The awakening of the sleeping giant? An examination of the role of Ethnicity in the 2006 immigrant rights protests

Since the 1960s many have referred to the Latino community in the U.S. as a “Sleeping Giant.” Recent events including the 2012 presidential election demonstrate that Hispanics are engaged in social and political activism and we posit that this activism can be traced back to the 2006 immigrant rights demonstrations. However, this activism has yielded little success in terms of policy change. Using survey data gathered during a symposium on political activism and civic engagement in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex we employ regression models to examine the factors that influence the perceptions of Latino political activism and its impact. Our results demonstrate that ethnicity played a key role in how the marches were perceived. Further, we find that different variables drive perceptions about the marches for Hispanics and Caucasians, respectively. We conclude the study by discussing the impact of ethnicity in perceptions of political activism.     

Migrant cohort size,enforcement effort,and the apprehension of undocumented aliens

This article examines macro-structural conditions that affect time trends in aggregate probabilities of undocumented alien apprehension along the Mexico-US border. We show that the number of migrants attempting to cross the border illegally in a given period and the level of effort expended by the INS to apprehend undocumented migrants are principal determinants of apprehension probabilities. Our findings differ from those in earlier work by Donato, Durand, and Massey who argue that individual, household, and community factors are not significant predictors of apprehension probabilities and conclude that escaping INS detection at the border is essentially a random process unrelated to personal traits or to enforcement provisions of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. Although Donato et al. recognize that apprehension probabilities are affected by the size of the US Border Patrol budget and the number of personnel, they omit these larger structural factors from consideration. Instead, they introduce annual dummy variables to control for macro-structural forces. This approach is unsatisfactory because it confounds the effects of numerous explanatory factors. We conclude that one implication for future research is that it is worth modeling the effects of individuals' characteristics on apprehension probabilities by including as predictors an estimate of the flow of undocumented migrants and measures of INS border enforcement effort. Controlling explicitly for three macrostructural conditions may disclose the importance of some individual-level factors that would otherwise be obscured.     

Early cognitive skills of Mexican-origin children: The roles of parental nativity and legal status

Although one-third of children of immigrants have undocumented parents, little is known about their early development. Using data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey and decennial census, we assessed how children's cognitive skills at ages 3 to 5 vary by ethnicity, maternal nativity, and maternal legal status. Specifically, Mexican children of undocumented mothers were contrasted with Mexican children of documented mothers and Mexican, white, and black children with U.S.-born mothers. Mexican children of undocumented mothers had lower emergent reading skills than all other groups and lower emergent mathematics skills than all groups with U.S.-born mothers. Multilevel regression models showed that differences in reading skills are explained by aspects of the home environment, but the neighborhood context also matters. Cross-level interactions suggest that immigrant concentration boosts emergent reading and mathematics skills for children with undocumented parents, but does not similarly benefit children whose parents are native born.     

An analysis of public opinion toward undocumented immigration

Public opinion toward illegal migration to the United States varies considerably across different segments of the population, but little is known about why some individuals hold more liberal attitudes than others. Several hypotheses are scattered throughout the research literature, but they have not been brought together in one place and tested using a common data set. Nor have the limited tests been satisfactory from a methodological standpoint. Instead of using multiple regression, typically analysts have relied on cross-tabulations of the data. This paper tests five hypotheses about attitudes toward illegal immigration and undocumented migrants using public opinion data from southern California. Only weak support is found for a labor market competition hypothesis. There is firmer evidence for hypotheses relating to cultural affinity between respondents and undocumented migrants and to the role of education. Respondents' evaluations of tangible costs and benefits to themselves also influence their assessments of illegal immigration. Finally, the results of this analysis provide additional support for a symbolic politics model of opinion formation when the model is extended to the issue of undocumented migration to the United States.     

An analysis of net immigration in census coverage evaluation

National surveys monitored growth in the foreign-born population for the 1980s, especially net undocumented migration's continuing role, but the 1990 census portrayed an even larger foreign-born population than these surveys. Undercoverage in 1990 could have been higher than initially presented because preliminary studies may have insufficiently accounted for decadal net immigration. Assumptions intended to maintain a high undocumented undercount performed poorly when census counts of foreign-born residents became known. Any point estimate for net undocumented migration, calculated as a residual, is likely to be biased by assumptions and data gaps for components of calculating net legal immigration, especially in the direction of underestimation. A reasonable statement is that at least 2.1–2.4 million undocumented residents were enumerated in the 1990 census. The number of unenumerated undocumented residents may easily have ranged between 0.5 million and 3.0 million, and a narrower range of 1 million to 2 million is plausible. Despite the importance of undocumented migration measurement for census evaluation and policy purposes, differences among various undocumented estimates are more likely to stem from discrepancies in universe, reference dates, or individual judgment, rather than analytic refinement. Better measurement of the foreignborn population or its census coverage would aid in setting upper limits on net undocumented migration.     

Return migration predictors for undocumented Mexican immigrants living in Dallas

This study uses a survey of undocumented Mexican immigrants living in Dallas to identify variables that predict the likelihood of return migration of undocumented Mexican immigrants. Male immigrants and immigrants under age 25 are more likely to intend to return to Mexico. Surprisingly, length of US residence is not a significant predictor of intended return. In contrast, prior immigrant experience is a significant predictor of intent to return to Mexico. Highly educated immigrants are likely to intend to return to Mexico, probably because the relative skill benefit is greater in the origin country. Immigrants from the Mexican state of Guanajuato are likely to intend to return to Mexico, while those from San Luis Potosi are likely to intend to remain in the US. Immigrants who own a home in Dallas are likely to remain in the US, while those who own land in Mexico are likely to return to Mexico.     

Migradollars: The remittances and savings of Mexican migrants to the USA

In this article, we use new data from 22 communities to estimate the total flow of dollars back into Mexico as a result of migration to the United States. Our estimates include remittances sent while working abroad and money brought back on return trips; they incorporate transfers by temporary as well as permanent US workers; they include money transferred by legal as well as illegal migrants; and they include funds sent or brought by household heads as well as other family members. We estimate that US$ 24 million in migradollars flowed into the sample communities during the survey year. In some places, the flow of US money equalled or exceeded the value of locally earned income. When generalized to all of Western Mexico, our sample suggests a regional flow of US$ 1.5 billion; and when our data are inserted into an estimation model developed earlier by Lozano Ascencio, we estimate the total flow at US$ 2 billion for Mexico as a whole. Although most of this money was spent on consumption, investments in productive activities were significant, and directly or indirectly, we conclude that migradollars play an extremely important role in Mexican economic production.This article is based on a paper, presented at the University of Chicago, 8 October 1993.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Si,Se Puede</Emphasis>: Organizing Latino Immigrant Workers in South Omaha’s Meatpacking Industry

Faced with declining union membership and a growing immigrant workforce, the US labor movement has started to realize the importance of organizing immigrant workers. Yet the conventional wisdom among many within the movement is that immigrant workers are “unorganizable.” Based on a case study of a collaborative effort between the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and Omaha Together, One Community to organize an estimated 4,000 Latino immigrant meatpacking workers, I demonstrate not only the “organizability” of immigrant workers, but also the fact that they have been organizing themselves, with the help of a community-based organization, in the absence of union efforts. This case study suggests that in order to facilitate successful organizing campaigns among immigrant workers, unions need to reach out to community-based organizations and institutions that have established relationships with immigrant workers.

A ‘master status’ or the ‘final straw’? Assessing the role of immigration status in Latino undocumented youths’ pathways out of school

Previous research on undocumented youth and young adults in the United States asserts that immigration status is a ‘master status’, wherein undocumented status overshadows the impact of other social locations. Drawing primarily on interviews with 45 Latina/o undocumented immigrant youth who stopped out of school, I assess whether the ‘master status’ explanation accurately characterises how immigration status shapes undocumented youths’ pathways out of school. Using an intersectional lens, I argue that multiple social locations disrupt educational pathways and set the stage for immigration status to emerge as the ‘final straw’ that pushes undocumented youth to leave school. Specifically, I show how race, class, gender, and first-generation college student status heavily shape undocumented youths’ educational journeys. I find that their resistance to these other forms of marginalisation is weakened by the emerging salience of undocumented status as a severe, relatively insurmountable legal barrier. I highlight the process through which these multiple social locations work together to lead undocumented youth to stop out of school. I contend that using an intersectional lens enhances understandings of how multiple social locations intersect and interact over time to marginalise immigrants.     

‘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.