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Ethnic Studies Review ETHNIC STUDIES REVIEW The Journal of the National Association for Ethnic Studies Volume 19, Number 1 February 1996 Special Issue: Ethnicity, Family, and Community Table of Contents Editor's Note Miguel A. Carranza ..........................................................................................i Articles The Importance of Families and Communities in Understanding Ethnicity Mary E. Kelly, Guest Editor................................ ....................................... 1-5 Hmong on the Move: Understanding Secondary Migration Jac D. Bulk ................................................................................................7-28 "Shared Ethnicity" in Transracial Adoption Cia Verschelden ......................................................................................29-42 Racial Safety and Cultural Maintenance: The Childcare Concerns of Employed Mothers of Color Lynet Uttal ..............................................................................................43-59 I'd Rather Play the Saxophone: Conflictsin Identity Between Vietnamese Students and Their Parents Joseph Stimpfl and Ngoc H. Bui ........... ............... ......... ..... ...... ..............61-80 Ethnic Conversions: Family, Community, Women, and Kinwork Mary E. Kelly.. .. ......... .... .............. ............ ................................. .........81-100 Selected Readings on Ethnicity, Family and Community Mary E. Kelly and Thomas W. Sanchez ...... .. ... ...... .............. ... ...... ... l0 1-113 Article Contributors ......................................................................, ..... 115-116 Review Essay Harold A. McDougall, Black Baltimore: A New Theory of Community, and W. Edward Orser, Blockbusting in Baltimore: The Edmondson Village Story, reviewed by James L. Conyers, J r. ............................................................................117 -120 Book Reviews Eve Harris (Director and Producer), Secret Jews of the Hispanic Southwest, reviewed by David Gradwohl.. ..................................120 David A. Hollinger, Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism, reviewed by Jack Glazier ................................................121 Maria P. P. Root, The Multiracial Experience: Racial Borders as the New Frontier, reviewed by Yolanda Flores Niemann ............................................................................................123 Vernon Williams, Jr., Rethinking Race: Franz Boas and His Contemporaries, reviewed by Rhett Jones ............................................124 Editor's Note This special issue of the journal is on the theme "Ethnicity, Fam­ ily and Community," which was the topic of our 23rd annual conference held in March 1995 in Boulder, Colorado. Mary Kelly, our special issue editor, has selected an excellent set of quality articles focused on the theme. Nowhere more than in the field of ethnic studies do the topics of family and community play such important roles. One need only look at the dynamic changes occurring in U.S. society to see how these changes influence and are influenced by ethnic/racial families and the communi­ ties in which they reside. In her introduction, Mary Kelly demonstrates how immigration has played a significant role in establishing ethnicity and ethnic identity within a societal context. It is important to note that recent immigration continues to influence both immigrant and non-immigrant perspectives on ethnicity and ethnic identity. Several themes found in the articles revolve around topics such as the pressures of assimilation, the mainte­ nance and transmittal of ethnic identity, ethnic options related to class differences, and the emerging impact of ethnic identity for multiracial children. In this latter respect, the potential creation of a multiracial cat­ egory by the federal government for census purposes could have a tre­ mendous impact on ethnic/racial groups in our society. This issue also marks the first one with our new journal title - Ethnic Studies Review. We have restructured and combined the pub­ lication of our journal, formerly titled Explorations in Ethnic Studies, and our book review issue, previously called Explorations in Sights and Sounds, into this new format. In Ethnic Studies Review we will con­ tinue to publish our standard research articles, but will also include re­ search notes, as well as the major review essays and book reviews for­ merly found in our book review issue. Additionally, we will increase the number of issues per volume from 2 to 3. We will keep the current vol­ ume numbering sequence and issues 1-3 of each volume will be pub­ lished in February, June and October, respectively. Miguel A. Carranza University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociological P.O. Box 22206 San Diego, CA 92192-0206 abstracts 619/695-8803 Fax: 695-0416 Internet [email protected] User Assistance: 800/752-3945 The SAl family of services: Sociological Abstracts ISA) • Social Planning/Policy & Development Abstracts ISOPODA) • sociofile ISA and SOPODA on CD-ROM) • Products are available in print; online from Knight. Ridder, DIMDI, OClC, and Ovid; on CD·ROM from SilverPlatter, EBSCO and Ovid; on magnetic tape via SAl direct. Document delivery available via SOCIOLOGY *Express: BOO/313·9966; 415/259·5013; Fax 415/259·5058; email: [email protected] The Importance of Families and Communities in Understanding Ethnicity and Maintaining Ethnic Identity Mary E. Kelly Central Missouri State University Introduction Social science provides us with a variety of theories that at­ tempt to explain the dynamics of race and ethnicity. Many of these theo­ ries are concerned with the basic question of ethnic difference: its ori­ gins, persistence, and decline. In the contemporary literature on immi­ gration to the United States and on how immigrants adjust to that relo­ cation, assimilation and the persistence of ethnic identity have often been considered polar opposites.1 Researchers, however, are beginning to find that both processes often occur simultaneously, as when immigrants become acculturated into American society but also maintain or even construct distinct ethnic identities, often "symbolically. ,,2 Even though a generation of immigrants may give up their ethnic identities, adopt the host language, and intermarry, their children or grandchildren may chOose to renew ancestral ethnicities, and in so doing, may even con­ tribute to the re-ethnicization of their parents as adults. Ethnicity (and ethnic identity), therefore, is both a conservative force as well as an agent of change.3 The articles in this special issue of Ethnic Studies Review explore the dynamics of ethn icity in the United States and contextualize the experience of various groups within families and com­ munities. Since "Ethnicity: Family and Community" is such a broad topic, this special issue can only capture a portion of the very interesting ongo­ ing research in the area. While the articles included are diverse, they center around the general themes of understanding problems associ­ ated with ethnicity and ethnic identity. Social issues related to ethnicity include internal migration patterns and providing public assistance to immigrants. How can communities cope with the needs of diverse im­ migrant groups? Is assimilation into the dominant host society always Ethnic Studies Review Vol. 19, No. 1 (February 1996): 1-5. Ethnic Studies Review, Vol. 19, No. 1 the best solution for these groups? Another difficulty associated with families and ethnicity is when families want their ethnic or racial culture to be taken into consideration even when they and their children are in settings outside of the home. Tw o articles in this issue focus on dilem­ mas of transmitting ethnic culture and identity when children are of a different race or ethnicity than their caregivers (including within the home). Finally, the issue concludes with articles concerning the maintenance and transmission of ethnic identity. In the case of Vietnamese Ameri­ cans, the focus of concern is on the too rapid "Americanization" of the second generation. For Lithuanian Americans, however, the concerns are somewhat different. Instead, the task facing Lithuanian Americans (and other white ethnic groups) is how to retain ethnic identification after several generations of acculturation, assimilation, and intermarriage in the United States. Understanding Ethnicity Jenkins reminds us that although internal processes of group identification take place, the role of external categorization (which in­ cludes power and authority relations) is also important in that it estab­ lishes what identities are acceptable to various groups.4 It is this exter­ nal categorization which affects recent immigrant groups with few re­ sources, as is the case among the Hmong in the United States. Addi­ tionally, whites have different "ethnic options" compared to "colored" minorities in the United States.5 This is a particularly sensitive issue among parents of multi-cultural/racial children and for parents raising children of another race than their own who feel that their choices are unfai rly constrained. An important element of ethnicity is its intersection with social class. For instance, purely symbolic ethnic connections are more prominent among middle-class Hispanics and whites, while lower­ class Hispanics tend to view ethnicity as part of their disadvantaged minority status.6 We see this played out among parents concerned with their child ren's child care--do they emphasize their class expectations when searching for
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