Children of Immigrants: Growing National and State Diversity

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karina Fortuny ◽  
Ajay Chaudry
Keyword(s):  
Children Of Immigrants

The Politics of the Mundane

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
ROBERTO F. CARLOS
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Children Of Immigrants ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Immigrant Communities ◽  
Representative Survey ◽  
Political Inequality ◽  
Political Events

Extensive research on political participation suggests that parental resources strongly predict participation. Other research indicates that salient political events can push individuals to participate. I offer a novel explanation of how mundane household experiences translate to political engagement, even in settings where low participation levels are typically found, such as immigrant communities. I hypothesize that experiences requiring children of Latinx immigrants to take on “adult” responsibilities provide an environment where children learn the skills needed to overcome the costs associated with participation. I test this hypothesis using three datasets: a survey of Latinx students, a representative survey of young adults, and a 10-year longitudinal study. The analyses demonstrate that Latinx children of immigrants taking on adult responsibilities exhibit higher levels of political activity compared with those who do not. These findings provide new insights into how the cycle of generational political inequality is overcome in unexpected ways and places.

scholarly journals In the Ear of the Listener: The Role of Foreign Accent in Interethnic Friendships and Partnerships

2021 ◽  
pp. 019791832098883
Author(s):  
Irena Kogan ◽  
Jörg Dollmann ◽  
Markus Weißmann
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Children Of Immigrants ◽  
Longitudinal Survey ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Interethnic Relations ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Interethnic Friendships ◽  
Communicative Power

This article examines the association between accented speech and the formation of friendships and partnerships among immigrants and native-born majority residents in Germany. Drawing on the sixth wave of the German extension of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries, we analyze a neglected aspect of language — pronunciation — and find that speaking with a foreign accent is a more important correlate of the incidence of interethnic partnerships than of interethnic friendships. We argue that beyond its primary function of understandability, accented speech possesses socially communicative power. Accent transmits signals of an individual’s foreignness and cultural differences and, thus, becomes an additional marker of social distance. Such signals serve as a greater obstacle to more consequential intimate interethnic relations such as partnerships. Our findings extend the scholarly debate on the role of symbolic boundaries in social interactions between ethnic groups by yet another important boundary maker — accent.

Language and the Second Generation: Bilingualism Yesterday and Today

1994 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 640-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Portes ◽  
Richard Schauffler
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Children Of Immigrants ◽  
South Florida ◽  
Occupational Aspirations ◽  
Ethnic Concentration ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
Residential Locations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Second Generation Children

The language adaptation of second generation children is explored in the context of the history of linguistic absorption and bilingualism in America. Strong nativist pressures toward monolingualism have commonly led to the extinction of immigrant languages in two or three generations. Contemporary fears of loss of English dominance are based on rapid immigration during recent decades and the emergence of linguistic enclaves in several cities around the country. This article explores the extent of language transition and the resilience of immigrant languages on the basis of data from south Florida, one of the areas most heavily affected by contemporary immigration. Results from a sample of 2,843 children of immigrants in the area indicate that: 1) knowledge of English is near universal; 2) preference for English is almost as high, even among children educated in immigrant-sponsored bilingual schools; 3) preservation of parental languages varies inversely with length of U.S. residence and residential locations away from areas of ethnic concentration. Hypotheses about other determinants of bilingualism are examined in a multivariate framework. The relationships of bilingualism to educational attainment and educational and occupational aspirations are also explored.

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