Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut

Immigrant America

Chapter 3 - Making It in America: Occupational and Economic Adaptation

1. The Main Idea

Proposes an alternative theory that could explain the economic and occupational adaptation of immigrants in America better than those theories attempting to explain this issue based solely on the individual social, economic and educational characteristics. Instead of relying solely on the individual variables, the basic insight offered in this piece is that: we must look at the social context in which various immigrants from different countries find themselves coming to, a social context of which immigrants themselves have little control over. Especially crucial is the nature of ethnic communities formed by co-nationals prior to the arrival of individual immigrants.

2. Starting Point - What needs to be explained

The beginning part of this chapter is spent by reviewing empirical facts regarding the social and economic characteristics of immigrants, much in the same fashion as Chiswick and Sullivan or Frey. The basic empirical trends mentioned are basically in line with those stated in those two articles, for instance, the particularly low socioeconomic status and little economic progress for Mexicans. As such, this part will be skipped.

Then, the authors try to show that individual variables cannot account for the difference among different groups of immigrants regarding educational attainment, occupational status and income. For instance, the individual characteristics most commonly used to account for educational attainment difference - parental schooling and occupational status - while obviously being influential factors, do not account for the educational attainment fully, and significant differences between national groups remained after controlling for these factors. Likewise, for occupational status and income, individual characteristics as parental socioeconomic status and education do not account for differences among either individuals or national groups fully.

Neither can these differences be attributed to "cultural" explanations, the authors claim, for cultural theories have problems of their own right. These are that, these theories are post factum,; and that the diversity of national and religious backgrounds of different ethnic groups make the identification of common underlying cultural element nearly an impossible task.

3. Explication of the author's original theory

So comes the social context theory to account for these differences among individuals or national groups who may be similar in individual socioeconomic characteristics but nevertheless differ in terms of economic success. The basic idea authors propound is that (p. 83): individuals with similar background skills may be channeled toward very different positions in the stratification system, depending on the type of community and labor market in which they become incorporated. What factors, then, account for the difference in "the type of community and labor market in which they become incorporated"? For this, the authors identify three main determining variables, which are: policies of receiving government (exclusion, passive acceptance, or active encouragement), the conditions of host labor market (particularly important is the manner in which particular immigrant groups are typified), and the characteristics of own ethnic communities formed by co-nationals who have arrived previously. The authors claim that by classifying different immigrant groups according to their different characteristics in each of these three major variables, different plights of ethnic groups can be grasped more systematically. The concrete example of this actual endeavor is provided in pages 87 to 92.

4. Critique, Relevance

So, in conclusion the picture provided in this scheme is quite complex - how individuals can make use of their individual characteristics depend on the complex interplay of contextual variables out of the reach of control for individuals. Though this scheme certainly provides for an useful and likely explanation for the difference in economic attainment of immigrants left unexplained by individual variables some of the rigidly economic explanations tend to focus on, it cannot account for differences among individuals to the same degree as it can explain some of the notable differences existing at the level of aggregate ethnic groups, in spite of the authors' desire to account for the individual differences. This is because all three variables authors introduce are mainly concerned with the aggregate ethnic group differences, not individual differences. In spite of this shortcoming, the article does a good job in pinpointing the weakness of dogmatic economic explanations focusing strictly on individual socioeconomic variables to account for the differential achievement of economic success migrants show. It now seems that future empirical researches must be much more conscientious in collecting data that can depict the nature of the community on the receiving side adequately in the study of immigrant adaptation.

Chapter 5 - A Foreign World: Immigration, Mental Health, and Acculturation

1. The General Theme

An exposition on some of the major issues regarding the mental health, psychological adaptation and acculturation of immigrants focusing on the subjective experiences of immigrants, unlike most of the past readings that have focused on the objective conditions of immigrants.

2. The Historical Review of the Topic - How Earlier Writers Conceived of the Subject

First comes the historical review of the development of sociological ideas regarding the mental health of immigrants. It has always been known that immigrants tend to show worse mental health conditions than the native born overall, and early studies as that of Robert Park's described their situations as characterized by the concept of marginality (No doubt this concept is in turn influenced by Simmel). The early authors as Park, or Znaniecki or Stonequist, had all focused on the whole of immigrant population at one time - they concluded that the higher incidence of mental disturbances among the foreign born was evidence of the trauma of settlement and marginality, yet they tended to regard these outcomes as being rather an exception, rather than the standard experiences for most of immigrants.

On the other other hand, by the early 20th century the writings of biological determinism, spurred on by the social and political concern with the flooding of immigrants and the new vogue of social Darwinism, Mendelian genetics, and the new "science" of eugenics, came to be dominant. These writings tended to impute higher incidence of mental disturbances among immigrants to their inherent biological disposition, rather than seeking causes in "intervening" variables of social, political or economic factors. The National Origins Act of 1924 was passed in this social and academic context.

After the WW II, the era of this simplistic vision ended and the association of class and social context with the mental health, in place of the explanation of the latter by the inherent disposition of certain national groups, came to be recognized. Number of community survey studies, as exemplified by the Hollingshead and Redlich study, fostered this development. Class of origin and the context of reception emerged as the key objective variables influencing the mental health of immigrants.

3. Key Variables in Immigrants' Psychological Adaptation

Contemporary studies have added one more important consideration to the aforementioned class of origin and the context of reception (p. 168-) - that is, the context of exit, as well as that of the reception, is an important variable influencing the mental health of immigrants. This recognition came as a response to the increasing diversification of immigrants' experiences, as in contemporary days many of the immigrants move to the new country as refugees. On the whole, refugees tend to experience a greater level of threat, more undesirable change, and less control over the events in their context of exit - which is to have profound negative influences on their mental health compared to ordinary immigrants. Further, this factor of the context of exit interacts with time and the class of origin (see the graph on p. 175). So, for instance, the refugees in their first year of arrival experience very high level of psychological well-being and a sense of achievement right after their successful escape, but tend to experience significant downturn in psychological well-being in the following few years. Typically, their psychological well-being starts recovering after they begin making full-fledged adjustments. However, the level of adjustment achieved depends on the origin of class also, and typically, the higher the former class, the better the adjustment.

4. Key Variables in Immigrants' Psychological Adaptation - cont'd.

In similar fashion to the chapter 3, an attention is also given to the social context of reception (pp. 176-179), this time focusing on their effects on the psychological well-being. The context of reception affects not only the prospects of psychological well-being but the likelihood that those in need seeking and finding professional help in psychological problems - an empirical study comparing Cuban and Haitian immigrants in Florida is cited here - with the result that Cubans, because they are gifted with better organized ethnic community than Haitians, are more likely to seek professional help when in need.

5. Effects of Acculturation on the Immigrants' Psychological Well-Being

A section discussing the effects of acculturation - the process of assimilating and adjusting to the new culture - on the mental health is very surprising in that it reports that more acculturated immigrants show worse prevalence of mental disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, and poorer infant health. Further, in another study, the better acculturated Cubans and Mexicans were found to have more critical attitude toward the issues of discrimination and social and economic situations they face. While the finding of this nature is certainly difficult to interpret, the authors attribute this result to the immigrants' coming to be able to give "a realistic appraisal" of their new social environment. Further, the interaction of acculturation and class is also noted of. The higher-class immigrants tend to be able to give a realistic appraisal of the actual discriminations they face and accept the shortcomings of the American system, while for lower-class immigrants the premature acculturation may lead to higher level of stress and mental illness as they lose their sense of identity. I would like to point out here that it would be very much interesting to investigate whether if the same results hold for immigrants from all regions of the world, or for the immigrants who have moved to countries other than the U.S.

6. A Concluding Remark

Finally, it is once again noted in conclusion that social class and the context of reception are the two most crucial factors in determining the extent of psychological adjustment immigrants are likely to be able to make. Combining these two factors, as well as the context of exit when necessary, enables the authors to classify various different groups of immigrants on the continuum from the most handicapped to the most receptive (pp. 188 - 191, also see the graph on p. 189).

7. Critique, Relevance

Overall, the theoretical framework appears to be sound and useful - there seems to be nothing wrong with the idea that the key variables in effecting the immigrants' psychological well-being are the class of origin, context of reception as well as exit, and the interaction of these variables. On the other hand, there are much empirical researches that need to be done. For one thing, as I have pointed out earlier, it would be interesting to see if similar results would ensue in the empirical study of immigrants all over the world. For, at this point, empirical support the authors have are largely confined to the U.S. data.

Chapter 6 - Learning the Ropes: Language and Education

1. The Main Theme

How immigrants and their children acquire English language skills and adapt to the American educational system - English language has had symbolic status as the cornerstone of American cultural identity and national unification, as such, language acquisition is rather special among the assimilation process in that while other aspects of immigrant culture often last for generations, the native foreign language seldom survives more than two generations.

As in the last chapter, this chapter also begins by reviewing how prior academic works tended to theorize immigrants' acquisition of English language. After pointing out how the conception of immigrants' lack of English language skills shifted from the view based on the inherent intellectual inferiority of immigrants to the view that bilingualism not only does not harm intellectual prospects of immigrants but may improve them, the authors then present their own schematization of how assimilation of English language takes place. This exposition by authors has the merit of fully incorporating the element of social class in the analysis of language acquisition and educational attainment.

2. Historical Background on the Subject

The pre-WW II theorizing on language acquisition by immigrants assumed the association of inferior intelligence and lack of English skills and debated on the direction of causality - yet, regardless of the direction of causal flow adopted, their views were based on data from studies with serious methodological flaws, such as the failure to control for relevant variables. Yet, this academic view tended to reinforce the political view that bilingualism is undesirable and the only way for ideal adaptation to the American society is the acquisition of English as the sole language.

The 1962 study by Peal and Lambert made an important contribution in showing that true bilingualism does not detract from success in American schools, after controlling for socioeconomic status - thereby altering the trend in study on the acquisition of language skills by immigrants. The recent study seems to confirm this point to be correct. In one study the authors cite, the immigrants' children were classified according to their language status, that of English monolingual, Fluent English Proficient, and Limited English Proficient. Of those groups, the FEP group performed best in academic achievement, while LEP group fared poorly. Thus, it seems that "true" bilingualism not only does not detract from academic success but improves the academic performance significantly. Yet, the question the authors then raises is that is this better performance by "true" bilingualist a result of their bilingual ability, or are both better performance and their bilingual skills results of the third unidentified variable?

3. Some Empirical Facts on Language Acquisition Pattern for the Immigrants in the U.S.

Before answering this question, the authors first identify major trends in language resilience among immigrants in the contemporary United States. Among recently arrived immigrants, the tendency is that they remain loyal to their mother tongue. While time in the U.S. has a strong eroding effect on the mother tongue and many immigrants acquire English language skills rapidly, overall the majority of first generation adults remain monolingual in their native language. However, this does not mean that immigrants resist learning English - in fact, when generational shifts in language status is looked at, then the picture is very clear that from the second generations and on the erosion of native language takes place very rapidly. The two principal tendencies are that the larger the proportion of an ethnic group that is U.S. born, the stronger the shift toward English, and that the second generation children consistently prefer English to the mother tongue of parents. In fact, one study found that the generation is the strongest predictor of language status, exceeding by far the effects of age, rural origin, and other predictors.

4. Effects of Class on the English Language Acquisition and Success in "True" Bilingualism

Returning to the question of why "true" bilingualist shows better academic performance, the answer provided by the authors gravitate to the explanation that both better academic performance and bilingualist status are the effects of social class. It was already noted of that in comparison of the FEP, LEP, and the English monolingual students, the first group tended to show best academic performance. The authors now cite an empirical finding that shows these "true" bilingual children tend to come from intact families with higher average levels of education, income, and the duration of U.S. residence. The most significant positive predictors of fluency in both languages were parental education, occupation, and knowledge of English. This also suggests that class is an important variable influencing the chance of immigrants children being a "true" bilingual. Further, subjective family characteristics were found to have positive effects on students' performances: those students whose parents agree with such statements as they must preserve their own culture even in adapting to the American environment show better academic performances. Thus, fluent bilingualism is associated with "additive" attitude toward language and culture acquisition, not with the non-English monolingualism typical in many (typically lower class) immigrant communities nor with the "subtractive" English monolingualism advocated by many assimilationists. This fluent bilingualism is in turn associated with the location in higher social class, and in terms of occupations typically associated with professionals and entrepreneurs. Higher class children are most able to cope with the demand of "additive" adaptation of learning the English language and the American culture while preserving their own cultural heritage, while the lower class children are handicapped as the first generation tends to live in lower class communities of non-English monolinguals. Their children are usually limited bilingualists, as structural conditions handicap them either in the English ability or the native language ability.

5. Finally, A Systematic Schematization of the English Language Acquisition Pattern - with the Addition of the variable of Social Context of Reception

Finally, this categorization of different linguistic acquisition pattern based on class can be combined with the effects of social context of reception - in this case whether immigrants arrive in clustered ethnic communities or are dispersed throughout the country - to produce systematic categorization of the language acquisition pattern for first and second generation immigrants. See the chart on p. 228 for this. We can readily see that a fluent bilingual second generation only results in the context of higher social class and solid ethnic community support - those of working class children tend to be either English monolinguals (no ethnic community support) or limited bilinguals (living in concentrated ethnic community), while children of higher class origin but finding little ethnic community support also tend to be English monolingual.

6. Critique, Relevance

Frankly, I believe this chapter is quite an impressive contribution. While the insight that class would have effects on language acquisition is not entirely new, the proposition that the systematic interaction of class and context of reception would influence the pattern of English language acquisition is very refreshing. Once again, empirical researches on the immigrant population in nations other than the U.S. on the same issue may be an interesting topic to pursue. Overall, this is a new book written in 1997, and it seems to have pointed out some interesting researches that could be pursued.