypic, cultural, religious, and linguistic characteristics, all of which were racialized by the host community. The context was geopolitically charged by local memories of the US intervention in Somalia and by the aftermath of 9/11. This study underscores the importance of racialization and geopolitics as intertwined factors that significantly shape immigrant contexts of reception.

Truly at home? Perceived belonging and immigrant incorporation

Abstract A significant amount of research has been devoted to studying the sociopolitical incorporation of immigrants and their descendants both socially and structurally. However, questions remain about how psychological mechanisms play a role in the incorporation process. While some immigrants might internalize a sense of social alienation, others might be able to overcome the detrimental impact of historical and present-day exclusion and develop a psychological notion of belonging to US society. To test the role of a psychological mechanism in the incorporation process, I rely on national survey data from the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey and a novel survey experiment. By leveraging these data, I examine the determinants of perceptions of inclusion in the United States among Latinos. The findings present a mixed picture of incorporation. I find that as Latinos become more familiarized with the United States culturally and socially, they are more likely to develop a sense of belonging. However, both experiencing discrimination and perceiving that the in-group faces discrimination negatively shape Latinos’ psychological sense of belongingness. Furthermore, receiving hostile messaging causes Latinos to feel less included in the US society. This paper highlights a social psychological mechanism of racialized incorporation, capturing whether immigrants and their descendants feel that they belong and are part of the host society.

Portrayal of immigrants and refugees in textbooks worldwide, 1963–2011

Sociologists have long studied the educational incorporation of immigrants and refugees, but most scholarship focuses on questions of access, achievement, attainment, and acculturation. We extend this literature by examining the incorporation of immigrants and refugees in the cultural content of schooling, drawing on a unique dataset spanning 509 textbooks from 80 countries, representing all regions of the world from 1963 to 2011. Our descriptive and multilevel regression analyses reveal a mixed picture. On one hand, textbook discussions of immigrants and refugees have expanded over time and are especially pervasive in textbooks that invoke post-national conceptions of citizenship and in countries that host large foreign-born populations. But we also document stagnating discussions of immigrants and refugees in recent decades, a casting of these groups as part of the historical past more than contemporary civics and society, and a tendency toward their curricular omission in countries with a recent history of war.

The rise of Housing Nationalism in Canada and transnational property ownership patterns

ABSTRACT We consider how housing acts as a potential realm where perception of crisis can activate reactionary nationalism, investigating how it differs from and interacts with other realms (e.g. jobs and wages, crime, and social welfare). We argue that housing produces distinct triggers for reactionary responses, and potentially results in different media framing, politics, and policy trajectories. We detail the rise of Housing Nationalism in Canada, following its spread from British Columbia, where we find that flexible framing of foreign threat often borrowed from other realms. By contrast, pinning Housing Nationalism to policy generally required more tractable definitions of foreignness, tied to surveillance and the application of penalties. We examine the roll out of policy responses associated with Housing Nationalism and lay out potential harms in terms of challenges to liberal ideals, including Canadian multinationalism, immigrant incorporation, and transnational ties. Finally we provide a baseline of Canadian transnational property ownership patterns, demonstrating that within the provinces where Housing Nationalism became most dominant, Canadian residents generally own far more properties abroad than the number of properties owned in Canada by residents elsewhere. Overall, the Canadian case demonstrates the utility of considering housing as a distinct realm motivating the rise of reactionary nationalism.

The true colors of the chameleon: identities of Bosnian youth in the United States

ABSTRACT Developing a stable adult identity is a key process during youth, which unfolds in ongoing interaction between the individual and their environment. For immigrant youth, this process also includes the formation of an ethnic identity, which is complicated by potential differences between the young person's culture of origin and the dominant culture. But we currently know little about the ethnic and self-identification of White immigrant youth in new immigrant destinations in the United States. The case of Bosnian second-generation youth in St. Louis addresses this gap in the literature on ethnic identity and immigrant incorporation. The analysis shows considerable context-specific variation in how Bosnian youth self-identify. The ability to pass as members of the dominant racial group also indicates that the ethnic boundary between Bosnian youth and native St. Louisians is rooted in a set of shared histories and experiences and a resulting sense of knowing that governs within and between group interactions. The discussion section arrays implications for future research.

Exploring The Complexities of “Alien Suffrage” in American Political History

Abstract Although historians and political scientists have long acknowledged the significant place of immigrants in American political history, the role of “alien suffrage” has not been well appreciated, and gaps remain in the scholarship about the nature of its practice. How extensively was “alien voting” practiced and what were its effects? This study addresses these questions by examining eleven of the forty states that allowed non-citizens to vote before obtaining citizenship. These states, located in the Midwest, South and West, were selected because immigrants comprised a significant proportion of their total population and allowed alien suffrage for an extended period of time (1848–1920). We develop estimates of non-citizen voters and examine ethnic voting patterns in these states to gauge their impacts on partisan dynamics in gubernatorial elections. Our findings show non-citizens voted and factored into election outcomes, furthering the incorporation of European immigrants. We also shed light on the unsavory side of alien suffrage, which contributed to a form of settler colonialism and functioned to block or delay the enfranchisement of African Americans and women. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for our understanding of immigrant political incorporation in American political history, as well as for contemporary debates about the revival of the legal practice of non-citizen voting in the United States.

Expecting to achieve against the odds: Anti‐immigrant sentiment and immigrants' educational and occupational expectations in Europe

AbstractScholars have identified many factors that lead to changes in anti‐immigrant sentiment. Less is known, however, about the effects of anti‐immigrant sentiment on the academic experiences and outcomes of immigrant students. This manuscript examines the relationship between anti‐immigrant sentiment and immigrants’ expectations to achieve a college degree and career success in Europe. Consistent with established literature on immigrant optimism, this study finds that immigrants generally have higher educational and occupational expectations than their nonimmigrant peers. However, these positive associations decrease in countries with higher levels of anti‐immigrant sentiment. These patterns manifest for both first‐ and second‐generation immigrants, indicating that the potential deleterious effects of anti‐immigrant sentiment span generations of immigrants. These findings shed light on the out‐of‐family and out‐of‐school factors that shape the educational trajectories of immigrant youth and show that increases in anti‐immigrant sentiment might bring about long‐term damage to the success of immigrants in their host countries. They also suggest that school administrators and policymakers interested in immigrant success in the host countries should take anti‐immigrant sentiment into account when devising approaches to aid immigrant incorporation.

Immigrant Incorporation in East Asian Democracies. By Erin Chung. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 270p. $105.00 cloth, $35.99 paper.

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Immigration and Intergenerational Co-Residency Among Working-Aged Adults in the United Kingdom.

Studies in the United Kingdom have shown distinctions in intergenerational co-residency between UK-born and foreign-born individuals, however, little research has examined how factors such as immigrant incorporation, economic adaptation, and kin availability shape household formation patterns among immigrants. This paper uses data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009-2010) to explore differences in the likelihood of UK-born and foreign-born working-aged adults to co-reside with at least one parent, highlighting distinctions by life stage (age) at migration and gender. Results show that, regardless of life stage at migration, foreign-born women and men are less likely to co-reside with parents than UK-born, however, intergenerational co-residency is high among some second-generation immigrant groups, particularly UK-born Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi individuals. These findings challenge cultural assumptions about household formation patterns and point to the need for additional research on how economic inequality, kin availability, and gender norms shape immigrant household composition.

Introduction: Assimilation, integration or transnationalism? An overview of theories of migrant incorporation

Introduction: Assimilation, integration or transnationalism? An overview of theories of migrant incorporation

Uncovering Youth’s Invisible Labor: Children’s Roles, Care Work, and Familial Obligations in Latino/a Immigrant Families

This paper examines Latino/a children’s roles and obligations to their immigrant families. Bridging insights from the literature on the “new sociology of childhood,” immigrant incorporation, and care work, this essay argues that children perform important—but often invisible—labor in immigrant families. Dominant ideologies depict childhood as an “innocent” time wherein young people are in need of guidance and are too underdeveloped to make meaningful contributions. However, this construction of childhood ignores the lived realities of the children of immigrants, who often serve as gatekeepers and connect their families to services and resources in their communities. This essay examines six dimensions of support that the children of immigrants provide to their families, namely, language and cultural help, financial contributions, bureaucratic assistance, emotional labor, legal support, and guidance with technology. This essay concludes with implications for scholars, students, and policymakers on the importance of recognizing this labor, along with future directions for research.

Vulnerabilidades e imigração boliviana na cidade de São Paulo, Brasil: entre políticas públicas de saúde, mortes e resistências coletivas

Abstract The insertion of Bolivian immigrants in subcontracting circuits from the clothing industry and their living and working conditions became determining aspects of their visibility in the municipality of São Paulo, marking their entry into local political agendas. Considering the polysemy of the notion of vulnerability, the main objective of this study is to analyze aspects of the “vulnerabilities” of Bolivian immigration, which are visibly inscribed in political-institutional, epidemiological, and relational/procedural contexts. As a method of analysis, this study is based on the systematization of data from multiple sources and shows relations between the incorporation of immigrants in local policies, mortality data, and ethnographic reports on trajectories, presence in the city space, and identity processes, especially based on the action of Bolivian women and their organization in networks and collectives. We found aspects that reinforce and define patterns of vulnerability associated with certain attributes of this population. On the other hand, we observed survival strategies as mechanisms of collective resistance and re-signification of their ways of life in the city.

Civic Engagement and Latina Immigrant Mothers' Remote Learning Involvement During COVID‐191

Immigrant incorporation scholars have established that racialized immigrant parents encounter several barriers in their children's schooling: namely, language and cultural differences, discrimination, unfamiliarity with the U.S. schooling system, and unhelpful school agents. However, less is known about the mechanisms that lessen these challenges. Drawing on insights from immigrant incorporation and civic engagement literature, this study examines how advocacy organizations can mediate the barriers racialized immigrant parents face in their children's schooling. A case study of 20 Latina immigrant mothers is used to demonstrate how civically engaged parents drew on their participation with a local advocacy organization—Parent's Choice—to overcome the barriers that emerged during the transition to remote learning due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Findings suggest that immigrant mothers leveraged their connection to Parent's Choice to learn how to use technology, get district‐related updates, secure devices necessary for at‐home learning, create complaints or demands for services at their children's school, fill out paperwork, and access community‐based referrals. Parent's Choice provided support and empowered Latina immigrant parents by minimizing the overwhelming barriers they faced during online learning. These findings complicate our understanding of immigrant civic engagement patterns and provide implications of how civic engagement can facilitate the incorporation of marginalized parents in educational institutions.

From Strange to Normal: Computational Approaches to Examining Immigrant Incorporation Through Shifts in the Mainstream

This article presents a computational approach to examining immigrant incorporation through shifts in the social “mainstream.” Analyzing a historical corpus of American etiquette books, texts from 1922–2017 describing social norms, we identify mainstream shifts related to long-standing groups which once were and may currently still be seen as immigrant outsiders in the United States: Catholic, Chinese, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Mexican, and Muslim groups. The analysis takes a computational grounded theory approach, combining qualitative readings and computational text analyses. Using word embeddings, we operationalize the chosen groups as focal group concepts. We extract sections of text that are salient to the focal group concepts to create group-specific text corpora. Two computational approaches make it possible to examine mainstream shifts in these corpora. First, we use sentiment analysis to observe the positive sentiment in each corpus and its change over time. Second, we observe changes in each corpus's position on a semantic dimension represented by the poles of “strange” and “normal.” The results indicate mainstream shifts through increases in positive sentiment and movement from strange to normal over time for most of the group-specific corpora. These research techniques can be adapted to other studies of social sentiment and symbolic inclusion.

Street‐level immigrant policy implementation: The role of school counselors

AbstractThis article contributes to the literature on the pathways of incorporation of undocumented immigrants in the United States by providing insights into the perspectives of street‐level bureaucrats implementing policies seeking to increase college access at the state level. Results from a survey of public school counselors in New Jersey show that most counselors have limited knowledge of the policies that affect undocumented students' access to college, whether those policies concern attendance or eligibility for in‐state tuition and financial aid. Those who are familiar with these laws have usually sought specific professional development on their own rather than relying on training provided by their employers. The results also indicate that counselors who work in urban areas and in majority‐Latino institutions had greater knowledge of these policies than those working in suburban and rural areas or in predominantly white schools. This article highlights the role of place in the bureaucratic incorporation of undocumented immigrants at the state level, specifically investigating the type and level of services that this group receives in the public education system. We also contribute to the public policy literature by showing the effects of ad hoc implementation of inclusive policies by street‐level bureaucrats.

“They Don't Look at You as a Real Muslim”: the racial exclusion of black American Muslim converts

AbstractThere is a growing body of research applying the insights of race theory to the experiences of Muslims in the West, including Muslim converts. Within the U.S. context, much of this research has focused on the experiences of whites, despite the fact that black Americans convert at a much higher rate and make up a considerably larger proportion of the Muslim American population. This study draws attention to the incorporation experiences of black American converts as they work to establish authentic religious identities as legitimate members of a faith community that is comprised mostly of first‐ and second‐generation immigrants. Rather than immigrant incorporation, this study is concerned with the incorporation of an indigenous population into a primarily immigrant one. Findings suggest that many black converts face difficulty being recognized as valued members of their adopted religious communities, and many report experiences of racial prejudice and discrimination.

Family formation under the law: How immigration laws construct contemporary Latino/a immigrant families in the U.S.

AbstractSociologists of the family have established that U.S. laws play a fundamental role in shaping the outcomes of family members. This article builds on this work by examining how immigration law is instrumental to the family formation processes of contemporary Latino/a immigrant families. Drawing on insights from sociology of the family and immigrant incorporation literature, I argue that immigration laws aid in the creation of family typologies among Latino/a immigrants. This argument is supported by providing a historical overview of key federal immigration laws that affect Latino/a immigrant families and a discussion of five Latino/a immigrant family typologies: citizen/lawful permanent resident families, transnational families, separated families, mixed‐status families, and undocumented families. This article concludes with implications for scholars, students, and policymakers on how laws can be used to create harm but can also undo harm against immigrant families.

The Business Ownership Patterns of Undocumented Immigrants in the United States: An Exploratory Study

When debating the effect of undocumented immigrants on the economy, scholars often presume that undocumented immigrants are wage laborers rather than business owners. This study imputes the legal status of Mexican and Central American immigrants (MCAs) in the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) between 1996 and 2008 to evaluate how legal status affects business ownership patterns. From 1996 to 2008, the SIPP asked a series of questions about business ownership and migration history that make it uniquely suited to an investigation of undocumented MCA business owners. Instrumental variables regressions reveal that undocumented immigrants had a lower likelihood of owning a business than documented immigrants, but undocumented and documented business owners derived similar incomes from their businesses. A lack of legal status may hold back potential entrepreneurs. MCA business owners of both legal statuses clustered into similar low-paying, low-growth industries, however, so regardless of legal status, there are likely limits to how much business ownership can promote economic mobility among MCAs. All told, scholars should do more to acknowledge the existence of undocumented immigrant business owners, measure their impact on the economy, and examine their influence on immigrant incorporation patterns.

Return migration to Russia: trends of the past and realities of the present

The article is devoted to the study of transformations of the return migration of compatriots to Russia within the framework of resettlement programs at the federal and regional levels. The work is focused on the results and effectiveness of the mechanisms regulating the processes of return of compatriots to the Russian state. On the basis of official documents, statistical data and results of sociological studies there are identified the long-term trends in the resettlement of compatriots to Russia and their behavioral characteristics. Spatial features of the resettlement processes are considered. The analysis of difficulties in the incorporation of immigrants into the economic and social structures of Russian society is carried out. There are characterized the problems of creating the necessary conditions facilitating the processes of integration of compatriots into the Russian society. There are identified and disclosed the contradictions between the general strategic objectives of the policy regarding the return of compatriots and the measures implemented in practice to receive migrants according to the specified socio-economic criteria. It is shown that the implementation of resettlement programs at the regional level occurs solely based on the needs of economic development of territories, which significantly narrows the circle of potential migrants. It is proved that in reality the programs for resettlement of compatriots are used by Russian regions in their own interests as programs for organized recruitment of labor to stabilize the functioning of regional labor markets. Particular attention is paid to development of the tasks for finding the ways to activate the return migration of compatriots in the context of practical solutions to the problems of demographic development of both the country as a whole and most of its strategically important regions. As a result of the study, proposals and recommendations on the regulation of resettlement processes have been formulated that can serve as a basis for improving Russia's state policy regarding the resettlement of compatriots.

Spatial Incorporation of Multiple Immigrant Groups in Gateway Cities: Comparative Analysis of Sydney, Barcelona, and Prague

Immigrant incorporation in cities is often explained using the theories of spatial and segmented assimilation, which differ, among other things, in their approach to the spatial aspects of incorporation. However, empirical evidence about immigrant spatial incorporation from both theories is ambiguous, since most case studies focus on a single location and a limited number of immigrant groups, which hampers their external validity. Nonetheless, the level of immigrant spatial incorporation depends heavily on the characteristics of immigrant groups, the destination context, and the interplay between them. Therefore, we compared the spatial incorporation of 143 immigrant groups in Sydney, 54 in Barcelona, and 95 in Prague. These three cities differ greatly in their immigration histories, since each represents a different stage of the migration cycle. By employing both traditional and advanced quantitative methods, we show that immigrant spatial incorporation patterns vary considerably across groups and destination cities, with cultural proximity and the maturity of the immigration system among the key determinants. These findings imply that geographical context has a substantial potential to affect the immigrant spatial incorporation.