Patterns,Determinants, and Implications of Intermarriage Among Arab Americans

This study examines Arab American intermarriage using 1990 U.S. Census data. The results indicate high rates of intermarriage consistent with an assimilation perspective. Over 80% of U.S.‐born Arabs had non‐Arab spouses, implying a diminishing ethnic identification. Logistic regressions show that for both sexes, those with part Arab ancestry, the U.S. born, those with strong English‐language ability, and the highly educated were significantly more likely to out‐marry, as were Arabs of Lebanese ancestry. The cultural and structural assimilation of Arab Americans is facilitating intermarriage, with indicators of acculturation being the strongest predictors, especially for women. The article further discusses ethnic options for children of intermarried couples.     

Assimilating to a White Identity: The Case of Arab Americans1

Racial identity is one of the primary means by which immigrants assimilate to the United States. Drawing from the tenets of segmented assimilation, this study examines how the ethnic traits of immigrant status, national origin, religious affiliation, and Arab Americaness contribute to the announcement of a white racial identity using a regionally representative sample of Arab Americans. Results illustrate that those who were Lebanese/Syrian or Christian, and those who felt that the term “Arab American” does not describe them, were more likely to identify as white. In addition, among those who affirmed that the pan‐ethnic term “Arab American” does describe them, results illustrated that strongly held feelings about being Arab American and associated actions were also linked with a higher likelihood of identifying as white. Findings point to different patterns of assimilation among Arab Americans. Some segments of Arab Americans appear to report both strong ethnic and white identities, while others report a strong white identity, yet distance themselves from the pan‐ethnic “Arab American” label.     

The Socioeconomic Attainments of Second‐Generation Cambodian,Hmong, Laotian,and Vietnamese Americans*

We investigate the socioeconomic attainments of second‐generation Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, and Vietnamese Americans. Using 2000 Census data, we focus on education, wages, and managerial/professional employment relative to African Americans and whites. The second‐generation Vietnamese stand out as having extraordinarily high average values on these indicators. By contrast, the socioeconomic attainments of second‐generation Cambodians, Hmong, and Laotians tend to be closer to those of African Americans except among those second‐generation Southeast Asians who are clearly part of the earlier (i.e., Wave 1) immigration stream that tended to have somewhat higher socioeconomic origins. The most disadvantaged groups are non‐Wave 1 second‐generation Laotians and Cambodian women, particularly in terms of the process of educational attainment. The results are interpreted as indicating the importance of class origins and immigrant selectivity.     

Taking a Chance? The Risks Associated with Going Missing from Substitute Care

This paper reports on a study of over 200 young people going missing from residential and foster care in four local authorities. The proportion of young people missing from residential care was high, ranging from 25 to 71% of all 11 – 16‐year‐olds in mainstream children’s homes. Two types of absence were identified: the ‘runaways’ profile (those who ran away or stayed out) and the ‘friends’ profile (those missing to be with friends). There were variations in levels of risk for different sub‐groups within the sample. Risks included immediate risks of victimization, sexual exploitation (including prostitution), offending and substance misuse. A longer‐term risk of detachment was identified among those going missing often, involving high levels of non‐school attendance, detachment from carers and involvement in offending and in substance misuse. Difficulties in the assessment of risk are discussed and approaches to managing risk for young people who go missing from substitute care are explored. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dominican‐American Etbnic/Racial Identities and United States Social Categories

The majority of Dominicans have sub‐Saharan African ancestry, ¹ 1 In the 1980 Dominican census, 16 percent of the population were classified as blanco (‘white’), 73 percent were classified as indio (‘indian‐colored’), a term used to refer to the phenotype of individuals who match stereotypes of combined African and European ancestry and 11 percent were classified as negro [‘black’] (Haggerty, 1991). These categories are social constructions, rather than objective reflections of phenotypes. The positive social connotations of “whiteness,” for example, lead many Caribbean Hispanics to identify themselves as white for the public record regardless of their precise phenotype (Dominguez, 1978:9). Judgments of color in the Dominican Republic also depend in part upon social attributes of an individual, as they do elsewhere in Latin America. Money, education and power, for example, “whiten” an individual, so that the color attributed to a higher class individual is often lighter than the color that would be attributed to an individual of the same phenotype of a lower class (Rout, 1976:287).
which would make them “black” by historical United States ‘one‐drop’ rules. Second generation Dominican high school students in Providence, Rhode Island do not identity their race in terms of black or white, but rather in terms of ethnolinguistic identity, as Dominican/Spanish/Hispanic. The distinctiveness of Dominican‐American understandings of race is highlighted by comparing them with those of non‐Hispanic, African descent second generation immigrants and with historical Dominican notions of social identity. Dominican second generation resistance to phenotype‐racialization as black or white makes visible ethnic/racial formation processes that are often veiled, particularly in the construction of the category African‐American. This resistance to black/white racialization suggests the transformative effects that post‐1965 immigrants and their descendants are having on United States ethnic/racial categories.     

A Comparative International Analysis of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work: A Survey of UK and US Social Workers

As service populations have changed, the social work profession in the UK and the US has attempted to respond to the needs of diverse cultures, which often include issues of religion and spirituality. This can be problematic, however, due to the extrication of religious and spiritual concerns from the public social services that resulted from the process of secularization. Members of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) in the US were sampled to explore the attitudes and perceptions of social workers regarding the placement of religion and spirituality in practice and education. In general, US social workers in this sample were more accepting of religion and spirituality than their UK counterparts, even among those respondents who expressed non‐religious world views (e.g. atheism). A majority of the respondents in the UK (76%) and the US (73%) indicated that their training programs lacked content on religion and spirituality. In the UK, 57% of the respondents believed that social workers should increase their knowledge on spirituality, compared with 90% of the US respondents. The lower level of acceptance of religion and spirituality among UK social workers may be related to higher levels of secularism in UK society.     

The demographic and socio-economic characteristics of post-1965 immigrants to New York City: a comparative analysis by national origin

This article analyses and compares the demographic and socio‐economic characteristics of persons born abroad who immigrated to New York City after 1965 and still lived in the City in 1990. Using data from the 1990 Census, we classify persons into the twenty four largest national origin groups and compare their demographic and socio‐economic characteristics (sex, age, educational attainment, labour force participation, unemployment, occupation, income, and poverty). We pose and answer three empirical questions. The first question is: what are some of the main differences by national origin in the composition of persons immigrating to New York City after 1965? The second question is: what are some of the main differences in the location of post‐1965 immigrants in New York's socio‐economic structure? The third question is: what are some of the main differences in the economic rewards received by persons who immigrated to New York City since 1965? We find that immigrants with less than a high school education have higher labour force participation rates than the US‐born population in the same educational category and also have slightly higher earnings. Immigrants with a high school degree have labour force participation rates close to (or slightly higher than) the average for the US‐born population but their incomes are slightly lower than the average income for the US‐born population. Immigrants with a college degree have participation rates similar or slightly lower that those of the US‐born population while their earnings are significantly lower that those of US‐born college graduates.     

The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same: Mexican Naturalization before and after Welfare Reform1

During the last decade there has been a dramatic increase in the both the number and the rate of Mexican naturalization. Some have interpreted this increase as a response to changes in welfare and immigration policy surrounding the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which limited public assistance to non‐citizens, and the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), which may have increased the incentive to naturalize by making it more difficult for legal immigrants to sponsor their relatives for entry to the United States. This article uses Current Population Survey data from 1994/95 and 2000/01 to examine how the social and economic determinants of naturalization may have changed in order to provide insight into which explanation for the increase in naturalizations is most relevant. We find that while the proportion of Mexican immigrants who are naturalized increased during the 1990s, their determinants have remained largely the same with the exception that those with noncitizen spouses have become more likely to be naturalized in the post‐reform period. This suggests that a more cautious interpretation be taken about the relationship between the increase in naturalizations and welfare and sponsorship restrictions, particularly when regarding Mexican immigrants.     

Onward Emigration to the United States by Canadian Immigrants between 1995 and 20001

Using data drawn from the 2000 US and the 2001 Canadian Censuses, this paper analyzes the onward emigration of Canadian immigrants to the US between 1995 and 2000. The characteristics of an estimated 48,336 Canadian immigrants who made an onward emigration from Canada to the United States are examined. This paper also seeks to determine whether onward foreign‐born emigrants are representative of immigrants in Canada and Canadian‐born emigrants to the US. Results indicate that onward emigrants are primarily young, married, possess a bachelor's degree, earn incomes of $100,000 US or greater, and reside in large immigrant‐receiving states and metropolitan areas.     

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986: America amends its immigration law

This disucssion of the Immigration and Control act of 1986 covers legalization, employer sanctions, and foreign agricultural worker reforms. It also identifies other changes in immigration law. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 recognizes 4 types of aliens who are eligible to receive legalization benefits: those who have resided "continuously" in the US since January 1, 1982; those who have worked in US perishable crop agriculture for 90 "man-days" each year ending on May 1, 1984, May 1, 1985 and May 1, 1986 (special agricultural workers) or who have performed such labor for 90 man-days between only May 1, 1985 and May 1, 1986; those who have been in the US since before January 1, 1972; and those classified as "Cuban-Haitian entrants" and who have been in the US since January 1, 1982. Each legalization category has specific eligibility requirements, its own application procedures, and its own process for obtaining legal permanent resident status. The IRCA forbids employers from knowingly employing unauthorized aliens. For the 1st time in US immigration history, an employer would be punished for employing aliens without work authorization. An employer would be able to establish an "affirmative defense" in his or her behalf if the employer examined certain documents which appear to be genuine or the applicant was referred to him by a State employment agency which previously has verified the applicant's employment eligibility. If the employer is found to have violated the provisions, a cease and desist order will be issued with a civil penalty of between $250-2000 for each unauthorized alien for the 1st time the violation occurs, between $2000-5000 for each alien for the 2nd violation, and between $3000-10,000 for each alien for subsequent violations. The Act provides for criminal penalties for employers who engage in a "pattern or practice of violations." Employer sanctions will not be effective for 18 months following passage of the Act. The changes which the IRCA introduced in terms of foreign agricultural workers fall into 2 broad categories: a formula for recruiting foreign agricultural workers for permanent residence in the US beginning with 1990 (replenishment workers); and changes in the existing system of temporary foreign workers for agricultural work. Among other things, the Act also increases colonial quotas to 5000 from 600, offers special immigrant status to certain officers and employers of international organizations and their immediate family members; and offers nonimmigrant status for parents and children of aliens given spcial immigrant status.     

Palestinian and Jewish Israeli-born immigrants in the United States

"This article considers both Arab and Jewish emigration from Israel to the United States, relying on the 5 percent Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) of the 1980 U.S. census. Using the ancestry and language questions to identify Jews and Arabs, we found that over 30 percent of Israeli-born Americans are Palestinian-Arab natives of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip. While the Jews are of higher educational levels, hold better jobs and enjoy higher incomes than their Arab counterparts, both groups have relatively high socioeconomic characteristics. Both have high rates of self-employment, particularly the Palestinian-Arabs, who appear to serve as middlemen minority in the grocery store business in the cities where they reside. The fact that nearly a third of Israeli-born immigrants are Arabs accounts for the occupational diversity previously observed of Israelis in America but does not account for their income diversity as much as does differences between early and recent immigrants."     

Finding identity without discrimination: the plight of Arab American adolescents

This study investigated the relationship between self-reported discrimination and ethnic identity among 61 Arab American adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 years. Participants completed the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) to obtain an assessment of their ethnic identities. Additionally, the lead author developed a questionnaire asking participants to self-report if either they or another Arab student they knew had been ‘treated badly or differently because of their ethnicity’. Consistent with the rejection-identification model, respondents who had reported experiencing discrimination, knowing of others who had experienced discrimination, or both had higher ethnic identity scores than those who had not, although the only significant difference was found between the group that experienced both types of discrimination and the non-discrimination group. Implications of these results are discussed as well as directions for future research.     

Behind the Numbers: Talking Politics with Foreign-born Chinese Americans

This paper discusses results of in‐depth follow‐up interviews conducted with selected individuals of Chinese descent residing in Los Angeles and San Francisco who were previously chosen at random to participate in the 2000 and 2001 Pilot National Asian American Political Survey. A total of 15 male and female informants who had migrated from Taiwan, mainland China, and Hong Kong were interviewed in Mandarin Chinese. They were asked to compare the performance of the US Government with that of the government in their respective ethnic homeland. They were also asked to explain their reasons for supporting a certain US political party, ideology, and type of candidate. In addition, they commented on the state of political participation or the lack of it among Chinese Americans. Finally, they explained the complexity of their ethnic self‐identification and experiences of racial discrimination. Their responses were interpreted within the context of the historical formation of the Chinese American community as well as the summary results of the mass opinion survey. The results help dispel myths about Chinese Americans being politically indifferent and irrational. They help illuminate the possible relationships among ethnic identity, homeland politics, and political participation in the host land. They also provide exciting insights into improving the survey instrument for a majority immigrant and non‐Anglophone population.     

Immigrants working with co‐ethnics: Who are they and how do they fare?

Participation in ethnic economies has been regarded as an alternative avenue of economic adaptation for immigrants and minorities in major immigrant‐receiving countries. This study examines one important dimension of ethnic economies: co‐ethnic concentration at the workplace. Using a large national representative sample from Statistics Canada’s 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey, this study addresses four questions: (1) what is the level of co‐ethnic concentration at the workplace for Canada’s minority groups? (2) How do workers who share the same ethnicity with most of their co‐workers differ from other workers in socio‐demographic characteristics? (3) Is higher level of co‐ethnic concentration at the workplace associated with lower earnings? (4) Is higher level of co‐ethnic concentration at the workplace associated with higher levels of life satisfaction? The results show that only a small proportion of immigrants and the Canadian‐born work in ethnically homogeneous settings. In Canada’s eight largest metropolitan areas about 10 per cent of non‐British/French immigrants share a same ethnic origin with the majority of their co‐workers. The level is as high as 20 per cent among Chinese immigrants and 18 per cent among Portuguese immigrants. Among Canadian‐born minority groups, the level of co‐ethnic workplace concentration is about half the level for immigrants. Immigrant workers in ethnically concentrated settings have much lower educational levels and proficiency in English/French. Immigrant men who work mostly with co‐ethnics on average earn about 33 per cent less than workers with few or none co‐ethnic coworkers. About two thirds of this gap is attributable to differences in demographic and job characteristics. Meanwhile, immigrant workers in ethnically homogenous settings are less likely to report low levels of life satisfaction than other immigrant workers. Among the Canadian‐born, co‐ethnic concentration is not consistently associated with earnings and life satisfaction.     

Remarriage after divorce: recent changes and demographic variations

Using data from US Bureau of the Census publications from the decennial censuses and the Bureau's Current Population Reports, the authors analyze remarriage in the US. Among adults who had ended their 1st marriage in divorce, about 3/4 of the elderly men and 2/3 of the elderly women in both 1970 and 1980 were found to be remarried. However, the general decline in remarriage at the younger ages during the 1970s was accentuated among those under 35 years old. Although the proportion remarried among women with graduate school training was the smallest, that proportion declined less during the 1970s than for women in any other educational level. In both 1970 and 1980, the proportion remarried was positively correlated with personal income for men but negatively for women. An estimated 2/3 of those who end their 1st marriage in divorce will eventually remarry while they have young children living with them. During the lifetime of women in their 2nd marriage after their 1st marriage ended in divorce, only 1/3 of their children are born after remarriage, whereas 2/3 are born before their 2nd marriages. During the 1970s, the proportion of currently divorced adults living alone or sharing the homes of relatives diminished, while the proportion living as cohabitants outside marriage rose substantially. It appears as if both the divorce rate and the remarriage rate are approaching a period of relative stability.     

Self‐Selection and Economic Assimilation of Immigrants: The Case of Iranian Immigrants Arriving to Three Countries During 1979–1985

The study is designed to evaluate the impact of the interaction between patterns of immigrants' self‐selection and the context of reception at destinations on economic assimilation of Iranian immigrants who came to three countries during 1979–1985. For that purpose, we studied immigrants at the age of 22 or higher upon arrival by utilizing the 5 percent 1990 and 2000 Public Use Microdata files (PUMS) of the United States census, the 20 percent demographic samples of the 1983 and 1995 Israeli censuses of population, and the 1990 and 2000 Swedish registers. The results indicate that the “most qualified” immigrants – both on observed and unobserved variables – who left Iran right after the Islamic revolution, arrived in the US Their positive self‐selection led them to reach complete earnings assimilation with natives there. Iranian immigrants who arrived in Israel and Sweden did not achieve full earnings assimilation with natives. Of these two groups, a smaller immigrant‐to‐native gap in average earnings was found in Sweden, but in the same time Iranian immigrants in Israel were more positively self‐selected and showed better assimilation than their counterparts in Sweden. Market structure played a certain role in immigrants' earnings assimilation mainly in Sweden.     

Becoming Overweight without Gaining a Pound: Weight Evaluations and the Social Integration of Mexicans in the United States

Mexican women gain weight with increasing duration in the United States. In the United States, body dissatisfaction tends to be associated with depression, disordered eating, and incongruent weight evaluations, particularly among white women and women of higher socioeconomic status. However, it remains unclear how being overweight and obesity are interpreted by Mexican women. Using comparable data of women aged 20–64 from both Mexico (the 2006 Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutricion; N = 17,012) and the United States (the 1999–2009 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys; N = 8,487), we compare weight status evaluations among Mexican nationals, Mexican immigrants, US‐born Mexicans, US‐born non‐Hispanic whites, and US‐born non‐Hispanic blacks. Logistic regression analyses, which control for demographic and socioeconomic variables and measured body mass index and adjust for the likelihood of migration for Mexican nationals, indicate that the tendency to self‐evaluate as overweight among Mexicans converges with levels among non‐Hispanic whites and diverges from blacks over time in the United States. Overall, the results suggest a US integration process in which Mexican‐American women's less critical self‐evaluations originate in Mexico but fade with time in the United States as they gradually adopt US white norms for thinner body sizes. These results are discussed in light of prior research about social comparison and negative health assimilation.     

Criminality and violence in intra‐ and extra‐familial child sex abusers in a 2‐year cohort of convicted perpetrators

Men convicted of sexual abuse against children are an important but understudied population. In this study, based upon lifetime police records, of the criminality of convicted child sex abusers, we undertake the first British comparative analysis of the criminality of intra‐ and extra‐familial abusers. In a cohort of 374 convicted male child sex abusers, 50% had convictions for ‘sex only’ crimes; 26% for ‘sex and other’ offences; and 24% for ‘sex, other and violent’ crimes. There were three ‘relationship‐to‐victim’ subgroups: ‘biological relatives’, consisting of fathers and other biological relatives (18%); ‘non‐biological relatives’ — cohabitees or stepfathers (10%); and 72% who were ‘extra‐familial’ offenders, having no family relationship to the child. This atypical pattern of abusers indicates a filtering process, in which intra‐familial abusers are less likely to be prosecuted than extra‐familial offenders. The main findings were: (i) biological relatives were more often ‘sex only’ offenders, but averaged more sexual offences than the other groups; (ii) non‐biological abusers has more ‘other’ criminal and convictions for violence, and were more similar to the extra‐familial offenders than biologically related abusers; (iii) extra‐familial abusers consisted of more ‘other’ criminal and violent offenders than the non‐biological abusers; (iv) non‐biological offenders, however, had a pattern of criminality more like the extra‐familial group than the other intra‐familial abusers. The violent men, often with long histories of both sexual and non‐sexual offending, pose particular problems for the criminal justice and child protection services. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cultural Influences on Immigrant Women's Labor Force Participation: The Arab‐American Case1

Research on the economic activity of immigrant women has flourished in recent years. The current study extends this literature to examine the labor force activity of Arab‐American women, a group whose labor market experiences provide an exception to hitherto accepted theoretical explanations. The employment rates of Arab immigrant women rank among the lowest of any immigrant group, while the rates of native‐born Arab‐American women resemble those of U.S.‐born white women. This study examines potential explanations for these differences using data from the U.S. Census and a national mail survey of Arab‐American women. Contrary to findings for other immigrant groups, differences among Arab‐American women cannot be explained by their human capital characteristics or family resources, but are almost entirely due to traditional cultural norms that prioritize women's family obligations over their economic activity, and to ethnic and religious social networks that encourage the maintenance of traditional gender roles. This study concludes by underscoring the need for additional research on the impact of culture on immigrant women's employment.     

Recruitment to Occupations with a Surplus of Workers: The Unexpected Outcomes of Swedish Demand‐Driven Labour Migration Policy

This article studies the outcomes of the 2008 labour‐migration policy change in Sweden, when most state control was abolished and an employer‐led selection was introduced. The main goal was to increase labour migration from third countries to occupational sectors experiencing labour shortages. The article compares the volume, composition and labour‐market status of labour migrants who arrived before the change in the law with those who arrived after. Labour migrants from EU countries are used as a control group to assess any eventual influence from non‐migration policy determinants. The main outcome of the policy change is that non‐EU labour migration increased – an effect entirely due to the rise in labour migration to surplus occupations. Changes in the composition of the labour migrants explains why those who came after the law change have, on average, a worse labour market position.