Predicting Savings for White and Black Young Adults: An Early Look at Racial Disparities in Savings and the Potential Role of Children’s Development Accounts (CDAs)

This paper explores predictors of young adults’ savings using propensity score analysis and logistic regression with separate, longitudinal samples of whites and blacks aged 17–23 from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We ask who saves among adolescents and young adults and whether the likelihood of having a savings account and the amount saved in young adulthood can be predicted by two factors: (1) having a savings account during adolescence and (2) having families who own assets. The majority of white (90%) and black (64%) young adults had savings; however, blacks saved about 3% the amount saved by whites, suggesting that young adults’ savings may be patterned after disparities in the distribution of assets and families may transfer a financial advantage to young adults. Logistic regression results find that among whites, future orientation was a significant predictor of having a savings account in young adulthood. A notable trend level finding was that white young adults were more likely to have a savings account when they had a savings account as adolescents. Among blacks, academic achievement and household size were significant predictors of having a savings account in young adulthood. If confirmed in future research, findings suggest that Children’s Development Accounts may be one way to reduce racial disparities in savings by intervening at a young age and providing universal accounts to improve savings across the life course.     

Parental Transmission of Religion and Citizenship among Migrant Muslim Families in Mozambique,Portugal, United Kingdom and Angola

This article discusses the impact of parental religious transmission upon the religious and citizen identities and performances of their offspring, using an ethnographic study on the parenting practices of Sunni and Ismaili migrant families conducted in Portugal, United Kingdom and Angola. The analysis highlights the role of parental religious upbringing in the strengthening of children’s faith and practice but also towards ensuring certain kinds of citizenship that foster pride of affiliation to a given group identity, while simultaneously promoting intergroup identifications and bridging attachments to fellow citizens. In addition, the comparison between migratory contexts shows how parental religious caregiving may help their children reconcile or resist alternative aspects of religiosity and citizenship in different nation-states. These findings represent a stark contrast with official political discourse, which tends to view immigrant religious parenting as simply based on intergenerational continuity.     

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.     

Perceptions of Defendant Culpability in Pretrial Publicity: The Effects of Defendant Ethnicity and Participant Gender

Previous researchers have found that individuals who are exposed to negative pretrial publicity (PTP) are more likely to judge a defendant guilty than individuals exposed to little or no negative PTP. We examined whether or not minority defendants (black, Aboriginal) are differentially disadvantaged by negative PTP in comparison with white defendants within a Canadian context. Participants read an online newspaper article about a sexual assault case involving a white, black, or Aboriginal defendant and then answered questions regarding defendant culpability and their perceptions of their own abilities to be impartial jurors. The defendant’s ethnicity and the gender of the participant impacted perceptions of defendant culpability. Participants (particularly female participants) generally favored the black defendant and disadvantaged the Aboriginal defendant (in comparison with the white defendant). Despite this fact, participants generally felt they could be impartial and fair jurors. These findings suggest that current procedures for assessing—and trying to avoid—racial biases in jurors are insufficient.     

Migrant and asylum-seeker children returned to Kosovo and Albania: predictive factors for social–emotional wellbeing after return

The return of rejected asylum seekers has a high priority on the national agendas of European States. In order to make well-informed asylum decisions involving children, knowledge of how asylum-seeker children fare after their return to their countries of origin is needed. This study aims to gain knowledge about the child-rearing environment and the social–emotional wellbeing of migrant children who have returned to Kosovo and Albania after a stay in a European host country. Based on a sample of 106 returned families, the study investigated the predictive factors for children’s social–emotional wellbeing using regression analyses. The findings show that procedural characteristics and ethnicity predict wellbeing, mediated through the quality of the child-rearing environment. The most vulnerable children did not have a stable resident status in the host country, belonged to a minority ethnic group and were older adolescents. The findings indicate that the wellbeing of returned children is not only dependent on conditions after repatriation, but also on the conditions which the families left in the host country. To enable sustainable return in a child’s best interests, the needs of vulnerable families and children should be thoroughly assessed prior to return, and reintegration support should be tailored to their situation.     

Changing places: children of return migrants in Albania and their quest to belong

This study examines the experiences of children of return migrants to Albania following the economic crisis in Europe. Adopting a longitudinal approach in which participants were followed-up after a year and employing participative qualitative research methods, the study investigates how perceptions of local and translocal spaces and social relations interact to shape children’s (aged 7–12 years) sense of belonging to their parents’ homeland. Findings suggest that the children’s initial positioning is influenced by a perceived lack of everyday places of play and unsettled local interactions with peers. The research indicates further that, over time, children actively seek to inhabit and identify with their new surroundings and that meaning-making is shaped by experiences that transcend multiple localities. It documents how children of return migrants attain a sense of belonging via interacting with different physical and social contexts in a complex process which appears simultaneously facilitated and impeded by adults. Overall, the findings of this research suggest that children’s sense of belonging is negotiated in relation to multiple temporal and spatial frames of reference to which children attribute meaning.     

Constructing poverty in anti-welfare Singapore

In recent years, attention on the issue of poverty in Singapore has been increasingly placed in the spotlight. This study examines the various types of attitudes among Singaporeans and how they are formed, relating them to the broader institutional context of Singapore. A mixed method design is employed where clusters or groups of attitudes are derived through the use of cluster analysis. Subsequently, discourses of poverty and welfare attitudes are construed through qualitative interviews with the aid of Foucauldian Discourse Analysis. Quantitative findings point to three clusters of attitudes: ‘Conservatives’, ‘Liberals’, and ‘Sui Generis’. Qualitative findings, however, show that ‘Sui Generis’ ultimately align themselves closer to either ‘Conservatives’ or ‘Liberals’ in their discourses of welfare. In fact, respondents in all three clusters reproduce state discourses, albeit in varying ways. In essence, this study explicates poverty and welfare attitudes as a product of social identities premised on subjective notions that are shaped by state discourses of meritocracy, self-reliance and anti-welfarism. It is thus argued that current socio-political constructions of poverty ensue a paucity of major welfare reform in the near future of Singapore.     

The Color of Debt: An Examination of Social Networks,Sanctions, and Child Support Enforcement Policy

This article is based on face-to-face interviews with 20 randomly selected fathers of black and white children receiving temporary assistance for needy families benefits, followed, when possible, by an interview with the mother of one of the father’s children in Dane County, Wisconsin. The primary purpose of this research was to explore the sample’s level of knowledge about child support enforcement program policy. The informants shared information on their knowledge of child support enforcement program policy and procedures, but also their access or lack of access to social networks for employment to pay their child support order, and experiences with various imposed sanctions for non-payment of their child support order. The data provided an opportunity to conduct comparisons across and within races on their experiences with the child support enforcement program. Results from an analysis of the qualitative data provided an insight into their “lived” experiences with law enforcement by race when their child support was in arrears. In addition, quantitative data obtained from the Wisconsin kids information data system administrative records highlighted the stark racial differences in fathers’ annual (UI) earnings and debt owed in child support to the state and the mother of their child (ren). Further analysis highlights the limited social networks for referrals to employment among black noncustodial fathers and the accumulated debt of child support for black men, which hampers their ability to maintain a minimal level of economic security.     

‘We share similar struggles’: how a Vietnamese immigrant youth organizing program shapes participants’ critical consciousness of interracial tension

This article examines Homeward Bound, a political education youth organizing program for Vietnamese immigrant youth in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Inspired by Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy theory, the program sought to empower learners to challenge their pre-existing knowledge and experience of interracial relations. Drawing on data from observations, interviews, and document reviews, we describe the process by which the program shaped Vietnamese immigrant youth’s critical consciousness of Vietnamese/Asian-black interracial tension. While some participants expressed apprehension and prejudice toward African Americans, particularly in the early days of the program, by the end, participants demonstrated knowledge retained from lessons and activities on the shared history of Vietnamese immigrants and African Americans. Participants also identified roots of and offered solutions to interracial tension. This study illuminates the role of immigrant youth organizing programs in resolving interracial tension in multiracial contexts.     

‘I want them better than me’: Pedagogical strategies employed by four immigrant parents in the face of perceived forms of exclusion by school authorities

In Australia, students from Chinese and Arabic language backgrounds form the largest minority language groups in the New South Wales (NSW) public school system. Yet the mainstream academic performance of students from these two communities show marked differences in their levels of attainment. This article explores the home literacy practices of two immigrant families – one from a Chinese background and the other of Lebanese heritage – in order to obtain insights into how parents support their children in the acquisition of mainstream literacies. It documents parents’ perceptions of their interactions with school authorities in relation to their children’s educational needs. Findings indicate that despite a plethora of inclusive policies adopted by the children’s schools, the families in our study perceived school authorities as exclusionary in their practices. The article chronicles the sense of powerlessness and alienation experienced by both families when confronted with the rigidity of a school system they neither knew nor understood. Despite the similarities in their experiences, the Chinese family succeeded in the acquisition of mainstream literacies while the Lebanese family continues to struggle with the demands of the school curriculum. We present the contrasting solutions adopted by the two families to meet the educational needs of their children and indicate how their culturally derived responses go part way in explaining the different levels of school achievement experienced by the two families.     

Parental migration and disruptions in everyday life: reactions of left-behind children in Southeast Asia

ABSTRACT

Increasing feminisation of transnational labour migration has raised concerns over potential ‘care crises’ at home, and consequently a ‘care deficit’ for children left in origin countries. Our paper focuses on how left-behind children from Indonesia and the Philippines understand, engage and react to changes in their everyday lives in their parents’ absence. While many children had no say over their care arrangements, some were able to assert their agency in influencing their parents’ decisions and eventually migratory behaviours. Their thoughts and actions reinforce the importance of including children’s views in development and migration studies to improve both the children’s and families’ well-being, and make migration a sustainable strategy for all.     

The Success Frame and Achievement Paradox: The Costs and Consequences for Asian Americans

The status attainment model highlights the role of family socioeconomic status (SES) in the intergenerational reproduction of educational attainment; however, the model falls short in predicting the educational outcomes of the children of Asian immigrants, whose attainment exceeds that which would have been predicted based on family SES alone. On the other hand, the cultural capital model gives primacy to the role of middle-class cultural capital in reproducing advantage, but neglects contextual factors outside the family. We fill a theoretical and empirical niche by introducing a model of cultural frames to explain how the children of immigrants whose families exhibit low SES and lack middle-class cultural capital attain exceptional educational outcomes. Based on in-depth interviews with adult children of Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants randomly drawn from the survey of Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles, we show that Chinese and Vietnamese immigrant parents and their children use ethnicity as a resource to construct and support a strict “success frame” that helps the poor and working class override their disadvantages. However, there are unintended consequences to adopting such a strict success frame: those who do not meet its exacting tenets feel like ethnic outliers, and as a result, they distance themselves from coethnics and from their ethnic identities because they link achievement with ethnicity. We conclude by underscoring the benefits of decoupling race/ethnicity and achievement for all groups.     

Nonresident Fathers’ Parenting,Maternal Mastery and Child Development in Poor African American Single-Mother Families

This study examines the relationships between and among economic hardship, mothers’ depressive symptoms, nonresident fathers’ parenting, mothers’ parenting and mastery, and their children’s behavioral and cognitive development in poor African American single-mother families. Informed by stress-coping and family process theoretical perspectives, this study estimates the effects of nonresident fathers’ parenting and maternal mastery on child developmental outcomes. Analyses use the first three waves of longitudinal data from a subsample of single, African American and noncohabiting mothers with low income in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Results suggest that nonresident fathers’ parenting is indirectly associated with children’s behavior problems and cognitive development transmitted through mothers’ parenting and mastery. Maternal mastery is also found to be one of the most influential predictors of both developmental outcomes of children. Policy and practice implications of these findings are discussed.     

Exploring Greek-Cypriot media representations of national identities in ethnically divided Cyprus: the case of the 2002/2004 Annan Plan negotiations

ABSTRACT

This paper explores Greek-Cypriot media representations of national identities during negotiations on a United Nation Plan (the Annan Plan), aiming to reunite ethnically divided Cyprus under a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation. The study analyzed thematically 57 editorials and lead commentaries published in all the daily Greek-Cypriot Press from the presentation of the Annan Plan in November 2002 to April 2004, at which point two simultaneous referenda were held. The study’s findings are consistent with ideas that national identifications are not static and provides an in-depth exploration of exclusive forms of Cypriot identities vis-à-vis more inclusive forms and vis-à-vis hellenocentric identifications.     

Pakistani parents and their children’s school: parent and school staff perspectives on parental involvement at the foundation stage

The article reports the results of a case study of Pakistani parents’ involvement with their children’s school in a Foundation Stage setting in Southern England. The context includes the difficulties some children and families from ethnic minorities can experience within the English education system and a growing awareness of the importance of parental involvement. Detailed interviews were conducted with parents from twelve families (most in the parents’ mother tongue) and relevant staff. Most parents and school staff were very positive about parental involvement but levels of involvement were mostly low. Many parents did not feel welcomed and got little information and guidance. They did not understand teaching methods in relation to play and mathematics. The school staff attributed low levels of involvement to parents not valuing such involvement and their lack of education. The study shows a significant level of misunderstanding and lack of communication between school and parents.     

Arab-American male identity negotiations: caught in the crossroads of ethnicity,religion, nationality and current contexts

We examine how the identities of male adolescents of Arab descent (ArD) relate to their current physical and phenomenological contexts and to the negative fallout from recent ethnicity-related political events. Seventy-seven ArD adolescents in seven United States middle schools with varying proportions of ArD students participated in focus-group interviews. Qualitative analysis provides evidence that adolescents' social identities depended on complex combinations of personal, situational, and contextual factors. Findings extend Spencer's PVEST theory, demonstrating that the salience of adolescents' national, pan-Arab, hyphenated Arab-American, or assimilated American identity stems from phenomenological experiences within their current context and from the cognitive processes and associated affects of their prior experiences in other proximal and distal contexts.     

An intergenerational conceptualisation of Italian-Australian ethnic identity through Bourdieu and Heidegger

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a phenomenological reconceptualisation of ethnic identity. Drawing upon a case study of a family originating in Calabria, Italy, and living in Adelaide, South Australia, I consider the way in which the three generations perceive their ‘being ethnic’ across time and space. The first-generation participants were born in Italy and migrated to Australia during the 1950s; the second generation are their children; and the third generation are the children of the second generation. The findings show a widespread intergenerational identification of ethnicity as ‘being Italian’, which, however, has different meanings across the three generations. This depends on the participants’ phenomenological perceptions of being thrown into the world [Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time. (J. Macquarie & E. Robinson, Trans.). New York, NY: Harper]. Some 40 years after Huber’s [(1977). From pasta to Pavlova: A comparative study of Italian settlers in Sydney and Griffith. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press] study about the assimilation of Italian-Australians published in her book From Pasta to Pavlova, the present paper shows a movement from pavlova to pasta, especially by the third-generation participants, who experience a sense of ethnic revival. Essential in such a shift of ethnic identity is what I refer to as institutional positionality; that is, one’s perceptions of the position of one’s ‘ethnic being in the world’. This is investigated by combining with the sociology of migration, including the Bourdieusian conceptual apparatus of capital [Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research in the sociology of education (pp. 241–258). New York, NY: Greenwood Press], a Heideggerian existential theory [Heidegger, 1962]. Such a juxtaposition provides further reflexivity through a reconceptualisation that considers the role of ontology in the sociology of migration.     

Migrants’ class and parenting: the role of cultural capital in Migrants’ inequalities in education

Although scholars consistently show that class-specific parenting, influenced by the resources parents have due to their socio-economic position, is one of the most important factors for children’s different life chances and outcomes as adults, migrants’ parenting is usually analysed with a focus on their ethnicity or country of origin. Building on cultural perspectives on class, this study demonstrates that migrant parents are differently endowed with institutionalised and embodied cultural capital, which shapes their parenting and therewith their children’s educational opportunities. Specifically, parents differ in their trust in school authorities, the way they define their own role in shaping their children’s education, and their self-esteem and confidence in assessing their children’s abilities and performance. This study is based on the accounts of parents who migrated from Poland to Germany and shows that due to their class position, middle-class parents possess robust forms of cultural capital that they can transfer to their children in the context of migration. This finding makes a case for the relevance of class in the context of migration and thereby adds an important perspective to the study of migrants’ inequalities in education, which tends to focus on ‘ethnic’ differences between migrants and ‘natives’.     

Do heterophilous networks work? Investigating school-based social capital and the university choice process among less-privileged ethnic minorities in Hong Kong

Much of the existing literature on social capital and university choice processes postulates that family networks of underrepresented students from poor and minority backgrounds are disadvantaged in university resources and in turn deficit in social capital returns. The literature implies that school-based networks are essential to fill the university information voids at home. Less research, however, poses questions about whether the university resources occupied by school personnel are automatically available to less-privileged minority youths. To grasp the dynamic interplay between ethnicity, class and school-based social capital, this study drew on Lin’s conceptualisation of homophilous and heterophilous social networking and explored the university choice and application processes among poor and working-class South/Southeast Asian minority students in Hong Kong. The participants’ accounts uncovered the restrictions of school networks on norms, expectations and accessibility of information sources. The research results raise concerns about how to activate both homophilous and heterophilous ties for minority youths’ widening access to higher education.