Internal migration of the foreign-born in Canada

"This article uses the Public Use Sample file of the 1986 Canadian census to characterize and explain the interprovincial migration patterns of the foreign-born in Canada. Simple overall in- and outmigration rates are calculated for the foreign-born and compared to the interprovincial migration rates for Canadian-born migrants, specifically primary, return and onward migrants. A two-level nested logit model is then applied for foreign-born migrants age 20-64 to study the effects of personal factors and provincial attributes on their interprovincial migration patterns. The foreign-born have higher in- and outmigration rates than primary migrants, with Ontario having a strong ability to attract and retain the foreign-born. Despite these differences, the foreign-born respond to economic variables in a rational way and relatively little of the migration decision process can be explained by place-of-birth effects. Selectivity with respect to personal factors (i.e., education, age, sex, family type) is similar to the Canadian-born."     

Patterns of economic attainment of foreign-born male workers in the United States

In 1980, only 3% of the US population was at least partly indigenous. Most of the present population of the US, except for the American Indians, Eskimos, Aleutian Islanders, and Hawaiians, has its ancestral roots outside of the US. The US is therefore a nation of immigrants. Although a nation of immigrants, the ancestral origins of most Americans are in the countries of Europe. In recent decades, however, the composition of the immigration stream to the US has changed dramatically with respect to origin. Most immigrants now hail from Asia and Latin America; Europe is no longer the main embarkation point. Given these recent changes in the points of origin of immigrants, the author investigated the economic attainment patterns and their determinants of the foreign-born male immigrant population in the US. The economic attainment patterns of males born in 92 countries are examined and compared among themselves, as well as among the principal US-born groups of Anglos, Afro-American, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, Asian Americans, and American Indians. For all foreign-born groups, the article examines the degree to which such individual-level factors as educational attainment, labor market experience, and other factors account for their variation in economic attainment. It is concluded that although microlevel characteristics are not the complete answer, they help explain the variations in earnings among most foreign-born populations.     

Geographic mobility of the foreign-born Chinese in large metropolises, 1985-1990

"The spatial assimilation and ethnic resources models, two major theoretical explanations of the adaptation of immigrants, provide different views on the mechanism of spatial mobility of immigrants. We used the 1990 census 5 percent Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) to analyze the migration of foreign-born Chinese in three large metropolises--New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. We tested the two explanations in this study and argue that our results largely support the assimilation model. In addition, we contend that macroeconomic conditions of ethnic enclaves and characteristics of ethnic economies are also important in affecting the geographic redistribution of immigrants." This paper was originally presented at the 1996 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America.     

The Community Mothers Programme—Empowerment of parents by parents

SUMMARY: An innovative directed support intervention programme using lay people aimed at improving the quality of parenting during the first year of life was introduced on a pilot basis in Dublin in 1983 for parents of children living in working class communities. It involved experienced mothers who delivered a programme focusing on healthcare, nutritional improvement and overall child development to new parents. Support, encouragement and guidance were used rather than advice. The programme was evaluated in 1989 using a randomised controlled approach and was found to be effective in terms of health, nutrition and developmental stimulation. It has since expanded to incorporate breastfeeding support, mother and toddler groups and attention to the special needs of travellers, and the potential for applying this approach to other areas of healthcare and social development is large.     

Communicating with parents

It is difficult to help a child whose parents are unavailable to the professional working with the child. Parents whose children have problems tend to be fearful of being judged and criticized. Anger or expressions of guilt may mask their fears about their own inadequacies and problems. All parents need to be listened to and understood before professionals can help the children. Communicating this understanding to the parents requires more than works. Listening, enabling parents to talk and talking with parents often needs to be supplemented by actions concrete services and even by play to enable the parents to trust enough to want to learn how to be better parents. Foster parents must also be drawn into a cooperative effort to help children in their care.This is an excerpt from the bookWork With Children to be published by Human Sciences Press in February 1979. This selection deals with communicating with parents, for until that is accomplished, there is no chance to communicate with children.     

Condom use self-efficacy among U.S. and foreign-born Latinos in Texas

The objective of this study was to assess the influence of condom use self-efficacy on the reported condom use of Latinos. We conducted a rapid needs assessment study among U.S. and foreign-born Latinos living in Houston, TX, to identify behavioral and psychosocial factors that influence their risk for HIV. Bilingual Latino interviewers conducted confidential face-to-face interviews with individuals living in apartment complexes or residential areas primarily populated by Latinos. A total of 152 participants completed the survey. Regression results indicate that education and gender influenced condom use self-efficacy, which in turn influenced condom use in the last sexual encounter and with the primary sexual partner. However, gender and relationship risk were stronger predictors of condom use. Study results indicate that there are differences in condom use self-efficacy and sexual risk behaviors between Latino men and women that need further exploration.     

Making parents pay: The unintended consequences of charging parents for foster care

Most families in the child protective services system also interact with the child support enforcement system. This study exploits a natural experiment in Wisconsin, created by the state's large regional variation in child support referral policy, to estimate a potentially important effect of child support enforcement on the duration of out-of-home foster care placement. The effect we examine is whether requiring parents to pay support to offset the costs of foster care delays children's reunification with a parent or other permanent placement. We find evidence of this unintended effect, which is important not only because longer foster care spells are expensive for taxpayers, but also because extended placements in foster care may have consequences for child well-being. Our results highlight the potential importance of cross-systems analysis and the potential consequences when the policies and fundamental objectives of public systems are inconsistently coordinated. We discuss the implications of our findings for child support and child protective services policy.     

Earnings of foreign-born doctoral engineers in the United States: intersectionality of citizenship status and gender

Abstract

Foreign-born scientists and engineers in the United States make significant contributions to their fields. While some studies of their career outcomes investigate the internal differences among immigrant scientists and engineers, there is little scholarly attention to how immigration status and gender work together in shaping their career outcomes. This study employs the intersectionality framework and uses National Science Foundation’s Survey of Doctorate Recipients 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015, and 2017 to examine how citizenship status and the intersection of citizenship status and gender affect earnings among engineers with doctoral degrees. Findings show that naturalized U.S. citizens do not earn less than comparable native-born citizens, but permanent residents and temporary residents do. In terms of intersectional effects, U.S.-born women experience an earnings disadvantage due to their gender, naturalized U.S. citizen women and permanent resident women face earnings disadvantages because of both citizenship status and gender, and temporary resident women earn less because of their citizenship status. The preceding findings persisted in the period of study with one exception. These findings reveal the internal variations among foreign-born engineers, intersectional effects of citizenship status and gender, and the complexity and persistence of these effects, suggesting the intersectional and enduring nature of inequality.     

The increasing happiness of US parents

Previous research suggests that parents may be less happy than non-parents. We critically assess the literature and examine parents’ and non-parents’ happiness-trends using the General Social Survey (N = 42,298) and DDB Lifestyle Survey (N = 75,237). We find that parents are becoming happier over time relative to non-parents, that non-parents’ happiness is declining absolutely, and that estimates of the parental happiness gap are sensitive to the time-period analyzed. These results are consistent across two datasets, most subgroups, and various specifications. Finally, we present evidence that suggests children appear to protect parents against social and economic forces that may be reducing happiness among non-parents.     

Relative foster parents of HIV-affected children

The HIV epidemic is one of the reasons for an increase in relative foster care. Most children of HIV-infected parents are not infected, but both the children and their caregivers are affected by the parent's illness. Twenty-eight caregivers participated in an exploratory, qualitative study of the permanency planning needs of HIV-affected relative foster parents. Of the caregivers, 17 disclosed that the foster child's parent was HIV-infected; 11 caregivers did not report HIV infection in the immediate family. HIV-affected caregivers' greatest need was a more adequate response from social workers and therapy services for the children; nonaffected caregivers needed financial assistance most. More HIV-affected caregivers were considering permanency than nonaffected caregivers. Child welfare workers and relative foster parents need training on HIV's effect on the families so that appropriate services can be accessed as early as possible.     

Social needs of aboriginal foster parents

A total of 82 Aboriginal foster parents drawn from a provincial registry of foster parents participated in a telephone interview. The interview included the question “What do you need socially to be a good foster parent?” The responses were grouped together by participants in accordance with Trochim's (1989) concept mapping method. Forty-two unique responses were grouped into 6 clusters. These clusters referred to social participation, social networks, activities, as well as family relationships, healthy community and cultural connections.     

Advocating for children of separating parents

This article draws upon the author's lay experiences of helping two sets of divorcing parents to retain contact and meaningful relationships between their young children and their non-resident fathers. It argues that the failure to take account of past parenting practices in divorce proceedings, to grant children party status and to make independent representation available to them, and to offer child-centred services to help parents to practise shared parenting post-separation, may contribute to the widespread loss of contact between children and their non-resident parents, particularly fathers. The Family Law Act 1996 promises little change.     

Self-control training with maltreating parents

Seeking a method of intervention based on research about correlates of child maltreatment, the authors find that small-group, short-term training in self-control and child management skills gives parents the tools to better handle family stress and develop supportive social networks.     

Workers are parents, too

The nuclear family, whose structure was supposed to permit the separation of work and family, is still the model for employers' social policies toward workers. The efficiency of this model is even less evident today, as the author points out, and she argues that it is in the best interests of industry to support the needs of the changing family, whose adult members, now both mothers and fathers, make up the workforce, and their children, who will be the workforce.     

Childlessness revisited: A longitudinal study of voluntarily childless couples,delayed parents,and parents

A seven-year follow-up study of couples who were voluntarily childless, delayed parents, and parents was carried out utilizing questionnaire items from the original study by the author (Bram, 1974). At the time of the follow-up, the subjects were 33 years of age and were married nine years, on the average, thus facilitating an investigation of childbearing decisions over the life cycle. Data were collected on attitudes toward children and parenthood, self-image, marriage, lifestyle, and goals. Most of the original fertility statuses and expectations have held true: over two-thirds of the Childless have remained childless and most of the Delays have had children. Although the Childless are still relatively more nontraditional than the Delays and Parents, as in the original study, there are some convergences among the groups, e.g., the Delay and Parent women have become more achievement-oriented over time. There are divergences in the development of attitudes among the Childless men and women in regard to the meaning of childlessness and the value of work. The perceived quality of life varies according to both gender and fertility status, with the Delays expressing the greatest dissatisfaction.The original study on which this follow-up was based was funded by a grant from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations Program in Social Science, Law, and Population Policy (1972–1973). The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Elisabeth Moore, R.N., M.S., and Deborah Oakley, Ph.D. Requests for reprints should be sent to: Susan Bram, Ph.D., New York Hospital—Cornell Medical Center, Westchester Division, 21 Bloomingdale Road, White Plains, New York 10605.     

Making visits better: the perspectives of parents,foster parents,and child welfare workers

Mothers of children recently placed in foster care, foster mothers, and child welfare workers participated in semistructured, clinical interviews focusing on the challenges of parent visitation with young children. Mothers described their feelings of grief, trauma, and rage about the forced separation from their children and stressed the importance of emotional expression and communication during visits. Child welfare workers described the complexities of supporting emotionally close parent-child interactions while monitoring and assessing parental behavior during visits. Foster mothers described the importance of preparing children for visits and the difficulties of supporting the children afterward. Implications of understanding mothers', foster mothers', and child welfare workers' perspectives on enhancing the quality of visits with young children are discussed.