Undocumented Lives

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Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 067491998X
Total Pages : 189 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (749 download)

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Book Synopsis Undocumented Lives by : Ana Raquel Minian

Download or read book Undocumented Lives written by Ana Raquel Minian and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-28 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frederick Jackson Turner Award Finalist Winner of the David Montgomery Award Winner of the Theodore Saloutos Book Award Winner of the Betty and Alfred McClung Lee Book Award Winner of the Frances Richardson Keller-Sierra Prize Winner of the Américo Paredes Book Award “A deeply humane book.” —Mae Ngai, author of Impossible Subjects “Necessary and timely...A valuable text to consider alongside the current fight for DACA, the border concentration camps, and the unending rhetoric dehumanizing Mexican migrants.” —PopMatters “A deep dive into the history of Mexican migration to and from the United States.” —PRI’s The World In the 1970s, the Mexican government decided to tackle rural unemployment by supporting the migration of able-bodied men. Millions of Mexican men crossed into the United States to find work. They took low-level positions that few Americans wanted and sent money back to communities that depended on their support. They periodically returned to Mexico, living their lives in both countries. After 1986, however, US authorities disrupted this back-and-forth movement by strengthening border controls. Many Mexican men chose to remain in the United States permanently for fear of not being able to come back north if they returned to Mexico. For them, the United States became a jaula de oro—a cage of gold. Undocumented Lives tells the story of Mexican migrants who were compelled to bring their families across the border and raise a generation of undocumented children.

The Current Situation in Mexican Immigration

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 22 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (318 download)

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Book Synopsis The Current Situation in Mexican Immigration by : Georges Vernez

Download or read book The Current Situation in Mexican Immigration written by Georges Vernez and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By 1988, the Mexican-origin population of the United States had grown to 12.1 million, largely from recent sharp increases in immigration. The policy concerns raised by this phenomenon have been influenced by some perceptions that available research contradicts. Today most Mexican immigrants come to stay, about half are female, and they have increasingly less schooling compared with the native-born workers, and, across generations, their language and political assimilation is proceeding well. They put greater demands on education than on other public services. However, the Mexican-origin population affects the economy and public services more and differently in the areas where it is concentrated, primarily in the western United States and large urban areas. Further, the recent legalization of 2.3 million Mexican immigrants can be expected to increase the demand on public services, especially in those areas.

Current and Future Effects of Mexican Immigration in California

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 68 pages
Book Rating : 4.A/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Current and Future Effects of Mexican Immigration in California by : Kevin F. McCarthy

Download or read book Current and Future Effects of Mexican Immigration in California written by Kevin F. McCarthy and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study to assess the current situation of Mexican immigrants in California and project future possibilities constructs a demographic profile of the immigrants, examines their economic effects on the state, and describes their socioeconomic integration into California society. Models of immigration/integration processes are developed and used to project future immigration flows. The study's major conclusion is that widespread concerns about Mexican immigration are generally unfounded: Mexican immigrants are not homogeneous, and they differ in their characteristics and their effects on the state. Overall, the immigrants provide economic benefits to the state, and native-born Latinos may bear the brunt of competition for low-skill jobs. In general, immigrants contribute more to public revenues than they consume in public services; however, the youthfulness of the population, their low incomes, the progressiveness of the state income tax structure, and the high costs of public education produce a net deficit in educational expenditures. Continued rapid immigration from Mexico and projected shifts in the industrial and occupational structure of California could disrupt the traditional mobility process of immigrants. These changes will make education an increasingly important key to the occupational and social mobility of Mexican immigrants' children and grandchildren. (NEC)

Current and Future Effects of Mexican Immigration in California

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.A/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Current and Future Effects of Mexican Immigration in California by : Kevin F. McCarthy

Download or read book Current and Future Effects of Mexican Immigration in California written by Kevin F. McCarthy and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There has been growing concern that Mexican immigration to California has reached a crisis, with immigrants taking jobs from native-born workers, using public services for which they have not paid, and living in isolation from U.S. society. This report assesses the current situation of Mexican immigrants in California and projects future possibilities. The authors constructed a demographic profile of the immigrants, examined their economic effects on the state, and described their socioeconomic integration into California society. They developed models of both the immigration and integration processes, and then used the models to project future immigration flows. The report's major conclusion is that the widespread concerns about Mexican immigration are generally unfounded: Mexican immigrants differ in their characteristics and their effects on the state; they provide economic benefits to the state, and U.S.-born Latinos may bear the brunt of competition for low-skill jobs; immigrants contribute more to public revenues than they consume in public services, but produce a net deficit in educational expenditures; and they are following the classic pattern for integrating into U.S. society, with education playing a critical role in this process.

Mexican Immigration to the United States

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Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226066681
Total Pages : 349 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (26 download)

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Book Synopsis Mexican Immigration to the United States by : George J. Borjas

Download or read book Mexican Immigration to the United States written by George J. Borjas and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From debates on Capitol Hill to the popular media, Mexican immigrants are the subject of widespread controversy. By 2003, their growing numbers accounted for 28.3 percent of all foreign-born inhabitants of the United States. Mexican Immigration to the United States analyzes the astonishing economic impact of this historically unprecedented exodus. Why do Mexican immigrants gain citizenship and employment at a slower rate than non-Mexicans? Does their migration to the U.S. adversely affect the working conditions of lower-skilled workers already residing there? And how rapid is the intergenerational mobility among Mexican immigrant families? This authoritative volume provides a historical context for Mexican immigration to the U.S. and reports new findings on an immigrant influx whose size and character will force us to rethink economic policy for decades to come. Mexican Immigration to the United States will be necessary reading for anyone concerned about social conditions and economic opportunities in both countries.

Beyond Smoke and Mirrors

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Author :
Publisher : Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN 13 : 1610443829
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis Beyond Smoke and Mirrors by : Douglas S. Massey

Download or read book Beyond Smoke and Mirrors written by Douglas S. Massey and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2002-03-14 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Migration between Mexico and the United States is part of a historical process of increasing North American integration. This process acquired new momentum with the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, which lowered barriers to the movement of goods, capital, services, and information. But rather than include labor in this new regime, the United States continues to resist the integration of the labor markets of the two countries. Instead of easing restrictions on Mexican labor, the United States has militarized its border and adopted restrictive new policies of immigrant disenfranchisement. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors examines the devastating impact of these immigration policies on the social and economic fabric of the Mexico and the United States, and calls for a sweeping reform of the current system. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors shows how U.S. immigration policies enacted between 1986–1996—largely for symbolic domestic political purposes—harm the interests of Mexico, the United States, and the people who migrate between them. The costs have been high. The book documents how the massive expansion of border enforcement has wasted billions of dollars and hundreds of lives, yet has not deterred increasing numbers of undocumented immigrants from heading north. The authors also show how the new policies unleashed a host of unintended consequences: a shift away from seasonal, circular migration toward permanent settlement; the creation of a black market for Mexican labor; the transformation of Mexican immigration from a regional phenomenon into a broad social movement touching every region of the country; and even the lowering of wages for legal U.S. residents. What had been a relatively open and benign labor process before 1986 was transformed into an exploitative underground system of labor coercion, one that lowered wages and working conditions of undocumented migrants, legal immigrants, and American citizens alike. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors offers specific proposals for repairing the damage. Rather than denying the reality of labor migration, the authors recommend regularizing it and working to manage it so as to promote economic development in Mexico, minimize costs and disruptions for the United States, and maximize benefits for all concerned. This book provides an essential "user's manual" for readers seeking a historical, theoretical, and substantive understanding of how U.S. policy on Mexican immigration evolved to its current dysfunctional state, as well as how it might be fixed.

At the Crossroads

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Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 9780847683925
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (839 download)

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Book Synopsis At the Crossroads by : Frank D. Bean

Download or read book At the Crossroads written by Frank D. Bean and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 1997 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mexico is becoming increasingly important as a focus of U.S. immigration policy, and the movement of people across the U.S.-Mexico border is a subject of intense interest and controversy. The U.S. approach to cross-border flows is in flux, the economic climate in Mexico is uncertain, and relations between the two neighbors have entered a new stage with the launching of NAFTA. This volume draws together original essays by distinguished scholars from a variety of disciplines and both sides of the border to examine current impetuses to migration and policy options for Mexico and the U.S.

New Destinations

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Author :
Publisher : Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN 13 : 9780871549891
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (498 download)

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Book Synopsis New Destinations by : Victor Zuniga

Download or read book New Destinations written by Victor Zuniga and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2006-08-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mexican immigration to the United States—the oldest and largest immigration movement to this country—is in the midst of a fundamental transformation. For decades, Mexican immigration was primarily a border phenomenon, confined to Southwestern states. But legal changes in the mid-1980s paved the way for Mexican migrants to settle in parts of America that had no previous exposure to people of Mexican heritage. In New Destinations, editors Víctor Zúñiga and Rubén Hernández-León bring together an inter-disciplinary team of scholars to examine demographic, social, cultural, and political changes in areas where the incorporation of Mexican migrants has deeply changed the preexisting ethnic landscape. New Destinations looks at several of the communities where Mexican migrants are beginning to settle, and documents how the latest arrivals are reshaping—and being reshaped by—these new areas of settlement. Contributors Jorge Durand, Douglas Massey, and Chiara Capoferro use census data to diagram the historical evolution of Mexican immigration to the United States, noting the demographic, economic, and legal factors that led recent immigrants to move to areas where few of their predecessors had settled. Looking at two towns in Southern Louisiana, contributors Katharine Donato, Melissa Stainback, and Carl Bankston III reach a surprising conclusion: that documented immigrant workers did a poorer job of integrating into the local culture than their undocumented peers. They attribute this counterintuitive finding to documentation policies, which helped intensify employer control over migrants and undercut the formation of a stable migrant community among documented workers. Brian Rich and Marta Miranda detail an ambivalent mixture of paternalism and xenophobia by local residents toward migrants in Lexington, Kentucky. The new arrivals were welcomed for their strong work ethic so long as they stayed in "invisible" spheres such as fieldwork, but were resented once they began to take part in more public activities like schools or town meetings. New Destinations also provides some hopeful examples of progress in community relations. Several chapters, including Mark Grey and Anne Woodrick's examination of a small Iowa town, point to the importance of dialogue and mediation in establishing amicable relations between ethnic groups in newly multi-cultural settings. New Destinations is the first scholarly assessment of Mexican migrants' experience in the Midwest, Northeast, and deep South—the latest settlement points for America's largest immigrant group. Enriched by perspectives from demographers, anthropologists, sociologists, folklorists, and political scientists, this volume is an essential starting point for scholarship on the new Mexican migration.

Five years after NAFTA

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 44 pages
Book Rating : 4.A/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Five years after NAFTA by : Robert Manning

Download or read book Five years after NAFTA written by Robert Manning and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Follow Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Jerry Kammer as he tells the story of the federal government's failure to control illegal immigration as Congress promised in 1986, when it enacted an historic compromise reform that also provided amnesty to nearly three million unauthorized immigrants. Kammer argues that this was one of the most consequential failures in American history because it led to the proliferation of illegal immigration, which produced a backlash that eventually led to the election of Donald Trump.Losing Control is a vivid history of the past half century of immigration politics and policy. It is also a dramatic ground-level account of how the story took shape. Kammer describes the economic and cultural forces that both pushed millions of migrants from home communities in Latin America and pulled them northward to the US.He shows how the backlash gradually emerged from the frustrations of American workers and communities who felt overwhelmed by the influx and betrayed by their government.Kammer also explains the Democrats abandonment of their historic commitment to control illegal immigration. And he details how Republicans placated corporate interests by allowing workplace controls to fail. Meanwhile, both parties sought to appease the public by spending billions on border security. Finally, he suggests new reforms that would honor our dual legacy as a country of immigrants and a country of laws.

CURRENT SITUATION IN MEXICAN IMMIGRATION.

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 39 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (131 download)

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Book Synopsis CURRENT SITUATION IN MEXICAN IMMIGRATION. by : Rand Corporation

Download or read book CURRENT SITUATION IN MEXICAN IMMIGRATION. written by Rand Corporation and published by . This book was released on with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Risking Immeasurable Harm

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Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 1496201299
Total Pages : 342 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (962 download)

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Book Synopsis Risking Immeasurable Harm by : Benjamin C. Montoya

Download or read book Risking Immeasurable Harm written by Benjamin C. Montoya and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2020-04-01 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The debate over restricting the number of Mexican immigrants to the United States began early in the twentieth century, a time when U.S.-Mexican relations were still tenuous following the Mexican Revolution and when heated conflicts over mineral rights, primarily oil, were raging between the two nations. Though Mexico had economic reasons for curbing emigration, the racist tone of the quota debate taking place in the United States offended Mexicans’ national pride and played a large part in obstructing mutual support for immigration restriction between the United States and Mexico. Risking Immeasurable Harm explains how the prospect of immigration restriction affects diplomatic relations by analyzing U.S. efforts to place a quota on immigration from Mexico during the late 1920s and early 1930s. The controversial quota raised important questions about how domestic immigration policy debates had international consequences, primarily how the racist justifications for immigration restriction threatened to undermine U.S. relations with Mexico. Benjamin C. Montoya follows the quota debate from its origin in 1924, spurred by the passage of the Immigration Act, to its conclusion in 1932. He examines congressional policy debate and the U.S. State Department’s steady opposition to the quota scheme. Despite the concerns of American diplomats, in 1930 the Senate passed the Harris Bill, which singled out Mexico among all other Latin American nations for immigration restriction. The lingering effects of the quota debates continued to strain diplomatic relations between the United States and Mexico beyond the Great Depression. Relevant to current debates about immigration and the role of restrictions in inter-American diplomacy, Risking Immeasurable Harm demonstrates the correlation of immigration restriction and diplomacy, the ways racism can affect diplomatic relations, and how domestic immigration policy can have international consequences.

Labor Market Issues along the U.S.-Mexico Border

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Author :
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
ISBN 13 : 0816548579
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (165 download)

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Book Synopsis Labor Market Issues along the U.S.-Mexico Border by : Marie T. Mora

Download or read book Labor Market Issues along the U.S.-Mexico Border written by Marie T. Mora and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2022-04-12 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Five million workers are employed in a variety of settings along the U.S.–Mexico border, yet labor market outcomes on each side often differ. U.S. workers tend to have low earnings and high unemployment compared with the rest of the country, while workers on the Mexican side of the border are often more prosperous than those in the interior. This book sheds new light on these socioeconomic differentials, along with other labor market issues affecting both sides of the border. The contributors take up issues that dominate the current discourse— migration, trade, gender, education, earnings, and employment. They analyze labor conditions and their relationship to immigration, and also provide insight into income levels and population concentrations, the relative prosperity of Mexico’s border region, and NAFTA’s impact on trade and living conditions. Drawing on demographic, economic, and labor data, the chapters treat topics ranging from historical context to directions for future research. They cover the importance of trade to both the United States and Mexico, salary differentials, the determinants of wages among Mexican immigrant women on the U.S. side, and the net effect of Mexican migration on the public coffers in U.S. border states. The book’s concluding policy prescriptions are geared toward improving conditions on the U.S. side without dampening the success of workers in Mexico. Written to be equally accessible to social scientists, policy makers, and concerned citizens, this book deals with issues often overlooked in national policy discussions and can help readers better understand real-life conditions along the border. It dispels misconceptions regarding labor interdependence between the two countries while offering policy recommendations useful for improving the economic and social well-being of border residents.

Vanishing Frontiers

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Author :
Publisher : PublicAffairs
ISBN 13 : 1610399021
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Vanishing Frontiers by : Andrew Selee

Download or read book Vanishing Frontiers written by Andrew Selee and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There may be no story today with a wider gap between fact and fiction than the relationship between the United States and Mexico. Wall or no wall, deeply intertwined social, economic, business, cultural, and personal relationships mean the US-Mexico border is more like a seam than a barrier, weaving together two economies and cultures. Mexico faces huge crime and corruption problems, but its remarkable transformation over the past two decades has made it a more educated, prosperous, and innovative nation than most Americans realize. Through portraits of business leaders, migrants, chefs, movie directors, police officers, and media and sports executives, Andrew Selee looks at this emerging Mexico, showing how it increasingly influences our daily lives in the United States in surprising ways -- the jobs we do, the goods we consume, and even the new technology and entertainment we enjoy. From the Mexican entrepreneur in Missouri who saved the US nail industry, to the city leaders who were visionary enough to build a bridge over the border fence so the people of San Diego and Tijuana could share a single international airport, to the connections between innovators in Mexico's emerging tech hub in Guadalajara and those in Silicon Valley, Mexicans and Americans together have been creating productive connections that now blur the boundaries that once separated us from each other.

Crossings

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Author :
Publisher : David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 460 pages
Book Rating : 4.A/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Crossings by : Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco

Download or read book Crossings written by Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco and published by David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. This book was released on 1998 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few other social phenomena are likely to impact the future character of American society as much as the ongoing wave of "new immigration." This cross-disciplinary book brings together twelve essays by leading scholars of the most significant aspect of the new immigration: Mexican immigration to the U.S.

New Destinations

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Author :
Publisher : Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN 13 : 1610445708
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis New Destinations by : Victor Zuniga

Download or read book New Destinations written by Victor Zuniga and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2005-04-07 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mexican immigration to the United States—the oldest and largest immigration movement to this country—is in the midst of a fundamental transformation. For decades, Mexican immigration was primarily a border phenomenon, confined to Southwestern states. But legal changes in the mid-1980s paved the way for Mexican migrants to settle in parts of America that had no previous exposure to people of Mexican heritage. In New Destinations, editors Víctor Zúñiga and Rubén Hernández-León bring together an inter-disciplinary team of scholars to examine demographic, social, cultural, and political changes in areas where the incorporation of Mexican migrants has deeply changed the preexisting ethnic landscape. New Destinations looks at several of the communities where Mexican migrants are beginning to settle, and documents how the latest arrivals are reshaping—and being reshaped by—these new areas of settlement. Contributors Jorge Durand, Douglas Massey, and Chiara Capoferro use census data to diagram the historical evolution of Mexican immigration to the United States, noting the demographic, economic, and legal factors that led recent immigrants to move to areas where few of their predecessors had settled. Looking at two towns in Southern Louisiana, contributors Katharine Donato, Melissa Stainback, and Carl Bankston III reach a surprising conclusion: that documented immigrant workers did a poorer job of integrating into the local culture than their undocumented peers. They attribute this counterintuitive finding to documentation policies, which helped intensify employer control over migrants and undercut the formation of a stable migrant community among documented workers. Brian Rich and Marta Miranda detail an ambivalent mixture of paternalism and xenophobia by local residents toward migrants in Lexington, Kentucky. The new arrivals were welcomed for their strong work ethic so long as they stayed in "invisible" spheres such as fieldwork, but were resented once they began to take part in more public activities like schools or town meetings. New Destinations also provides some hopeful examples of progress in community relations. Several chapters, including Mark Grey and Anne Woodrick's examination of a small Iowa town, point to the importance of dialogue and mediation in establishing amicable relations between ethnic groups in newly multi-cultural settings. New Destinations is the first scholarly assessment of Mexican migrants' experience in the Midwest, Northeast, and deep South—the latest settlement points for America's largest immigrant group. Enriched by perspectives from demographers, anthropologists, sociologists, folklorists, and political scientists, this volume is an essential starting point for scholarship on the new Mexican migration.

Mexican Immigrants and Mexican Americans

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Author :
Publisher : Cmas Publications Ce Sity of Texas
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.A/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Mexican Immigrants and Mexican Americans by : Harley L. Browning

Download or read book Mexican Immigrants and Mexican Americans written by Harley L. Browning and published by Cmas Publications Ce Sity of Texas. This book was released on 1986 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Crossing the Border

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Author :
Publisher : Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN 13 : 1610441737
Total Pages : 356 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis Crossing the Border by : Jorge Durand

Download or read book Crossing the Border written by Jorge Durand and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2004-08-11 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discussion of Mexican migration to the United States is often infused with ideological rhetoric, untested theories, and few facts. In Crossing the Border, editors Jorge Durand and Douglas Massey bring the clarity of scientific analysis to this hotly contested but under-researched topic. Leading immigration scholars use data from the Mexican Migration Project—the largest, most comprehensive, and reliable source of data on Mexican immigrants currently available—to answer such important questions as: Who are the people that migrate to the United States from Mexico? Why do they come? How effective is U.S. migration policy in meeting its objectives? Crossing the Border dispels two primary myths about Mexican migration: First, that those who come to the United States are predominantly impoverished and intend to settle here permanently, and second, that the only way to keep them out is with stricter border enforcement. Nadia Flores, Rubén Hernández-León, and Douglas Massey show that Mexican migrants are generally not destitute but in fact cross the border because the higher comparative wages in the United States help them to finance homes back in Mexico, where limited credit opportunities makes it difficult for them to purchase housing. William Kandel's chapter on immigrant agricultural workers debunks the myth that these laborers are part of a shadowy, underground population that sponges off of social services. In contrast, he finds that most Mexican agricultural workers in the United States are paid by check and not under the table. These workers pay their fair share in U.S. taxes and—despite high rates of eligibility—they rarely utilize welfare programs. Research from the project also indicates that heightened border surveillance is an ineffective strategy to reduce the immigrant population. Pia Orrenius demonstrates that strict barriers at popular border crossings have not kept migrants from entering the United States, but rather have prompted them to seek out other crossing points. Belinda Reyes uses statistical models and qualitative interviews to show that the militarization of the Mexican border has actually kept immigrants who want to return to Mexico from doing so by making them fear that if they leave they will not be able to get back into the United States. By replacing anecdotal and speculative evidence with concrete data, Crossing the Border paints a picture of Mexican immigration to the United States that defies the common knowledge. It portrays a group of committed workers, doing what they can to realize the dream of home ownership in the absence of financing opportunities, and a broken immigration system that tries to keep migrants out of this country, but instead has kept them from leaving.