Civic Engagement and Latina Immigrant Mothers' Remote Learning Involvement During COVID-191

Immigrant incorporation scholars have established that racialized immigrant parents encounter several barriers in their children's schooling: namely, language and cultural differences, discrimination, unfamiliarity with the U.S. schooling system, and unhelpful school agents. However, less is known about the mechanisms that lessen these challenges. Drawing on insights from immigrant incorporation and civic engagement literature, this study examines how advocacy organizations can mediate the barriers racialized immigrant parents face in their children's schooling. A case study of 20 Latina immigrant mothers is used to demonstrate how civically engaged parents drew on their participation with a local advocacy organization—Parent's Choice—to overcome the barriers that emerged during the transition to remote learning due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Findings suggest that immigrant mothers leveraged their connection to Parent's Choice to learn how to use technology, get district-related updates, secure devices necessary for at-home learning, create complaints or demands for services at their children's school, fill out paperwork, and access community-based referrals. Parent's Choice provided support and empowered Latina immigrant parents by minimizing the overwhelming barriers they faced during online learning. These findings complicate our understanding of immigrant civic engagement patterns and provide implications of how civic engagement can facilitate the incorporation of marginalized parents in educational institutions.     

Family divided: the class formation of Honduran transnational families

Although there is a growing literature on transnational families, we know little about the class formation of such families and even less about how transnational migration and generation interact in this process. In this article I draw from ethnographic research with Honduran immigrant parents in the USA and transnational youths in Honduras to theorize the class formation of transnational families. Based on Bryceson and Vuorela's concepts of frontiering and relativizing, I show how economic remittances bolster the expectations and improve the lifestyles of transnational youths to the detriment of their parents' welfare in the USA. That parents often relativize their communication, choosing not to tell children about their struggles, can contribute to increased inequalities within families. Finally, my data suggest that it will be difficult for transnational youths to meet their newfound expectations and maintain their lifestyles without a permanent flow of remittances and thus the ongoing separation of family.     

Exploring parent–child communication in the context of threat: immigrant families facing detention and deportation in post-9/11 USA

This paper explores whether and how documented and undocumented migrant parents communicate with their children about the threats posed by the intensified enforcement of 1996 and 2001 US immigration reforms; whether parents facing potential detention and deportation plan for the care of their children; and whether their children learn from other sources about detention and deportation. The focus of this paper emerged in the context of a multiyear participatory and action research (PAR) process as one effort to understand the multiple meanings and divergent perspectives on parental–child communication that arose among and between participants and coresearchers. The aim is to better understand, in parents' own voices, their embrace of and resistance to direct communication with their children about the threat of deportation. Data are triangulated from in-depth interviews with 18 Central American immigrant coresearchers (Study 1), responses of 132 Latino/a immigrant parents to a survey with open-ended questions (Study 2), and conversations in a series of community meetings and workshops. Findings confirm the importance for advocates, service providers, and researchers to understand migrant parents' decisions about communication within the context of family and community values; gender expectations; lived and psychological experiences of being criminalized; and strategies to manage daily challenges of living without documents while parenting US-citizen children.     

Institutional Structure and Immigrant Integration: A Comparative Study of Immigrants' Labor Market Attainment in Canada and Israel1

The present study focuses on the incorporation of immigrants from the former Soviet Union in two receiving societies, Israel and Canada, during the first half of the 1990s. Both countries conducted national censuses in 1995 (Israel) and 1996 (Canada), making it possible to identify a large enough sample of immigrants and provide information on their demographic characteristics and their labor market activity. While both Canada and Israel are immigrant societies, their institutional contexts of immigrant reception differ considerably. Israel maintains no economic selection of the Jewish immigrants and provides substantial support for newcomers, who are viewed as a returning Diaspora. Canada employs multiple criteria for selecting immigrants, and the immigrants' social and economic incorporation is patterned primarily by market forces. The analysis first examines the characteristics of immigrants who arrived in the two countries and evaluates the extent of selectivity. Consistent with our hypotheses, Russian immigrants to Canada were more immediately suitable for the labor market, but experienced greater difficulty finding and maintaining employment. Nevertheless, immigrants to Canada attained higher‐status occupations and higher earnings than their compatriots in Israel did, although the Israeli labor market was more likely to reward their investments in education.     

Healthcare providers' perspectives on parental health literacy and child health outcomes among Southeast Asian American immigrants and refugees

Low health literacy has emerged as an important area of research because of its close link with health disparities. In this study, we used a qualitative approach to investigate healthcare providers' perspectives on the health literacy of immigrant and refugee parents and its association with children's health. Sixteen health and mental health professionals serving immigrant and refugee parents and children in various clinical settings were recruited through a purposive sampling method and interviewed. Six broad themes were identified: (1) multi-dimensional components of parental health literacy; (2) parent characteristics and native country experiences; (3) host systems and their interactions impact on parental health literacy; (4) diverse aspects of help-seeking; (5) culture-based parental help-seeking; and (6) child health outcomes. Within these larger themes, the complexity of parental health literacy and its various effects on children's health outcomes among immigrant and refugee parents were evident. Future research includes more population-based quantitative studies of parental health literacy and culturally relevant clinical approaches among immigrant and refugee parents.     

Sexism,Heterosexism, and Attributions About Undesirable Behavior in Children of Gay,Lesbian, and Heterosexual Parents

SUMMARY

Existing research on heterosexuals' attitudes toward gay and lesbian parenting typically focuses on heterosexuals' views about whether or not gay men and lesbians should be parents. Although a significant literature describes positive outcomes for actual gay and lesbian parenting, research has not specifically examined the effect of these attitudes on heterosexuals' evaluations of parenting skills, competency in parenting situations, or attributions about behavior in children of lesbian and gay parents. Two hundred twenty participants responded to a series of vignettes describing a restaurant scene in which two parents respond to their child's public tantrum. Sexual orientation and gender of the active parent in the heterosexual condition were varied. Heterosexism, evaluation of parenting skills, and attributions for child's behavior were assessed. Unexpectedly, gay male parenting skills were rated most positively, and heterosexual parenting skills (where a woman was the active parent) most negatively. Both traditional and modern heterosexism predicted negative evaluations in the same-sex parenting conditions with modern heterosexism (denial of continued discrimination) explaining a larger portion of the variance in several outcome measures. It is suggested that differences in gender role expectations for men and women encourage excessive praise for men who interact with children and condemnation of women who disappoint unrealistic expectations.     

Zur Neubestimmung des Verhältnisses von Religion und Moderne

This paper examines whether teachers in german preschools scale down their expectations on children from immigrant families. Data base are 554 children from the longitudinal BiKS-study in the federal countries Bavaria and Hesse in Germany. Teachers’ ratings about the skills and predictions about the time of school enrolment and the graduation of the children at three measurement points (2005, 2006 and 2007) are used to test the hypothesis. The skills of the children in the areas of vocabulary, arithmetic, and basic cognitive abilities as well as the socioeconomic status of parents are controlled using Propensity-Score-Matching estimations. Nearly no evidence of reduced expectations towards immigrant children is found similar to studies on the transition from primary to secondary school. Inequality reinforcing effects caused by teachers in German preschools are not confirmed.     

Gendered expectations and gendered experiences: immigrant students' adaptation in schools

This chapter draws on longitudinal data to examine the role of gender in immigrant students' educational adaptation. Analyses show that over time girls receive higher grades and express higher future expectations than do boys. Compared with boys, immigrant girls are more likely to be protected from risk factors, such as harsh school environments, by a supported network of teachers, friends, and parents, and to benefit from the shield of ethnicity more than their male counterparts in their pursuit of education.     

Immigrant families and public child welfare: barriers to services and approaches for change

This article describes the results of two focus groups of immigrant parents who recently experienced child protective investigations in New York City. The purpose of this study was: 1) to hear immigrant parents describe their experiences with child welfare services, 2) to identify barriers to services these parents encountered, and 3) advocate for changes in policy, program, and practice so that public child welfare services can effectively address the special needs of immigrant families, children, and youth. Barriers to child welfare services identified by immigrant parents in this study were caseworker's lack of knowledge about immigration status, cultural misunderstanding, and language access issues. Recommendations for addressing these barriers are offered.     

Dating and Mate Selection Among Young Adults from Immigrant Families

In this article the authors examine dating and mate selection preferences and experiences from the perspective of young men and women from immigrant families. Through in-depth personal interviews with 35 second generation youth from diverse cultures, the authors explored: (1) parental influences and expectations of their children's mate choices; (2) the roles of gender, birth order, and length of residency in the United States in expectations for mate selection; and (3) immigrant youth's preferences for marriage partners. The findings showed that immigrant parents hold mostly endogamous views. Youth's dating experiences are influenced by their gender, their birth order, and their family's acculturation. Second generation immigrants generally seek bicultural partners like themselves. Narratives from the participants provide insight into the attitudes that guide mate selection of these young adults from immigrant families.     

Mexican immigration and the port-of-entry school

The results of an immigrant student census in a California port-of-entry school district are used to describe the educational backgrounds of Mexican immigrant students and to distinguish types of Mexican immigrant students by school entry patterns. Interviews with recently arrived Mexican immigrant parents reveal the educational and occupational expectations they hold for their children in the US. The study findings are used as a basis for raising policy questions and generating research issues. The most notable observation from the study is that the children of Mexican immigrants in La Entrada do not migrate once they are in school. Parents may be migrating back and forth between the US and Mexico, but children once in La Entrada do not leave the school to return to school in Mexico. The study suggests that the parents of immigrant students do not know how the US educational system works but they are interested in helping teachers educate their children.     

Earning Gaps for Chinese Immigrants in Canada and the United States

This study compares the US and Canada on the gap in earnings between Chinese immigrants and native‐born whites. Canada and the US are arguably more alike than most possible country pairings, yet they differ in significant ways in their approaches to immigration and integration. The primary difference between Canada and the US regarding immigration policy is that Canada selects a larger proportion of economic immigrants – that is, those admitted based on their ability to contribute to the economy – than the US's focus on family reunification. Canadian immigration and multicultural integration policy does not appear to improve Chinese immigrant earnings in the way that might be predicted from Canada's skilled‐based immigrant selection policy and welcoming social context. In spite of a more laissez‐faire approach to immigrant integration and a less skill‐selective immigration policy, we show that Chinese immigrants are earning relatively more in the US than in Canada.     

You Have to Start from Scratch and You Need Someone by Your Side”: Perspectives of Parents and Teachers on Immigrant Students’ Adaptation to School

This article analyses the issue of immigrant students’ adaptation in Israeli schools, as perceived by their parents and teachers. The study integrates data from two qualitative, phenomenological studies: one explored immigrant parents’ perceptions of Israeli education and their children’s adaptation in school, while the other studied teachers’ perceptions of immigrant students’ education and their practices in the field. The data was gathered from in‐depth interviews with 17 parents and 20 teachers. The analysis yielded a list of themes related to parents’ and teachers’ views of the children’s adjustment, and their own roles in this process: their personal experiences in the field, the challenges and difficulties in interpersonal interactions between parents and teachers, and policy issues related to the educational integration of immigrant students. Findings emphasize the vital importance of parent‐teacher collaboration, clarification and better implementation of existing policy, and teachers’ qualifications for the successful educational integration of immigrant students.     

Back to Africa: Second Chances for the Children of West African Immigrants

This paper examines the phenomenon of West African parents living in Europe and North America who send their older children back home: from places of high immigrant aspiration to those of hardship and privation. Drawing on a project on West African immigration to Europe and on previous field studies in Africa, we conclude that West African immigrants fearing the consequences of their children's indiscipline in the West, where racism and hostility can endanger the entire family, may send unruly children back to the home country. In doing so, we believe, they build on long‐standing African disciplinary efforts in hopes of toughening their children's resilience to the challenges in the new place and wait for the risk to dissipate.     

High hopes: unwed parents' expectations about marriage

PRWORA attempts to limit welfare use and encourage self-sufficiency in families headed by unmarried parents by promoting the goal of marriage. This paper addresses some important issues that underlie policy discussions of encouraging marriage and strengthening fragile families. In particular, the paper analyzes data from the first seven cites of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Survey to investigate how economic factors, cultural and gender beliefs, and relationship characteristics shape unmarried mothers' and fathers' expectations about marrying their child's other parent. The results show that unmarried parents, and cohabiting parents in particular, have high hopes about marriage at the time of their child's birth. The analysis also finds that reporting drug or alcohol problems, frequent conflict, physical violence, and gender distrust are associated with lower marriage expectations, while perceiving benefits to marriage and living with the other parent are associated with higher expectations. Mothers with employed partners also hold higher expectations for marriage before controlling for cohabitation. For parents who desire marriage, it might be possible to support them in this transition, particularly through policies that help families overcome economic and structural barriers to their stability. At the same time, it is important to recognize the reasons unmarried parents have low expectations about marriage, such as drug or alcohol problems, conflict, distrust, and perceiving little benefit to marriage. Encourage marriage for parents in these circumstances might not only be inappropriate but deterimental to families.     

Economic Well‐Being in Salvadoran Transnational Families: How Gender Affects Remittance Practices

This article examines how migrant parents' gender affects transnational families' economic well‐being. Drawing on 130 in‐depth interviews with Salvadoran immigrants in the United States and adolescent and young adult children of migrants in El Salvador, I demonstrate that the gender of migrant parents centrally affects how well their families are faring. Gender structurally differentiates immigrant parents' experiences through labor market opportunities in the United States. Simultaneously, gendered social expectations inform immigrants' approaches to parental responsibilities and remitting behaviors. Remittances—the monies parents send—directly shape children's economic well‐being in El Salvador. I find that even though immigrant mothers are structurally more disadvantaged than immigrant fathers, mother‐away families are often thriving economically because of mothers' extreme sacrifices.     

African American Mothers’ Disciplinary Responses: Associations with Family Background Characteristics, Maternal Childrearing Attitudes, and Child Manageability

Eighty-nine African American mothers of preschoolers reported on their levels of family stress, attitudes about and use of specific disciplinary responses, and their expected outcomes for their children as a result of each type. Independently, teachers reported on the children’s manageability in the preschool classroom. Results indicated that mothers reported more negotiation than coercion. However, when mothers used coercion, they reportedly did so because they believed that it was the only way that they could get their children to behave, negotiation was negatively associated with maternal endorsement of traditional childrearing attitudes. On the other hand, mothers who experienced high levels of family stress tended to use privilege withdrawal as their disciplinary method of choice. Although family income was generally unrelated to the study variables, lower income and less educated mothers were less likely than other mothers to believe that spanking is associated with negative outcomes for children. Overall, these results support the idea that African American parents’ conceptions of discipline are influenced by individual family characteristics, such as stress, endorsement of traditional versus modern ideas of parenting, and expectations about their children’s responses to specific disciplinary techniques.     

Expectations,Aspirations, and Achievement Among Latino Students of Immigrant Families

ABSTRACT

This study examines the relationship between various measures of parental and student expectations and aspirations and math achievement among Latino 12th graders of immigrant parents in the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS): 2002 database. Findings indicate parental expectations and aspirations were not significant predictors of student achievement after controlling for an index of covariates. Moreover, neither were student expectations, agreement between student and parent expectations, nor student perceptions of parental aspirations. The analyses of the secondary questions likewise indicated only one strong relationship between aspirations, expectations, and parents' time in the United States – parental aspirations and expectations.     

Letter writing in the intercultural classroom: the case of retraining courses for immigrant English teachers in Israel

Training of immigrant teachers offers ample opportunities for intercultural interactions, yet it also requires unique sensitivities. On the one hand, immigrant teachers are often qualified and experienced. At the same time, immigration forces them out of their comfort zone, entailing some loss of professional status and self-esteem. The essay suggests letter writing as a method that aims to address these often-neglected aspects in the training of immigrant teachers and is based on a course given to new immigrant English teachers in Israel.     

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.