Children Of Recent Immigrants Research Articles

Exploring recent immigrant children’s perceptions of interactions with parents before and after immigration to Canada

ABSTRACT Immigration is a major life experience that changes family dynamics and can increase stress and internalizing symptoms in some children. Very few studies have documented these changes using the perspectives of children themselves. This study relied on a convergent mixed-method design (quan + QUAL) and focused on the family representations after immigration of 33 children (6–13 years) who had recently immigrated to Canada. To explore the distinctions between children who experienced this transition more positively and less so, participants were divided into two groups according to whether they had low/normative (n = 23) or clinically significant (n = 10) levels of internalizing symptoms. Family dynamics in the immigration context were documented and compared between the two groups with the aim of identifying potential risk or resilience factors that are significant from children’s perspectives. In both groups, children reported increased time spent with their father following immigration. Children with low/normative internalizing symptoms reported greater diversity in interactions with their parents after immigration. A need for cohesion was frequently mentioned by children who had clinically significant internalizing symptoms. By drawing attention to factors considered important from the perspectives of immigrant children, this exploratory research will help future studies to identify potential resilience factors in that young population.

Obesity and Obesogenic Behaviors in Asian American Children with Immigrant and US-Born Mothers.

Child obesity is understudied in Asian Americans, which include a growing population of recent immigrants. We examined the relationship between maternal nativity and time in the US, and obesity and obesogenic behaviors among Asian American children. We analyzed public-use data from the 2013–2016 California Health Interview Survey for Asian American children ages 2 to 11 years. We used logistic regression to determine the odds of obesity and obesogenic behaviors associated with maternal nativity and time in the US. This study included n = 609 children. Children of US-born mothers had lower odds of obesity (adjusted odds ratio, AOR, 0.12; 95% CI 0.02 to 0.91) and lower fruit intake (AOR 0.15, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.81) than children of recent immigrants (< 5 years in the US). Asian American children with recent immigrant mothers are more likely to be obese and eat less fruit than children with US-born mothers. Efforts to prevent obesity and increase fruit consumption are particularly important for this vulnerable population of children of recent immigrants.

Preschool practitioners’ and immigrant parents’ beliefs about academics and play in the early childhood educational curriculum in five countries

Children Crossing Borders is a comparative study of how early childhood education and care programs in England, France, Germany, Italy, and the US are approaching the task of working with children of recent immigrants and of areas of agreement and disagreement in beliefs about what should happen in preschool of recent immigrant parents of young children and their children’s teachers. The method used in the study is a version of video-cued ethnographic interviewing, in which preschool parents and practitioners were shown 20-minute videos of days in preschools in their own and other countries and asked for their reactions and evaluations. This paper focuses on how immigrant parents and preschool practitioners talk about the ideal balance of academic preparation and play in the curriculum. A key finding is that immigrant parents tend to favor greater emphasis on academic instruction than do their children’s teachers, except in France, where teachers as well as parents see preschool as a place for academics rather than for play. Our analysis suggests that reasons for immigrant parents’ preference for a greater academic emphasis include past experience with education in their host country; pragmatic concerns about their children’s vulnerability to failing in school; and ideological beliefs about curriculum and pedagogy that are tied to a larger social conservatism as well as to social class.

Discouraging partnerships? Teachers’ perspectives on immigration-related barriers to family-school collaboration.

This study investigates barriers to facilitating family-school partnerships with immigrant families as identified by teachers in an urban school district with high rates of immigration. Participants consisted of 18 elementary teachers who identified predominantly as Hispanic (38.9%) or non-Hispanic White (33.3%), were frequently bilingual (55.6%), and were mostly female (94.4%) with an average age of 36.5 years. Participants engaged in focus group interviews that were transcribed and open-coded. Barriers to engagement for immigrant families fell into 3 broad areas: language and culture, family resources, and families' undocumented status. Many teachers attributed the barriers preventing parental collaboration to school policies (94.4%) and ineffective communication strategies (83.3%). Teachers also identified barriers as emanating from the families themselves, including families not attending school functions (88.9%) and being unresponsive to school-initiated communication (72.2%). Teachers noted that many families lacked resources necessary for school engagement (88.9%) and were hesitant to become engaged with schools due to required screening procedures (55.6%). Overall, numerous barriers to effective family engagement were identified, several of which are directly related to immigration and residency status. Given the strong evidence suggesting that family engagement in education mediates risk for children of recent immigrants, strategies to foster meaningful engagement for all families are desperately needed (Naughton, 2004). Roles for school psychologists to facilitate effective family-school partnerships are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Teaching Piano in China: Building Transcultural and Transhistorical Bridges through Music Education

Recently, music teachers across the globe have had cause to celebrate the accomplishments of many Asian and Asian-American students, who are often immigrants or children of recent immigrants. American and indeed international music undergraduate and graduate programs currently depend on Asian students to fulfill enrollment projections. Many music schools have sent administrators on recruitment trips to China or are holding auditions there. East and West have become musically intertwined through the significant participation of Asian or “Oriental” people in Western classical music, despite deeply dissimilar treatments of harmony and rhythm in traditional Asian music. It has been noted by past scholars that “students from different cultural backgrounds may approach the entire musical experience from divergent points of view. Such a difference, if it does exist, would necessitate a much more detailed consideration of not only choices in music teaching materials, but also activities, strategies, and goals for music learning.” (Morrison, Yeh 1999) We argue that teachers must become aware of the cultural differences in learning music, especially in approaching Western classical music: language, emotional responses, etc. in order to be effective with different constituencies. Drs. Hao Huang and Tatiana Thibodeaux have been visiting faculty at the College of Arts in Xiamen University over the past several summers 2012-15, and we would like to share some experiences and insights with our teaching colleagues.

Low demanding parental feeding style is associated with low consumption of whole grains among children of recent immigrants

We explored the influence of immigrant mothers feeding style on their children's fruit, vegetable and whole grain intake and how this relationship differed by mother's time in the U.S. Baseline data were collected on mother-child (3–12 yrs) dyads enrolled in Live Well (n = 313), a community-based, participatory, randomized controlled lifestyle intervention (2008–2013). Socio-demographics, years of residence in the U.S., behavioral data, and responses to the Caregiver's Feeding Styles Questionnaire (CFSQ) were obtained from the mother. Measured heights and weights were obtained for both mother and child. Child dietary intake was assessed using the Block Food Screener. Separate multiple linear regression models were run, adjusting for child and mother covariates. Interactions between feeding styles and years in the U.S. (<5 and ≥ 5 years), ethnicity, and child age were tested. Sixty-nine percent of mothers were overweight or obese, 46% of the children were overweight or obese. For mothers in the U.S. for<5 years, having a low demanding/high responsive style was associated with lower child intake of whole grains in adjusted models vs. a high demanding/high responsive style (p < 0.05). This was not seen for mothers in the U.S. for≥5 years. Thus, the influence of feeding style on dietary intake may change with length of time in the U.S. These hypotheses-generating findings call for future research to understand how broader socio-cultural factors influence the feeding dynamic among immigrants.

Academic Performance Antecedent Scale: Validation with Native and Recent Immigrant Children

This study aims to assess the measurement invariance of the three subscales of the newly developed Academic Performance Antecedent Scale (APAS)--School Factors, Mother's Parenting Style, and Individual Factors--across native and new immigrant children in Taiwan. The study sample comprised 527 Grade 4 students (M age = 10.4 yr., SD = 0.6), 263 boys and 264 girls. The three groups were urban and rural children of Taiwanese natives (n = 343, 65.1%), and 184 children with non-Taiwanese mothers (34.9%). The four-factor structure of the School Factors Subscale, the three-factor structure of the Mother's Parenting Style Subscale, and the five-factor structure of the Individual Factors Subscale all showed at least acceptable fit for the groups. In addition, metric invariance was confirmed for the School Factors and Individual Factors Subscales. Metric invariance was partially obtained for the Mother's Parenting Style Subscale. The findings provide validity evidences for cross-cultural generalizability of the APAS.

The Dilemma of Cultural Responsiveness and Professionalization: Listening Closer to Immigrant Teachers who Teach Children of Recent Immigrants

Background/Context Many scholars in the fields of teacher education, multicultural education, and bilingual education have argued that children of recent immigrants are best served in classrooms that have teachers who understand the cultural background and the home language of their students. Culturally knowledgeable and responsive teachers are important in early education and care settings that serve children from immigrant families. However, there is little research on immigrant teachers’ cultural and professional knowledge or on their political access to curricular/pedagogical decision-making. Focus of Study This study is part of the larger Children Crossing Borders (CCB) study: a comparative study of what practitioners and parents who are recent immigrants in multiple countries think should happen in early education settings. Here, we present an analysis of the teacher interviews that our team conducted in the United States and compare the perspectives of immigrant teachers with those of their nonimmigrant counterparts, specifically centering on the cultural expertise of immigrant teachers who work within their own immigrant community. Research Design The research method used in the CCB project is a variation of the multi-vocal ethnographic research method used in the two Preschool in Three Cultures studies. We made videotapes of typical days in classrooms for 4-year-olds in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings in five countries (England, France, Germany, Italy, and the United States) and then used these videos as cues for focus group interviews with parents and teachers. Using a coding framework designed by the national CCB team, we coded 30 focus group interviews. The coding framework was designed to facilitate comparisons across countries, cities, and categories of participants (teachers and parents, immigrant and nonimmigrant). Findings/Results Teachers who are themselves immigrants from the same communities of the children and families they serve seem perfectly positioned to bridge the cultural and linguistic worlds of home and school. However, our study of teachers in five U.S. cities at a number of early childhood settings suggests that teachers who are themselves immigrants often experience a dilemma that prevents them from applying their full expertise to the education and care of children of recent immigrants. Rather than feeling empowered by their bicultural, bilingual knowledge and their connection to multiple communities, many immigrant teachers instead report that they often feel stuck between their pedagogical training and their cultural knowledge. Conclusions/Recommendations Bicultural, bilingual staff, and especially staff members who are themselves immigrants from the community served by the school, can play an invaluable role in parent–staff dialogues, but only if their knowledge is valued, enacted, and encouraged as an extension of their professional role as early childhood educators. For the teachers, classrooms, and structures in our study, this would require nonimmigrant practitioners to have a willingness to consider other cultural versions of early childhood pedagogy as having merit and to enter into dialogue with immigrant teachers and immigrant communities.

Children of Mexican Immigrants: Crisis and Opportunity

The Crisis of the Second GenerationA significant proportion of the children of Mexican immigrants are on track to becoming a large, poorly educated, and disadvantaged segment of the U.S. population. According to the U.S. Census, there are over 11 million Mexican-origin youth aged 17 and under, accounting for 15% of all children in this age bracket (Pew, 2010). As this sizable group comes of age and seeks to enter the job market, it will be at a severe disadvantage given its low levels of education and lack of skills, putting it at risk of what immigration scholars are calling (Portes, Fernandez- Kelly, & Haller, 2009). Compared to other major ethnic and racial groups in the United States, Latinos, and Mexican-origin youth in particular, drop out of high school at a higher rate, they have the highest rates of teen pregnancy, and they are more likely to have exposure to gangs. At a time when the labor market increasingly demands workers with at least some college education, only 9% of Mexican Americans hold college degrees, compared to 17% of blacks, 30% of whites, and 50% of Asians.1A landmark study conducted by Alejandro Portes and his collaborators examined the different ways children of recent immigrants adjust and become incorporated into American society. Known as the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS), it compared the fates of children of parents from a range of origin countries in Asia and Latin America.2 The study documented levels of education, employment, and earnings, as well as incidents of arrest and incarceration, and found especially stark contrasts between the children of Asian and Mexican immigrant parents (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001). With respect to education, the children of Chinese and other Asian immigrants interviewed in Southern California were highly successful in school, and fewer than 10% had failed to pursue postsecondary studies. In contrast, among second-generation Mexicans, close to 40% did not advance beyond high school.3 When the researchers examined encounters with law enforcement, they found that 20% of young Mexican-origin males had experienced incarceration, compared to none of the young Chinese-origin males and fewer than 7% of second-generation Filipino males.4 They argue that this is the strongest evidence to date that downward assimilation is indeed occurring for second-generation Mexicans (Portes, Fernandez-Kelly, & Haller, 2009, p. 1088).ApproachThis article aims to stimulate discussion on new approaches for improving the prospects of Mexican-origin youth by linking theory and practice. The theory in this case is segmented assimilation, as developed and refined by Alejandro Portes et al. over the course of analyzing and reporting the findings from their CILS work (Portes & Zhou, 1993; Portes, Fernandez-Kelly, & Haller, 2009). The practice, on the other hand, concerns specific activities and projects undertaken by Mexican immigrants, primarily by hometown associations. Examples of some of these practices are drawn from the literature, others from the author's own experience with the Mexican immigrant community as a researcher, a volunteer, and as a guest. The article focuses particular attention on the activities of one hometown association, the Los Haro Support Committee, and its efforts on behalf of the second generation. It weighs the group's accomplishments and its shortcomings. It concludes with a proposal for a program that builds on resources from within the Mexican immigrant community itself in order to reverse the tendency toward downward assimilation and put the second generation on a path to positive integration into U.S. society.Segmented Assimilation Theory and the Mexican Immigrant ExperienceDownward assimilation is one of several possible outcomes predicted by the segmented assimilation model put forth by Portes et al. This theory rose as a challenge to the classic model of immigrant assimilation that was dominant until about 20 years ago; it held that the descendants of immigrants, as they set aside strong ethnic traits, will, over time, transition into the mainstream of American society and achieve some degree of upward mobility. …

The relevance of multilingualism for teachers and immigrant parents in early childhood education and care in Germany and in France

This paper deals with the initial findings from an international research project called ‘Children Crossing Borders.’ This study focused on discovering how early childhood education and care (ECEC) systems in five countries (the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and the USA) serve the children of recent immigrants and what parents with diverse backgrounds want for their children in ECEC settings. The paper will focus on the issue of multilingualism of immigrant children in ECEC systems in two of the five countries: Germany and France. The questions which guide the paper were: What are the perceptions of the dominant language or nondominant languages among parents and practitioners? How do national contexts affect how the home language(s) is/are used or not used in school settings? Dieser Artikel stellt die ersten Ergebnisse eines internationalen Forschungsprojekts (‘Children Crossing Borders’) vor. Diese Studie möchte in Erfahrung bringen, wie die unterschiedlichen Systeme frühkindlicher Bildung und Erziehung von fünf Ländern (England, Frankreich, Deutschland, Italien und den USA) die Kinder kürzlich Zugewanderter betreuen und was Eltern mit Migrationshintergrund sich für ihre Kinder in diesen Systemen wünschen. Der Schwerpunkt in diesem Vortrag liegt bei der Mehrsprachigkeit von Migrantenkindern in Systemen frühkindlicher Bildung und Erziehung in zwei der fünf Länder, Deutschland und Frankreich. Die Fragen, die ihn leiten werden, sind: Wer trägt die Verantwortung für Familiensprachen oder der dominanten Sprachen in der Gesellschaft? Welchen Einfluss hat der nationale Kontext darauf, wie die Familiensprachen benutzt oder nicht benutzt werden in der Kita oder der école maternelle?

Finding one's place: shifting ethnic identities of recent immigrant children from China, Haiti and Mexico in the United States

This article examines the ethnic identity adaptations of recently arrived immigrant children from China, Haiti and Mexico. Overall, three main types of ethnic identity categories emerged: country of origin (e.g. Chinese), hyphenated (e.g. Chinese American), and pan-ethnic (e.g. Asian or Asian American). These three ethnic identities were examined to assess their relationships with various social and structural variables. While most of the participants retained their country-of-origin label throughout the five-year longitudinal study, a significant number of them showed divergent paths of ethnic identity shifts and formations. As a whole, only gender, annual household income, and parental educational level were significantly associated with different ethnic identity changes. Analysed separately by national groups, Chinese participants' ethnic identity adaptations were influenced by parental educational level, and Haitian and Mexican participants' by gender. Potential explanations for the various ethnic adaptations are examined and limitations of the study discussed.

LIVED HYBRIDITY: SECOND-GENERATION IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION THROUGH COLLEGE FESTIVAL

Recent research suggests that the children of recent immigrants, the so-called second generation, no longer choose to emphasize one identity over the other but that their identities are more fluid and multifaceted. College campuses are often the arenas in which a new hybrid identity develops. This article addresses how South Asian American college students make sense of and control their various identities through the celebration of Diwali, an event sponsored each year by the Indian Students Association (ISA) on a college campus in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. South Asian students use performative space to help them make sense of their backgrounds in ways that both differentiate them from and allow for association with the majority student population. They also use this space as a safe place for “coming out,” that is, for communicating their hybrid identity to their parents. This hybrid identity is expressed through a discourse of “brownness” that marks something distinctive and that reflects the process by which the children of immigrants choose among a range of identities to create integrated selves. The campus Diwali festival is the expression of those selves.

Bridging Home and School Literacy Practices: Empowering Families of Recent Immigrant Children

This article reports on a family literacy program that began with the creation and implementation of a Welcome Center in an elementary school in the Southwest United States. This center was intended to be a place where recent immigrant students and their families, teachers, as well as other community members, came together to participate in literacy activities. While serving the intended purposes, the Welcome Center also proved to be a useful venue for the recent immigrant students and their families to develop language and literacy. Overall, this report points to the need for schools to provide explicit spaces and planned opportunities for newcomers to meaningfully enter in dialogue with their new linguistic and cultural communities.

Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome in US-Born Latin and Caribbean Youth

Little is knows about the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome (MS) among overweight first or second generation United States immigrant children/adolescents from Central/South America and the Caribbean basin. Analysis of anthropometric and laboratory data (N = 224) in overweight children ages 3-18 (64% Hispanic, 25% AfroCaribbean/black, 8% white, 3% multiracial) was conducted. The main outcome measure was the prevalence of individual parameters of MS and the MS (defined as > or =3 abnormal components). The prevalence of the MS was 29% for the overall sample; an additional 28% had two MS components. Boys were significantly more likely than girls to have abnormal systolic blood pressure (P < 0.05). Hispanics were significantly more likely than blacks to have abnormal triglyceride and HDL cholesterol (P < 0.01 for both comparisons). Our results indicate that both sub-groups of, and major ethnic groups (Mexican- and African American) are at equal risk for cardiometabolic disease. Early identification of MS in recent immigrant children may improve their future cardiometabolic health.

Food Insecurity and Risk of Poor Health Among US-Born Children of Immigrants

We investigated the risk of household food insecurity and reported fair or poor health among very young children who were US citizens and whose mothers were immigrants compared with those whose mothers had been born in the United States. Data were obtained from 19,275 mothers (7216 of whom were immigrants) who were interviewed in hospital-based settings between 1998 and 2005 as part of the Children's Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program. We examined whether food insecurity mediated the association between immigrant status and child health in relation to length of stay in the United States. The risk of fair or poor health was higher among children of recent immigrants than among children of US-born mothers (odds ratio [OR] = 1.26; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.02, 1.55; P < .03). Immigrant households were at higher risk of food insecurity than were households with US-born mothers. Newly arrived immigrants were at the highest risk of food insecurity (OR = 2.45; 95% CI = 2.16, 2.77; P < .001). Overall, household food insecurity increased the risk of fair or poor child health (OR = 1.74; 95% CI = 1.57, 1.93; P < .001) and mediated the association between immigrant status and poor child health. Children of immigrant mothers are at increased risk of fair or poor health and household food insecurity. Policy interventions addressing food insecurity in immigrant households may promote child health.

Neighborhood context and infant birthweight among recent immigrant mothers: a multilevel analysis.

We compared the influence of the residential environment and maternal country of origin on birthweight and low birthweight of infants born to recent immigrants to urban Ontario. We linked delivery records (1993-2000) to an immigration database (1993-1995) and small-area census data (1996). The data were analyzed with cross-classified random-effects models and standard multilevel methods. Higher-level predictors included 4 independent measures of neighborhood context constructed by factor analysis and maternal world regions of origin. Births (N = 22 189) were distributed across 1396 census tracts and 155 countries of origin. The associations between neighborhood indices and birthweight disappeared after we controlled for the maternal country of origin in a cross-classified multilevel model. Significant associations between world regions and birthweight and low birthweight persisted after we controlled for neighborhood context and individual characteristics. The residential environment has little, if any, influence on birthweight among recent immigrants to Ontario. Country of origin appears to be a much more important factor in low birthweight among children of recent immigrants than current neighborhood. Findings of neighborhood influences among recent immigrants should be interpreted with caution.

Successful Kids from Immigrant Families: An Investigation of the Complex Multilingual Worlds of 10-year-old Gifted Writers in Suburban Toronto

This paper discusses a case study of a small cluster of 10- and 11-year-old multilingual children, all first- or second-generation Canadians living in suburban Toronto, who collaboratively wrote an elaborate adventure book in English as a Grade 5 enrichment activity. We explore the language worlds of these gifted young writers to trace their patterns of multiple language acquisition, affiliation and use, and the influences on their strong literacy achievement in English. The study qualitatively analyses interviews with the children's teachers, their families and the children themselves in search of convergences in policy, practices, interests and attitudes that provide an interpretive filter for the children's outstanding creative writing in English. Environmental commonalities in socialisation emerge, but so do conflicting attitudes to languages in home–school relations, and within and between families. Larger questions about the nature of language maintenance required to support selective literacy achievement are posed against a backdrop of the linguistic portraits of these scholastically successful children of recent immigrants.

Spanish Translation and Validation of the Preschool Activity Card Sort

Few standardized assessments exist for children living in the United States who are Hispanic/Latino. This study reports the Spanish translation process for the Preschool Activity Card Sort (PACS), which is a measure of participation in preschool children, and examines content, construct, and concurrent validity. Methods of verifying accuracy of translation included expert review and back translation and supported content validity of the Tarjetas de Actividades Preescolares (TAP). Subsequently, a sample of 37 parents of children between 3 and 6 years of age completed the PACS/TAP by structured interview. Twenty-six parents were Spanish speaking, and 11 were English speaking. A comparison of reported participation by Spanish- and English-speaking children provides initial construct validity of the TAP. Results indicate that the TAP differentiates among children of recent immigrants as compared to preschoolers who were born in the United States on domains of self-care, high and low demand leisure, and educational activities. Results emphasize the importance of considering sociocultural influences when assessing participation. PACS/TAP scores were moderately correlated with Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory scores for the self-care domain, but did not correlate with the mobility or social function domains. The PACS/TAP appears to provide a useful means of understanding preschoolers' participation. Future research is needed to further establish the validity of this assessment.

The Poems of Charles Reznikoff 1918-1975 (review)

Poems of Reznikoff 1918-1975, edited by Seamus Cooney. Boston: David R. Godine, 2005. 460 pp. $45.00 (c); $21.95 (p). When Reznikoff was born in 1894 in Brownsville, the Jewish ghetto of Brooklyn, his parents, Satah Yetta and Nathan, recent immigrants from Russia, wished to name him after his maternal grandfather, WoIvovsky. Sarah Yetta asked the Jewish doctor, who was also an anarchist, for the English equivalent of the Hebrew Yehezqel (Ezekiel), and the doctor replied, Call him Charles. Reznikoff felt throughout his life that his given name created a dynamic gap between Hebrew and English, a void he dedicated himself to filling. This symbolic space between Charles and Ezekiel, English and Hebrew, American culture and Jewish culture, marks the unstable territory where poetry can be found - in company with the cultural endeavors of many other Jewish intellectuals in the first half of the twentieth centuty. In a gemlike poem Reznikoff catches the emotional tenot of the quandary in which he and others found themselves: How difficult for me is Hebrew: even the Hebrew for mother, for bread, for sun is foreign. How far have I been exiled, Zion. (p. 58) Wanting him to adapt to the new land, mother insisted that he speak English at home, even though the family language was Yiddish. Likewise, he was sent to public school father than to the Jewish heder, which was conducted in Hebrew. Like many children of recent immigrants, Reznikoff felt estranged from the languages and traditions of his ancestors, although he was in close enough proximity to them that areturn of sorts was still possible. return did not take the shape of Zionism, as it did for many Jews of his generation; instead, he was drawn to the history of Jewish survival in the dias- pora. Writing about Jewish history was more than an issue of identification-although he admitted the importance of an ethnic identity; what moved him most in Jewish history were the tenacity and inventiveness that made survival possible and the compassionate virtues that arose out of religious and ethical confrontations with adversity. The Jews typify, he said, perhaps more than any other people, constant and often victorious struggle against a hostile environment and hostile elements within itself, a struggle which has constantly evolved Jews that are symbols of the admirable (Tom Sharp, Reznikoff's Nine Plays in Milton Hindus, ed., Reznikoff: Man and Poet [Orono, ME: National Poetry Foundation, 1984], pp. 272-3). Having identified a subject matter, an American Jew of generation who wanted to write modern poetry in English had few models. Eschewing Yiddish, Reznikoff chose not to follow the radical Yiddish poets of New York City, and Emma Lazarus seemed a distant, old-fashioned example. most prominent Jewish poet when Reznikoff began publishing was James Oppenheim (1882-1932), who wrote a vatic, exclamatory verse, deeply indebted to Whitman and Freud. Although championed by critic and anthologist Louis Untermeyer, Oppenheim was as distant in temperament and style from Reznikoff as one could imagine. Rather than look to contemporary Jewish poetry, Reznikoff found a serviceable model for verse in English in the lesser-known (at that time) Ezra Pound and his Imagist movement. Imagist verse was spare and versatile, not freighted with social and cultural associations from which Reznikoff might feel excluded; it was a seemingly objective style that did not prescribe a particular subject matter or a self-conscious poetic voice. …

Bad Jobs, Good Jobs, No Jobs? The Employment Experience of the Mexican American Second Generation

Concern with the prospects and experience of the ‘new’ second generation now stands at the top of the immigration research agenda in the United States. In contrast to the past, many immigrant offspring appear to be rapidly heading upward, exemplified by the large number of Chinese, Korean, Indian and other Asian-origin students enrolled in the nation's leading universities, some the children of workers, others the descendants of immigrants who moved straight into the middle class. On the other hand, knowledgeable observers tell us that the offspring of today's poorly educated immigrants are likely to experience a very different fate. In their view, post-industrial America is an inhospitable place for low-skilled immigrants and their offspring, as the latter are likely not to be integrated into the mainstream but acculturated into the ways and lifestyles of their underclass neighbours. We advance an alternative perspective, not captured by these two opposing views: namely, that the children of recent immigrants will follow in the footsteps of the offspring of Italian or Polish labour migrants of the turn of the last century, gaining incorporation into working-class America. Using samples of the Current Population Survey (CPS), we evaluate these hypotheses, comparing job holding and job quality patterns among the descendants of immigrants and their native counterparts.