Biography of Alejandro Portes BIOGRAPHY

lejandro Portes is a premier Ethnic Enclaves sociologist who has shaped the While at Austin, Portes launched a study of immigration and ur- study comparing the adaptation of Cu- A banization for 30 years. He is ban and Mexican immigrants arriving in chair of the department of at Texas and Florida during the mid-1970s. Princeton University (Princeton, NJ) as ‘‘Up to that point, all Latin immigrants well as co-founder and director of Prin- were seen as pretty much the same. I ceton’s Center for Migration and Devel- wanted to see how the two major Latin opment. In 1998, Portes became a fellow groups arriving at the time resembled of the American Academy of Arts and and differed,’’ he says. Approximately Sciences, and he was elected to the 1,500 Mexican immigrants and Cuban National Academy of Sciences in 2001. refugees were interviewed as soon as From 1998 to 1999, Portes served as they arrived in the United States. president of the American Sociological Through the 1970s, Portes and his col- Association. He has authored and edited leagues followed the progress of these numerous books and has published arti- immigrant groups, interviewing them cles on a range of policy issues, includ- three and six years after their arrival. ing immigrant assimilation, Latin Ameri- ͞ Portes discovered that Cuban exiles in can politics, and United States Cuba Miami were creating a new type of so- relations (1–4). Alejandro Portes cial structure consisting of highly entre- A Cuban exile himself, Portes has preneurial communities that employed spent his career tracking the lives of dif- many of their own coethnics, including ferent immigrant nationalities in the the strongest sociology departments in the most recent arrivals to the United United States. He has chronicled the SOCIAL SCIENCES the country. For his dissertation, Portes States; he named this novel social struc- causes and consequences of immigration studied political radicalism in the urban ture the ‘‘ethnic enclave.’’ By this to the United States, with an emphasis slums of Chile, a country that was polar- unique form of adaptation, Portes ar- on informal economies, transnational ized at the time. ‘‘I went to Chile to gues that an immigrant could spend his communities, and ethnic enclaves (5–8). or her entire life within the confines of In Portes’s Inaugural Article (9), pub- study the political attitudes among low- income urban dwellers in the squatter the ethnic enclave. ‘‘You could be born lished in this issue of PNAS, he and in a Cuban clinic, be employed in a Cu- Hao study the children of immigrants settlements surrounding the city, imme- diately before the election of the com- ban factory or enterprise, and be buried and the factors that determine their suc- in a Cuban cemetery,’’ he said. After cessful adaptation to life in the United munist–socialist alliance to power, and that became my first major study,’’ he studying the Cuban ethnic enclave in States, such as family support and Miami, Portes and colleagues identified recalls. In conjunction with his mentors school socioeconomic status (SES). other immigrant groups, such as the at the University of Wisconsin, William Russian Jews and the Japanese, that had A Need to Understand the Past Sewell and Archibald Haller, Portes au- adopted similar patterns of adaptation, Portes was born in Havana, Cuba, on thored papers on social stratification greatly facilitating their economic suc- October 13, 1944. He began his under- and status attainment in three major cess at the turn of the 20th century. graduate studies at the University of sociology journals in the late 1960s (10– ‘‘But then, not all immigrants have the Havana in 1959 but left after just one 12). His dissertation work was published necessary education, human capital, or year. At the time, Cuba was in the midst in Urban Latin America (2), a book co- favorable reception to create these con- of a revolution, as dictator Fulgencio authored by John Walton. In addition to ditions,’’ Portes acknowledges. The study Batista was overthrown and a new re- the doctorate that he earned in 1970, spawned several articles (13–15) and gime was established under the leader- the University of Wisconsin later Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Im- ship of Fidel Castro. ‘‘I left in 1960 awarded Portes an honorary doctorate migrants in the United States (16), a book because of opposition to the regime and in 1998. In 2001, Portes’s alma mater coauthored by Robert L. Bach. became a political exile,’’ he says. In further distinguished him by asking him In 1975, Portes joined the faculty at 1963, Portes resumed his studies at the to deliver the inaugural William H. as a full professor. He Catholic University of Argentina in Bue- Sewell Memorial Lecture. continued his analyses of immigration nos Aires. He completed his B.A. in After graduate school, Portes ac- and social integration, combining an sociology in 1965 at Creighton Univer- interest in urbanization and develop- sity in Omaha, NE. Portes was drawn to cepted a position as assistant professor ment in the Third World, primarily the field of sociology because he wanted of sociology at the University of Illinois Latin America. During this period, to make sense of his own experience at Urbana–Champaign. After one year Portes spent a year in Brazil as a pro- during the Cuban revolution. ‘‘I needed at Illinois, he became a tenured associ- gram adviser for the Ford Foundation to understand what had happened in the ate professor at the University of Texas conducting a study on housing policy country where I was born. [Cuba] was at Austin, where he was also associate and the urban slums of Rio de Janeiro literally taken away from me and my director of Latin American studies. family by a major social process that I Portes continued his dissertation work could barely understand,’’ said Portes. on Chilean political radicalism before This is a Biography of a recently elected member of the Portes pursued his graduate education turning to the study of immigration, a National Academy of Sciences to accompany the member’s in sociology at the University of Wis- topic that would become his major re- Inaugural Article on page 11920. consin in Madison, which housed one of search focus in future years. © 2004 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA

www.pnas.org͞cgi͞doi͞10.1073͞pnas.0405169101 PNAS ͉ August 17, 2004 ͉ vol. 101 ͉ no. 33 ͉ 11917–11919 Downloaded by guest on September 29, 2021 during the military dictatorship (17, 18). on the experiences of pre-World War II youths do succeed in schools and in For another year, he was a fellow at the European immigrants, it was clear to their early careers thanks to support Center for Advanced Study in the Be- Portes that the future of ethnic groups from their families, ethnic communities, havioral Sciences in Stanford, CA. in the United States would be defined and their own efforts. Nevertheless, said After four years at Duke, Portes more by the second generation than by Portes, downward assimilation is ‘‘prob- accepted a position as professor of soci- the first. ‘‘Immigrants are often in the lematic because it adds to the minority ology at in society, but not yet of it,’’ he says. First- population trapped in American inner Baltimore in 1981. At Hopkins, Portes generation immigrants may return to cities. Children of immigrants from poor launched a study of the informal econo- their country of origin, but their U.S.- working families who have had a precar- my—an economy created by unregulated born children are U.S. citizens with ious education in bad urban schools are service jobs, such as construction work, American aspirations, and most are here especially at risk of following this path.’’ landscaping, and domestic services. to stay. ‘‘Whether [the children] succeed In 2001, Portes published the results of ‘‘This form of employment is most com- or not, economically and socially, will CILS in Legacies: the Story of the Immi- mon in Latin America and the Third determine the fate of the ethnic groups grant Second Generation, coauthored World, where informal workers are that come out of today’s immigration as with Ruben Rumbaut (25). The book more numerous than those regulated by they did for Irish Americans, Polish has won several awards, including the the state. The population is not covered Americans, and Italian Americans in the Distinguished Scholarly Publication by social security, but labors under these past.’’ Award from the American Sociological irregular conditions,’’ Portes explains. In the late 1980s, Portes and his col- Association. However, Portes and his collaborators league Rube´n G. Rumbaut of Michigan In his PNAS Inaugural Article (9), found that the informal economy was State University launched a labor-inten- Portes describes how the SES of schools also present in the mature, developed sive project called the Children of Immi- works in tandem with the family SES to economies of the United States and grants Longitudinal Study (CILS). With determine children’s academic success. Western Europe as well as those of the the help of local field teams, they inter- Immigrant youths from advantaged fam- former Soviet regime. The comparative viewed more than 5,000 children of im- ilies who also attend advantaged schools project encompassed studies of all world migrants, 8th and 9th graders, in the exhibit greater academic performance regions, including the United States, school systems of Miami, Fort Lauder- than if they had attended average Latin America, Africa, and Europe dale, and San Diego. The children were schools. The opposite happens to chil- (19–21). dren from underprivileged back- In another line of research, Portes grounds—their family disadvantages are examined the integration of Cuban refu- ‘‘Immigrants are compounded by poorer schools, result- gees who arrived during the 1980 Mariel ing in lower grades and increased drop- boat lift, the surge of more than 125,000 often in the society, out rates. ‘‘There is a notable lack of refugees who landed in southern Florida support for working-class immigrant from Mariel, Cuba. For comparative but not yet of it.’’ communities where parents struggle purposes, the study included a sample of very hard to both survive and educate Haitian refugees arriving in the United their children but do not often know States at the same time. Portes and his how to do it. To prevent a clear bifurca- interviewed three years later, as they colleagues found significant differences tion of the second generation between in the immigrants’ mental health and were about to graduate from high those that move upward and successfully access to health services. While Mariel school, and again seven years later, integrate into the middle-class main- Cubans had significantly higher levels of when they were young adults. The goal stream and those who move downward mental illness than the Haitian refugees, of the study was to find out what hap- into the underclass, programs will have Potes found that the Cubans obtained pened to these children as they grew up to be devised at the local level to work effective treatment more readily (22, in an environment divided between with parents and ethnic communities, 23), ‘‘The success of the Cubans in seek- American society and their parents’ cul- supporting their efforts to educate their ing help for their needs was heavily in- ture. In addition, Portes and colleagues children properly,’’ he advises. fluenced by the consolidated enclave interviewed half of the children’s par- In contrast to other immigrant popu- created by their compatriots, which ents, face to face, which required trans- lations, children of Mexican immi- made available many institutional re- lating questionnaires into six languages, grants who attend higher-SES schools sources to which Haitians arriving at the including the Cambodian language of exhibit poorer academic performance same time did not have access,’’ said Khmer and Philippine Tagalog. and tend to drop out more frequently. Portes. This study, plus prior research The key concept that came out of Portes notes that many Mexican chil- conducted in Miami, culminated in City CILS was that of ‘‘segmented assimila- dren are at risk of downward assimila- on the Edge: The Transformation of tion,’’ integration into different seg- tion because of their unique conditions Miami (24), a book coauthored by Alex ments of American society rather than of disadvantage. They often come from Stepick, one of Portes’s former postdoc- into one mainstream community. Portes poor families with parents who are un- toral fellows. The book won the Robert observed that one path of integration, authorized immigrants and laborers Park Award for best book in urban soci- called ‘‘downward assimilation,’’ is espe- with little education. Portes thinks that ology from the American Sociological cially problematic. ‘‘It moves downward, it is not necessarily beneficial to main- Association in 1995. increasing the probability of leaving stream children who come from disad- school early, joining gangs, and integrat- vantaged situations into middle-class The Immigrant Second Generation ing into a street and drug culture that school environments. Rather, he be- While Portes’s centered his early work commonly leads to imprisonment, teen- lieves that it would be more appropri- on first-generation immigrants, he later age pregnancies, and other negative out- ate to improve the predominantly expanded his research to include the comes,’’ he said. Fortunately, not all coethnic schools that most of them at- children of these immigrants who were children follow the path of downward tend. ‘‘Mainstreaming is important, but growing up in the United States. Based assimilation. Most second-generation it has to be assisted,’’ said Portes. ‘‘Do

11918 ͉ www.pnas.org͞cgi͞doi͞10.1073͞pnas.0405169101 Bundesen Downloaded by guest on September 29, 2021 not simply put kids that come from give rise to communities ‘‘that are sus- turns out that my early hunches were BIOGRAPHY these situations into highly competitive pended between two nations, as their inevitably wrong. These experiences environments and expect them to sink members constantly move back and have been sobering and have taught me or swim. They often sink.’’ forth, living in two or more places and the limitations of armchair speculation.’’ partaking of two cultures simulta- Portes lives in Princeton with his Analysis of the Unexpected neously.’’ The study has focused on wife, Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, a senior After 16 years at Johns Hopkins, Colombian, Dominican, and Salvador- lecturer in the department of sociol- Portes joined the department of sociol- ian immigrant groups settling in diff- ogy. During his years of research, ogy at Princeton University in 1997, erent regions of the United States Portes says that is wife has been sup- where he currently serves as chair. In (26–28). portive of his work, evidenced by their 1998, he co-founded with Marta Over the years, Portes has always collaboration on a number of projects, Tienda the Center for Migration and been surprised by his research discov- including her extensive participation in Development to support students and eries. ‘‘From the very first—the deter- the CILS fieldwork (26, 29, 30). To- younger faculty carrying out research minants of political radicalism among gether, they have three grown children. on immigration and national develop- low-income urban dwellers, which were He notes, ‘‘All of my children are ment. ‘‘In a sense, the center captures entirely different from what the theory American-born, so they are members much of what has been the axis of my at the time predicted—to the reality of of the second generation. I see how work,’’ he says. At Princeton, he second-generation children, which is they have evolved, very much filling launched a new project on immigrant quite different from the usual story of in the theories that their dad has concocted.’’ transnationalism: the economic, politi- immigrant assimilation,’’ he remem- cal, and sociocultural activities carried bers, ‘‘I have gained a great deal of Liza Q. Bundesen, out by contemporary immigrants who respect for scientific work, because it Freelance Science Writer

1. Portes, A. (1979) Social Problems 26, 425–438. 12. Portes, A., Sewell, W. H. & Haller, A. O. (1969) 24. Portes, A. & Stepick, A. (1993) City on the Edge: 2. Portes, A. & Walton, J. (1976) Urban Latin Amer- Am. Sociol. Rev. 34, 82–92. The Transformation of Miami (Univ. of California ica: The Political Condition from Above and Below 13. Portes, A., McLeod, S. A., Jr., & Parker, R. N. Press, Berkeley). (Univ. of Texas, Austin). (1978) Sociol. Education 51, 241–260. 25. Portes, A. & Rumbaut, R. G. (2001) Legacies: The 3. Portes, A. & Mooney, M. (2002) in The New 14. Portes, A., Parker, R. N. & Cobas, J. A. (1980) Story of the Immigrant Second Generation (Univ. of SOCIAL SCIENCES Economic Sociology: Developments in an Emerging Social Forces 59, 200–224. California Press and Russell Sage Foundation, Field, eds. Guillen, M. F., Collins, R., England, P. 15. Portes, A. & Wilson, K. L. (1980) Am. J. Sociol. 86, Berkeley). & Meyer, M. (Russell Sage Foundation, New 295–319. 26. Portes, A. & Fernandez-Kelly, P. (2002) in Strug- York), pp. 303–329. 16. Portes, A. & Bach, R. L. (1985) Latin Journey: gles for Social Rights in Latin America, eds. Eck- 43, 4. Portes, A. (2003) Foro Internacional 608–626. Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States stein, S. & Wickham-Crowley, T. (Routledge, New 5. Portes, A. & Bo¨ro¨cz, J. (1989) Int. Migration Rev. (Univ. of California Press, Berkeley). York), pp. 167–189. 23, 606–630. 17. Portes, A. (1979) Latin Am. Res. Rev. 14, 3–24. 27. Portes, A. (2003) Int. Migration Rev. 37, 814–892. 6. Portes, A. & Sassen-Koob, S. (1987) Am. J. Sociol. 18. Portes, A. (1978) Luso-Brazilian Rev. 15, 302–307. 28. Portes, A., Guarnizo, L. E. & Haller, W. (2003) 93, 30–61. 19. Portes, A. (1983) Review 7, 151–174. Am. J. Sociol. 108, 1211–1248. 7. Portes, A. & Jensen, L. (1989) Am. Sociol. Rev. 54, 20. Portes, A. & Benton, L. (1984) Popul. Dev. Rev. 10, 929–949. 589–611. 29. Portes, A. & Fernandez-Kelly, P. (1992) in Amer- 8. Portes, A., Guarnizo, L. E. & Haller, W. (2002) 21. Portes, A., Castells, M. & Benton, L. (1989) The icas, New Interpretive Essays, ed. Stepan, A. Am. Sociol. Rev. 67, 278–298. Informal Economy: Studies in Advanced and Less (Oxford Univ. Press, New York), pp. 248– 9. Portes, A. & Hao, L. (2004) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. Developed Countries (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 274. USA 101, 11920–11927. Baltimore). 30. Centeno, M. A. & Portes, A., in Out of the 10. Portes, A., Sewell, W. H. & Haller, A. O. (1968) 22. Portes, A. & Stepick, A. (1986) Int. Migration Rev. Shadows: Political Action and the Informal Econ- Rural Sociol. 33, 153–159. 20, 329–350. omy in Latin America, eds. Fernandez-Kelly, P. & 11. Portes, A., Duncan, O. D. & Haller, A. O. (1968) 23. Portes, A., Kyle, D. & Eaton, W. (1992) J. Health Sheffner, J. (Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, Uni- Am. J. Sociol. 74, 119–137. Social Behav. 33, 283–298. versity Park), in press.

Bundesen PNAS ͉ August 17, 2004 ͉ vol. 101 ͉ no. 33 ͉ 11919 Downloaded by guest on September 29, 2021