Migration from Latin American countries to the United States: the economic,social and reproductive lives of Hispanic female immigrants, 1980

The authors describe the socioeconomic characteristics and fertility patterns of female immigrants from Latin America to the United States, with a focus on reasons for fertility differentials. "Using the one per cent public use sample from the 1970 and 1980 United States census, we first compare changes in socio economic characteristics from 1970 to 1980, and then examine the determinants of fertility of female immigrants to the United States, aged 16-49, from four Latin American areas or countries of birth.... The findings...suggest that there are direct effects of demographic, assimilation, and socioeconomic variables beyond those mediated by the variables in each of these sets. Further, regardless of the model, the effect of the clusters of demographic characteristics is most apparent. Age categories and marital status are the strongest indexed determinants of immigrant fertility.... The effect of education and employment is strong. Among assimilation variables, duration of residence and language ability are significant determinants of Hispanic immigrant fertility." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

Family Structure and Parent–Child Contact: A Comparison of Native and Migrant Families

This article is an investigation of the frequency of contact between parents and adult children in Germany. It compares Turkish immigrants and native Germans and includes both biological and step‐relations. After the United States and Russia, Germany reports the third highest proportion of immigrants internationally, but the extent to which results regarding natives are applicable to immigrant families remains unknown. Data are from the first wave of the German Generations and Gender Surveys (2005) and the supplemental survey of Turkish citizens living in Germany (2006). A total of 7,035 parent–child relations are analyzed. The frequency of parent–adult child contact is significantly higher for biological parents living with the child's other biological parent than for parents without a partner, parents with a new partner, or stepparents. Contact is more frequent for all Turkish families, but the pattern of variation by family structure is similar for both Germans and Turks.     

Birthing,Nativity, and Maternal Depression: Australia and the United States,

This study analyzes two birth cohort surveys, the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children and Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, to examine variation in maternal depression by nativity, duration of residence, age at migration, and English proficiency in Australia and the United States. Both countries have long immigrant traditions and a common language. The results demonstrate that US immigrant mothers are significantly less depressed than native‐born mothers, but maternal depression does not differ by nativity in Australia. Moreover, the association between duration of residence and maternal depression is not linear: Recent arrivals and long‐term residents exhibit the highest depression levels. Lack of English proficiency exacerbates maternal depression in Australia, but protects against depression in the United States. Differences in immigration regimes and welfare systems likely contribute to the differing salience of nativity for maternal depression.     

The Mental Health Advantage of Immigrant‐Background Youth: The Role of Family Factors

Children of immigrant background, despite problems with acculturation, poverty, and discrimination, have better mental health than children of native parents. We asked whether this is a result of immigrant families' characteristics such as family structure and relations. Using a new comparative study on the integration of immigrant‐background youth conducted in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden (N = 18,716), particularly strong associations with mental health (internalizing and externalizing problems) were found for family structure, family cohesion, and parental warmth. Overall, half of the advantage in internalizing and externalizing problems among immigrant‐background youth could be accounted for by our measures of family structure and family relations, with family cohesion being particularly important.     

Immigrant Fertility: A Comparative Study between Italy and Russia

In this paper, we contribute to the analysis of fertility differentials between female migrants and the native‐born by examining the transition to first child using event history analysis. We use event history as a quantitative translation of the life‐course approach. The data examined are the Italian Families and Social Subjects (FSS) survey, conducted in 2003, and the Russian Parents and Children, Men and Women in Family and Society survey, conducted in 2004. We examine the data sets separately and contrast the results. The objective of the study is twofold. First, we seek to determine whether differences exist in the decision and timing of childbearing between native and immigrant women in Italy and in Russia. Second, we aim to compare the experiences of immigrants in the two countries, to determine whether there may be any commonalities inherent to the immigrant populations despite moving into widely different contexts. Our results suggest that the age profiles and marital status similarly affect the immigrant regardless of whether she is migrating to Russia or to Italy. In Italy, educational attainment is positively correlated with first‐birth intensities for immigrants – the opposite of what is observed for the native‐born. In Russia, education is not a significant determinant for immigrants. This leads us to the following conclusion: the similarity in the risk profiles of our immigrants into vastly different country contexts is more suggestive of immigrants following a distinct life course, with common risk profiles for bearing their first child, than assimilating or conforming to the native fertility patterns. Social capital in particular may play a different role in determining fertility patterns for immigrants, as it does for the native‐born.     

Educational Progress and Parenting Among Mexican Immigrant Mothers of Young Children

This study examined the potential for educational investments in Mexican immigrant mothers to enhance their management of their children's pathways through the educational system in the United States, which often disadvantages them. We tested this hypothesis with data on 816 Mexican immigrant women and their children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS‐K). The results suggest that mothers who pursued their own schooling over a 4‐year period, regardless of whether they obtained a degree, increased their engagement with their children's schools during that same period. The results appear to be robust to a wide range of factors that select women into continuing education.     

Are immigrants and natives perfect substitutes in production?

This article discusses whether immigrant and native labor are perfect substitutes in production when conventional measures of skill and demographic characteristics are held constant. The ratio of immigrant to native labor and the ratio of immigrant to native earnings are studied in 5 major immigrant receiving countries with other variables held constant. Countries included are 1) the US and Britian, where the foreign born are only about 5% to 6% of the adult male labor force; 2) Canada and Australia, where they are about 20% and 30%, respectively; and 3) Israel, where the foreign born are about 3/4 of the Jewish adult male labor force. The relative earnings of adult male immigrants and the adult male native-born sons of immigrants are found to be lower when the labor supply of immigrants is greater. The estimated elasticity of substitution between immigrant and native labor is high, but significantly less than infinity. Workers who are relatively more intensively in the favorable self selection characteristics of immigrants are not perfect substitutes for workers relatively more intensive in country-specific skills. As immigrants increase in the labor force, their relative earnings tend to fall, although the decline is small. Economies have sufficiently flexible markets and develop institutional arrangements to mitigate the relative fail in immigrant earnings as their relative supply increase.     

Poetics of place and the transformation of the Russian Jewish American self in Lara Vapnyar’s The Scent of Pine and Yelena Akhtiorskaya’s Panic in a Suitcase

ABSTRACT

In The Scent of Pine and Panic in a Suitcase, Russian Jewish American authors Lara Vapnyar and Yelena Akhtiorskaya explore the interiority of the immigrant self in various stages of the immigrant journey from the former Soviet Union to the United States and back. Both novels display a general trend in this literature to move away from the prescribed paradigms of Jewish American immigrant self-understanding, and toward a more private sense of the immigrant self, a movement away from the familiar confines of immigrant urban enclaves and toward a poetics of place that expands the modalities in which post-Soviet Jewish characters interact with US American space.     

It Takes a Village (Perhaps a Nation): Families,States, and Educational Achievement

Research in the United States has shown that children growing up in 2‐parent households do better in school than children from single‐parent households. We used the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data to test whether this finding applied to other countries as well (N = 100,307). We found that it did, but that the educational gap was greater in the United States than in the other 13 countries considered. Results from 2‐level hierarchical linear models demonstrated that international differences in the educational gap were associated with several indicators of national policy and demographic contexts. No single policy appeared to have a large effect, but several policy combinations were associated with substantially reduced educational gaps between children from different family structures.     

Unemployment: an international perspective

Using standard OECD unemployment and national income account data, the rela-tionship between unemployment rates and the productivity-adjusted real wage rate is examined for six major countries, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom, using bivariate regression analysis. In addition, pooled cross-section estimates of the same relationship are provided for the 24 traditional OECD countries covering the period 1971-1995. The object is to determine whether the observed statistically significant positive relationship between these variables found for the United States exists in other economies. The basic conclusion is that the inter-national experience in this regard is similar to that for the United States. The research underlying the analysis reported in this article has been supported by the Joint Economic Committee of the Congress of the United States and is reflected in Vedder and Gallaway (1998).     

Ethnicity,Language, and Economic Well‐being in Rural Guatemala

Abstract We examine ethnic differences in objective and perceived economic well‐being in rural Guatemala. The evidence shows that long‐standing ethnic differentials in objective indicators of household economic well‐being actually widened between 1988 and 1995, a period characterized by rapid economic growth rates. We examine the effects of a major determinant of household economic well‐being in rural Guatemala, educational attainment, in accounting for ethnic and language differentials in household consumption. Our results show that returns to education appear to be substantially lower for indigenous households, especially indigenous households where the head of household does not speak Spanish. Ethnic differentials in perceived economic well‐being do not strictly parallel differences in objective indicators of well‐being. Indigenous women with any education are more likely to report relative economic deprivation than are non‐indigenous women, or ladinas, controlling for objective measures of household wealth.     

Teaching International Social Work in a Global Classroom

Social work educators are challenged with preparing students for international social work and work with immigrant and refugee populations. This pilot project aimed to develop an online global classroom to teach an international social work course to social work students participating from five different locations: United States (N=25), South Africa (N=4), Mexico (N=11), Hong Kong (N=6), and Australia (N=2). Qualitative data were collected from students regarding their experiences in this global classroom. Thematic analysis revealed the development of rich authentic learning, where their interactions with international classmates led to a transformative learning experience and a beginning sense of social work in a global context. Implications for future leaning and teaching of social work content across global borders are discussed.     

Farewell to Moms? Maternal Contact for Seven Countries in 1986 and 2001

Challenging the popular narrative of the long‐run decline of the extended family, contemporary studies of intergenerational relations insist that the ties between adult children and their parents are increasing in importance. Although research documents a decline in multigenerational households, there is little empirical evidence on changes over time in other dimensions of intergenerational solidarity. Drawing on 1986 and 2001 data from the International Social Survey Programme, the authors analyzed trends in maternal contact in 7 Western countries: (a) Australia, (b) Austria, (c) Germany (West), (d) Great Britain, (e) Hungary, (f) Italy, and (g) the United States (N = 7,578). They found no evidence that adult children's contact with mothers became less frequent. In particular, contacts that do not require face‐to‐face interaction increased, consistent with the diffusion of cell phones and Internet use over the period. Although theorizing points to demographic developments as driving trends in intergenerational cohesion, changes in population composition played only a minor role.     

The Latina/o Racial and Citizenship Divide on Perceptions of the Influence of Immigrant Mobilizations*

In spring 2006, the United States witnessed immigrant marches throughout the nation. Although Latina/os are often depicted as the “face” of the immigrant marches, we know little about how racial and citizenship statuses shaped Latina/os’ perceptions of how the marches influenced public perceptions of undocumented immigrants. Using logistic regression on data from the 2006 National Survey of Latinos, we find that Latina/os identifying as white are less likely to be supportive of the immigrant marches than those who defied standard racial classifications, and instead identified as “Latina/o.” Moreover, Latina/os who are born in the United States are not as supportive of the immigrant marches in comparison with naturalized citizens and non‐citizen Latina/os, accounting for demographic and human capital factors. This study suggests there is a “racial‐ and citizenship divide” among Latina/os that fragments perceptions on the immigrant mobilizations in the United States.     

FIRMS AND FLEXIBILITY

The United States and France have very similar labor productivity levels while there are considerable differences between the firm‐size distributions and firm dynamics in the two countries. To reconcile these observations we introduce a joint model of endogenous entrepreneurship and firm‐size dynamics with firing costs, unemployment benefits, entry costs, and a tax wedge between wages and labor costs. We use our model to analyze the role of these rigitidies in explaining firm dynamics and productivity patterns in the United States and France. We find that our model with all rigidities goes a long way in accounting for firm‐size differentials between the United States and France while generating similar labor productivity outcomes. (JEL C78, D21, E24, J6)     

Parenthood,Gender and Work‐Family Time in the United States,Australia, Italy,France, and Denmark

Research has associated parenthood with greater daily time commitments for fathers and mothers than for childless men and women, and with deeper gendered division of labor in households. How do these outcomes vary across countries with different average employment hours, family and social policies, and cultural attitudes to family care provision? Using nationally representative time‐use data from the United States, Australia, Italy, France, and Denmark (N = 5,337), we compare the paid and unpaid work of childless partnered adults and parents of young children in each country. Couples were matched (except for the United States). We found parents have higher, less gender‐equal workloads than nonparents in all five countries, but overall time commitments and the difference by parenthood status were most pronounced in the United States and Australia.     

The future of marriage and hispanics

At least two important demographic changes will occur in the United States in the future: the growth of the Hispanic population and the growth of the second and third generations among Hispanics. We argue that the expansion of the Hispanic population is unlikely to slow the retreat from marriage, despite the pronuptial cultural orientations of some groups of immigrants and their native‐born coethnics. On the contrary, the second‐ and third‐generation descendents of immigrants will join in the retreat from marriage as a result of their exposure to the cultural and economic environment of the United States, as well as changes in the countries from which their immigrant parents originate. Sources of uncertainty about this scenario are noted.     

Education,Skills, and Wage Gaps in Canada and the United States

We analyse data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies to reveal that immigrants in Canada and the United States make over $200 less per month than native‐born workers. In the United States, immigrants disproportionately work in low‐wage occupations, leading to large mean national differences between immigrants and native workers. The wage differential disappears after accounting for education and cognitive skills, indicating policies must focus on reducing education and skill gaps in the United States. In Canada, an immigrant wage gap persists in nearly all occupational fields, suggesting that the better skilled and educated immigrants in Canada are not receiving the same wage premium as native workers. We close with implications for policy and future research.     

CONSOLIDATING THE EVIDENCE ON INCOME MOBILITY IN THE WESTERN STATES OF GERMANY AND THE UNITED STATES FROM 1984 TO 2006

The cross‐national intragenerational literature has often analyzed income mobility within short time periods over which mobility might reasonably be thought of as invariant. Here, we argue that a great social transformation—German reunification—abruptly and permanently altered mobility. Using standard measures (with panel data for the western states of Germany and the United States) over the period 1984–2006, we find the conventional result that income mobility is greater in Germany. But when we cut the data into 5‐year windows, we find that income mobility declines significantly over the years immediately following reunification in Germany but not in the United States, using both measures. (JEL J1, J6)