The interplay of spatial diffusion and marital assimilation of Mexicans in the United States, 1980–2011

Recent trends suggest a decline in the rate of intermarriage between Mexicans and non-Hispanic whites. In this paper, we argue that interpretations of this trend as a decline in preferences for intermarriage are misleading because of the lack of adequate data that captures both spatial and temporal variation in the level of intergroup contact. Using data from the Decennial Census (1980–2000) and the American Community Survey (2008–2011), we employ a novel methodological approach to disentangle the impact of spatial diffusion, ethnic replenishment, and shifts in preferences for homophily on Mexican ethnic intermarriage patterns across 543 Consistent Public Use Microdata Areas (c-PUMA). Once changes in the demographic composition of c-PUMAs are accounted for, multilevel models for repeated cross-sectional data provide no evidence of a change in the marital preferences of Mexicans over time. Trends in intermarriage rates are predominantly explained by compositional and structural changes.     

Muslim Women in Australia,Britain and the United States: The Role of “Othering” and Biculturalism in Identity Formation

When Muslims migrate to Western countries, they bring their identity and culture with them. As they settle in their host countries, some Muslims encounter structural inequality, which is often revealed through media representation, unequal labour market status and racial profiling. Through the dynamics of structural inequality, some Muslim women remain doubly disadvantaged. Within their ethnic/religious community, Muslim women are expected to follow their cultural traditions and in the wider society their overtly Muslim appearance is often questioned. The discussion of identity formation in this paper is based on interviews with Muslim girls and women in Australia, Britain and the United States, aged between 15 and 30 years. Though the cultural and political contexts of these three countries are different, the practice of “othering” women have been similar. Through their life stories and narratives, I examine the formation of the participants’ identities. It was found that for many of these women their sense of identity shifted from single to multiple identities, thus revealing that identity formation was a flexible process that was affected by a variety of factors, including the relevance and importance of biculturalism in the women’s identity formation.     

Racial Discrimination in the U.S. Housing and Mortgage Lending Markets: A Quantitative Review of Trends, 1976–2016

We examine trends in racial and ethnic discrimination in U.S. housing and mortgage lending markets through a quantitative review of studies. We code and analyze as a time series results from 16 field experiments of housing discrimination and 19 observational studies of mortgage lending discrimination. Consistent with prior research, we find evidence of a decline in housing discrimination from the late 1970s to the present. Our results show that this trend holds in both the national audits sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and in non-HUD studies. The decline in discrimination is strongest for discrimination that involves direct denial of housing availability, for which discrimination has declined to low levels. The downward trend in discrimination is weaker for measures reflecting the number of units recommended and inspected, and significant discrimination remains for these outcomes. In the mortgage market, we find that racial gaps in loan denial have declined only slightly, and racial gaps in mortgage cost have not declined at all, suggesting persistent racial discrimination. We discuss the implications of these trends for housing inequality, racial segregation, and racial disparities in household wealth.

     

‘Felons are also our family’: citizenship and solidarity in the undocumented youth movement in the United States

The undocumented youth movement began in the United States in the mid-2000s. Drawing on qualitative research with undocumented young organisers in California, this article explores how relationships between undocumented youth, the wider undocumented population, and legal citizens have been understood in narratives of citizenship in the movement over time. It is argued that, paradoxically, the movement’s retreat from prioritising a pathway to legal citizenship for the most ‘eligible’, made visible historic and contemporary ties to the United States and its peoples that are obscured in hegemonic narratives of contemporary citizenship. In becoming more inclusive of the wider undocumented population, positions of solidarity with marginalised US citizens have also emerged. In the context of attacks on some racialised and other marginalised social groups during Trump’s presidency, such solidarity is even more vital.     

Family–school relationships in immigrant children’s well-being: the intersection of demographics and school culture in the experiences of black African immigrants in the United States

This article explores the types of family–school relationships that promote academic, socio-economic, and social and emotional well-being of black African immigrant children in the United States. The data are ethnographic, drawing on one year of participant observation and interviews at two elementary schools. The findings are also set within the context of an analysis of data from the New Immigrant Survey. The article identifies mechanisms by which relationships between black African immigrants and schools are created and argues that intersections between demographics and school culture are central, particularly as related to the possibilities for relational power, which can allow parents and school staff to transcend persistent inequalities of race and discrimination.     

What’s left unsaid? In-group solidarity and ethnic and racial differences in opposition to immigration in the United States

Do racial and ethnic characteristics of non-immigrants play an important role in shaping attitudes toward immigrants in the U.S.? Using a 2010 survey experiment representative of the U.S. general population, this paper examines differences in opposition to immigration by the race or ethnicity of the respondent. By manipulating the amount of anonymity offered to respondents, the experiment allows explicit opposition to be distinguished from implicit opposition, which offers unique insight into the extent to which opposition is masked. Consistent with theories of in-group solidarity, we find that Hispanics, who comprise nearly half of all immigrants in the U.S., overtly express a less restrictive posture, which, relative to Black and White respondents, is not significantly masked. In contrast, White and Black respondents only overtly express more openness to immigration. When offered absolute anonymity, opposition is significantly and substantively greater. The implications are profound in that differences in the extent to which opposition is masked, rather than overtly expressed, fundamentally patterns racial and ethnic differences in opposition to immigration in the U.S.     

Neighborhood Effects on Racial–Ethnic Identity: The Undermining Role of Segregation

African American and Latino youth experience stereotypes about their group’s academic ability but youth high in three components of racial–ethnic identity Connectedness, Awareness of Racism, and Embedded Achievement are buffered from these stereotypes and are more likely to attain good grades in school, feel efficacious, and engaged with academics. In the current study, the effect of neighborhood segregation on these components of racial–ethnic identity was examined. Segregation impairs racial–ethnic identity Connectedness, Awareness of Racism, and Embedded Achievement among African American and Latino youth. Eighth graders (n = 206 African American, n = 131 Latino) living in 100 census tracks filled out racial–ethnic identity scales. A multilevel model demonstrates that segregation is associated with lower scores on each of the components of racial–ethnic identity.

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Does the Context of Racial Discrimination Matter for Adolescent School Outcomes?: The Impact of In-School Racial Discrimination and General Racial Discrimination on Black Adolescents’ Outcomes

The present study explored the role of context and gender on the association between racial discrimination and adolescents’ outcomes among Black nint     

Convergence and Disadvantage in Poverty Trends (1980–2010): What is Driving the Relative Socioeconomic Position of Hispanics and Whites?

The gap between white and Hispanic poverty has remained stable for decades despite dramatic changes in the size and composition of the two groups. The gap, however, conceals crucial differences within the Hispanic population whereby some leverage education and smaller families to stave off poverty while others facing barriers to citizenship and English language acquisition face particularly high rates. In this paper, we use Decennial Census and American Community Survey data to examine poverty rates between Hispanic and non-Hispanic, white heads of household. We find the usual suspects stratify poverty risks: gender, age, employment, education, marital status, family size, and metro area status. In addition, Hispanic ethnicity has become a weaker indicator of poverty. We then decompose trends in poverty gaps between racial and ethnic groups. Between 1980 and 2010, poverty gaps persisted between whites and Hispanics. We find support for a convergence of advantages hypothesis and only partial support (among Hispanic noncitizens and Hispanics with limited English language proficiency) for a rising disadvantages hypothesis. Poverty-reducing gains in educational attainment alongside smaller families kept white–Hispanic poverty gaps from rising. If educational attainment continues to rise and family size drops further, poverty rates could fall, particularly for Hispanics who still have lower education and larger families, on average. Gains toward citizenship and greater English language proficiency would also serve to reduce the Hispanic–white poverty gap.     

The Role of Al-Awqāf (Islamic Endowments) in Poverty Alleviation and Community Development in the Nigerian Context

Al-Waqf (endowment) is a form of charity in Islam. Among its special features is that it is permanent and irrevocable while its benefits also go from one generation to another. It involves the transfer of property from the original owner to the cause of Allah. It is as old as the practice of Islam. At the beginning, simple assets such as farmlands, wells and orchards were endowed. Charity, in this respect, may include building of centers for education, hospitals, public facilities and residential houses in modern time. Regrettably, the practice of al-waqf is no more as popular as it was in the past. Although, rich people among Nigerian Muslims used to donate during their lifetimes for personal or community projects. In most cases, those projects die with their death since no portion of their wealth is endowed for them. This article therefore looked into the relevance of al-waqf as takāful-ijtimā‘i (social insurance) product at present. It examined the definition, significance, conditions of validity and administration of al-waqf. The study revealed that al-waqf can bring about a positive change, meaningful development and transformation in helping the poor and the needy in the community. It suggests that al-waqf should be integrated in the takāful (insurance) practices.     

Racial Conflict and Identity Crisis in Wartime Peru: Revisiting the Cañete Massacre of 1881

This article subjects the historiography and evidence of the massacre of Chinese immigrants in the Cañete valley by Afro-Peruvian peasants, led by women during the War of the Pacific, to critical analysis in light of recent discussions of the nexus of race, culture and nation. It validates the motives of the peasants who carried out the massacre by examining the event as an aspect of racial and cultural identity formation. The study highlights the self-serving character of contemporary evaluations, and it gives attention to the cultural tensions and ambiguous meanings present in the massacre which illustrate the character of national identity projects in late nineteenth-century Peru.     

Migration decision-making and migration industry in the Indonesia–Malaysia corridor

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the involvement of migration industry (MI) in the migration system of Indonesia and Malaysia. The two countries share an extensive border and have much in common in culture and history but they are very different in geographical size, population and economic development, the latter being a main cause for labour migration from Indonesia to Malaysia. The changing context of government policies generates new niches for migration services taken up by formal and informal intermediaries, thereby confronting migrants with a varied migration-decision field and thresholds during their migration process. Much of the migration is legal, but a large part of it also takes place outside the control of the national governments. While taking mental processes in migration decision-making as starting point, we analyse how the MI, by way of fostering, facilitating and controlling geographic mobility and localised employment, connects to the production and negotiating of three migration decision thresholds faced by migrants.     

Racial witnessing and the formation of los conscientes – race critical preservice teachers

This article introduces the concept of racial witnessing – i.e. defining moments where an individual experiences a strong event in which they (or someone they care deeply about) were racialized, Othered, and/or treated differently (usually negatively) because of their racial group, racial affiliation, etc. It is these moments of racial witnessing that are pivotal in the development of los conscientes. These were the more critical-minded preservice teachers who demonstrated a greater understanding regarding race and racism and the impacts it has on the educational system and human lives. This article argues that it is not a specific variable and/or experience (such as those gained in field experiences) that creates race consciousness among preservice teachers. It is the accumulation of racial witnessing events that allow for a deeper understanding of how race dictates lives.     

Fear,Terror and the New Global Economy of Salvation–Global Excess and ‘Suicide’ Bombing in London

The article looks at the London bombing of July 2005 as a double volunteered witnessing. The four male British ‘suicide’ bombers purported to witness the plight of the victims of global excesses in places like Iraq and Palestine as Muslims and their own privileged membership of the Muslim Community (umma). The witnessing was as much a trans-national self-identification by the bombers with their Islamic faith as a counter-identification against their British citizenship. On their trails of death and destruction, the bombers advocated the supremacy of the privilege of faith over the rights of citizen by destroying the mortal bodies of individuals to which is anchored citizen rights in order to provide room for the immortal body of the Muslim Community which cherishes the privilege of the faithful. In their surrogacy for the will of fellow Muslims, the bombers drew on a new economy of salvation that promised them the magnanimity of the witnessing (martyrdom) for the Muslim Community and offered the Other the ignominy of an apocalyptic retribution. By substituting the body for the mind as the immediate object of power the Muslim volunteers inspired fear among the potential victims of their violence without giving them the opportunity to reciprocate fear thus turning the fear into a sense of despair—terror—that makes power incontestable and abolishes politics. Faced with the threat of terror, the British public erected invisible, internal borders within which they constructed an invincible Britishness from which no one was excluded. The insurrectionary, multicultural assertion of British identity through recourse to the notion of individual rights is followed by a moment of constitution of Britishness by the institutions of government. An institutional construction of the general will to protect public safety within the spatially fixed borders is mediated by the Anglo-American model of multiculturalism. The article explores the incompatibility between cultural construction of boundaries sanctioned by the model and the state's educating role to dis-identify the faithful in order to identify them as citizens.     

Center–periphery relations,local governance and conflicts in Ethiopia: the experience of Metekel province

In Ethiopia, the study and issue of center–periphery relations is not an easy task. It has remained complex and dynamics as it has been dictated and shaped by ever changing socio-economic relations, state ideology and structure. A case in point is Metekel region, which had been characterized by under development, lowland, hot climate and traditional way of life. Until post-1991developments, Metekel was peripheral in relation to the central state. It was an area of confrontation and conflict. Owing to the structural weakness of the centre, successive rulers of the area did not command effective control over it. Focusing on Gumuz, a Nilo-Saharan family, on one hand, and highlanders and new settlers, on the other, this essay examined the main features and dynamics of center–periphery relations, governance and conflicts in Metekel area. The sources, both primary and secondary, have been carefully examined based on the objectives of the study.