Immigrant Life in the U.S.: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives
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Immigrant Life in the U.S. Immigrant Life in the U.S. brings together scholars from across the disciplines to examine diverse examples of immigration to the paradigmatic ‘nation of immi- grants.’ The volume covers a wide range of time periods, ethnic and national groups, and places of immigration. Contemporary Chinese children brought to the U.S. through adoption, Mexican laborers hired to work in the mid-west in the 1930s, Indian computer programmers hired to work in California, and more, are examined in a series of chapters that show the great diversity of issues facing immigrants in the past and in the present. Divided into three sections, the book explores issues of nationality and citizen- ship, youth in the context of family and school, and work and economic issues. In the first section, the focus is on how migrants negotiate their nationality and sense of belonging in conjunction with ‘natives’ and larger national forces. In the second section, contributions deal with the special situation of migrant youth, examining the ways in which their family, school, and cultural contexts shape their developing identities. The third section looks at the all-important issue of work and the process by which immigrant status complicates employment, labor, economic relations, and immigrants’ experience of themselves as people. This book emphasizes the complex tapestry that is the everyday experience of life as an immigrant and turns a critical eye on the place of globalization in the day-to-day life of immigrants. The contrasts it draws between past and present demonstrate the continued salience of national and ethnic identities while also describing how migrants can live almost simultaneously in two countries. This book will be of essential interest to advanced students and researchers of sociology, history, ethnic studies, and American studies. Donna R. Gabaccia is the Mellon Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on gender and international migration, immi- grant life in the United States, and Italian migration worldwide. Recent books include Immigration and American Diversity (2002), Italy’s Many Diasporas (2000), and We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans (1998). Colin Wayne Leach is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research examines the phenomenology and politics of status distinctions made in the U.S., Western Europe, and Australia. He is co-editor of The Social Life of Emotions (2004). Routledge advances in sociology This series aims to present cutting-edge developments and debates within the field of sociology. It will provide a broad range of case studies and the latest theoretical perspectives, while covering a variety of topics, theories and issues from around the world. It is not confined to any particular school of thought. 1 Virtual Globalization Virtual Spaces/Tourist Spaces Edited by David Holmes 2 The Criminal Spectre in Law, Literature and Aesthetics Peter Hutchings 3 Immigrants and National Identity in Europe Anna Triandafyllidou 4 Constructing Risk and Safety in Technological Practice Edited by Jane Summerton and Boel Berner 5 Europeanisation, National Identities and Migration Changes in boundary constructions between Western and Eastern Europe Willfried Spohn and Anna Triandafyllidou 6 Language, Identity and Conflict A comparative study of language in ethnic conflict in Europe and Eurasia Diarmait Mac Giolla Chríost 7 Immigrant Life in the U.S. Multi-disciplinary perspectives Edited by Donna R. Gabaccia and Colin Wayne Leach 8 Rave Culture and Religion Edited by Graham St John 9 Creation and Returns of Social Capital A new research program Edited by Henk Flap and Beate Völker 10 Self-Care Embodiment, personal autonomy and the shaping of health consciousness Christopher Ziguras 11 Mechanisms of Cooperation Werner Raub and Jeroen Weesie Immigrant Life in the U.S. Multi-disciplinary perspectives Edited by Donna R. Gabaccia and Colin Wayne Leach First published 2004 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint ofthe Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. © 2004 Editorial matter and selection, Donna R. Gabaccia and Colin Wayne Leach; individual chapters, the contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. The publishers have made every effort to contact the relevant copyright holders of the material printed in Immigrant Life in the U.S. This has not been possible in every case, however, and we would welcome correspondence frrom those individuals/companies we have been unable to trace. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-71780-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-34191-0 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–415–30600–0 (Print Edition) Contents List ofillustrationsvii Notes on contributorsix Preface and acknowledgments xi 1 Introduction: American identities in a global era 1 DONNA R. GABACCIA AND COLIN WAYNE LEACH PART I The local and the nation in a transnational world 13 2 Elusive citizenship: education, the press, and the struggle over representation in Napa, California 1848–1910 15 LINDA HEIDENREICH 3 The prehistory of the Cadenú: Dominican identity, social class, and the problem of mobility, 1965–78 31 JESSE HOFFNUNG-GARSKOF 4 Between fantasy and despair: the transnational condition and high-tech immigration 51 A. ANEESH 5 Asian-Latinos: Japanese-Peruvians’ ethnic adaptation and social mobility in New York and Los Angeles 65 AYUMI TAKENAKA vi Contents PART II Family, school, and youth culture 81 6 Adopted children’s identities at the China/U.S. border 83 SARA K. DOROW 7 Members of many gangs: childhood and ethno-racial identity on the streets of twentieth-century urban America 99 MARK WILD 8 ‘Becoming’ and ‘being’ Chinese American in college: a look at ethnicity, social class, and neighborhood in identity development 113 VIVIAN LOUIE PART III Immigrant labor 131 9 Workplace identities and collective memory: living and remembering the effects of the Bracero total institution 133 RONALD L. MIZE 10 The significance of race in the urban labor market: a study of employers 152 NELSON LIM 11 ‘Natural mothers’ for sale: the construction of Latina immigrant identity in domestic service labor markets 173 KRISTEN HILL MAHER 12 An afterword: the work and the wonder in studying immigrant life across the disciplines 191 COLIN WAYNE LEACH AND DONNA R. GABACCIA Notes 201 Bibliography 217 Index 234 Illustrations Tables 2.1 California population 1850–70 17 5.1 Estimated Japanese-Peruvian population in New York, New Jersey, and California 67 5.2 Racial identification of Japanese-Peruvians in New York, New Jersey, and California 68 5.3 How the Peruvian-born of Japanese ancestry responded to race and Hispanic questions 69 5.4 Median household and per capita income 78 7.1 Census of selected playgrounds in Los Angeles, 1918 107 10.1 Distribution of employers’ work quality ratings of worker groups 156 10.2 Results from the Wilcoxon signed ranks test for employers’ ratings of work qualities of worker groups 158 10.3 Summary statistics of explanatory variables 162 10.4 Exponentiated coefficients from logit regression models predicting likelihood of getting differential ratings among the groups by an employer 164 10.5 Exponentiated coefficients from exploded logit regression model predicting rankings of worker groups by an employer 167 11.1 Average salaries for domestic jobs 178 Figures 10.1 Percent below and above average ratings of employers by racial and ethnic groups 157 10.2 Pictorial summary of theoretical consideration on sources of employers’ ratings of group work qualities 161 10.3 Effects of demographic diversity in a business establishment on probability of getting differential ratings of worker groups by an employer 165 viii Illustrations 10.4 Probabilities of being ranked the highest among all groups by racial and ethnic groups in Los Angeles 169 10.5 Regional differences in adjusted probabilities of being ranked the highest among all groups by racial and ethnic groups 171 Illustrations 9.1 The Bracero total institution 140 9.2 Braceros, waiting to be contracted 145 9.3 Braceros, contracts in hand 146 9.4 Braceros, waiting for their numbers to be called 146 Contributors A. Aneesh is the author of articles on migration, information technologies, and work; his interests lie at the intersection of technology, labor, and globaliza- tion. His forthcoming book is titled Virtual Migration: The Programming of Globalization. Aneesh teaches a variety of courses relating to the sociology of science and technology in the Program in Science, Technology and Society at Stanford University. Sara K. Dorow is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Alberta. She received her PhD from the University of Minnesota. She currently teaches and conducts research in the areas of identity, race and culture, family, and transnational processes, with particular focus on adoption. Since moving to Canada from the United States, she has become interested in comparative work on multiculturalism and racialized practices in the two nations. Donna R. Gabaccia is the Mellon Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh. She has written extensively on immigrant life in the United States and on Italian migration around the world. Recent publications are Immigration and American Diversity (2002); Italy’s Many Diasporas (2000); We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans (1998).