A more subtle and intriguing example is the career of Selena, the Tejano singer who has emerged as a cultural icon among Mexican Americans since being murdered by a fan in The tragedy of Selena is that having conquered the Spanish-language Tejano music world, she died just as she was about to cross over to the English-language market. The irony of Selena is that she was raised in Corpus Christi, it so happens speaking English and had to learn Spanish in order to become a Tejano star.
Further evidence that English acquisition does not necessarily lead to the positive outcomes we expect, emerges from recent ethnographic research on the school performance of Latino adolescents. Several such studies report that although newly arrived students experience significant adjustment problems attributable to their rural backgrounds, inadequate schooling, and poor English-language skills, their typically positive attitudes contribute to relative academic success.
Yet among Latino students born in the United States, the opposite is often the case. Despite fluency in English and familiarity with American schools, many such students are prone to adopt an adversarial stance toward school and a cynical anti-achievement ethic.
My point is obviously not that learning English is to be avoided. But insofar as it reflects assimilation into contemporary minority youth culture, English acquisition is not an unmixed blessing. They become like the others, their attitudes change. As for the Protestant work ethic of self-reliance, hard work, and moral rectitude, there is certainly evidence that some immigrants have been adopting it. A recent study by the RAND Corporation reveals that Japanese, Korean, and Chinese immigrants enter with wages much lower than those of native-born workers, but within 10 to 15 years these newcomers have reached parity with the native-born.
On the other hand, Mexican immigrants enter with very low wages and experience a persistent wage gap relative to the native-born, even after differences in education are taken into account. Now it is not at all clear why Mexican immigrants experience this persistent gap. Among immigrants generally, there are other trouble signs. For example, welfare participation rates among immigrants have been climbing in recent years, though overall those rates are currently about the same as among non-immigrants.
Some immigrants are clearly involved in criminal activities, though to what degree is subject to dispute. Such indicators are indeed troubling. But along with the ethnographic findings about Latino adolescents cited above, they do indicate that immigrants and their children are assimilating-but not always to the best aspects of American society. The assimilation of newcomers has long been characterized by the emergence of new ethnic group identities in response to conditions in America.
The classic example, of course, is how earlier this century European peasants left their villages thinking of themselves as Sicilians, Neapolitans, and the like, but after arriving here gradually came to regard themselves as they were regarded by Americans-as Italians.
Later, they, or more likely their children and grandchildren, came to see themselves as Italian-Americans. Andjust as with European-origin groups earlier this century, Americans are troubled by this assertion of group identity and fail to understand it as one step in the assimilation process.
Still, there is one important difference between group categories like Italians earlier this century and Hispanics today.
These are group-based claims of an extraordinary and unprecedented nature about which Americans have reason to be anxious. But, once again, such group claims are in response to conditions here in the United States, specifically the incentives presented by our post-civil rights political institutions. To focus on one immigrant group-Mexican Americans-I would note that Mexicans in Mexico do not agitate for the Voting Rights Act and affirmative action. Mexicans engage in such efforts only here in the United States, and they do so because our institutions encourage them to.
Perhaps even more to the point, such institutions and programs, originally established in response to the demands of black Americans, have been crafted by our political elites in the name of the very same liberal democratic and egalitarian values that Salins invokes. The first is that assimilation is multidimensional. This point was made more than thirty years ago by sociologist Milton Gordon in his classic study, Assimilation in American Life.
Even when these different facets of assimilation are acknowledged, they are typically depicted as parts of a smoothly synchronized process that operates in lock-step fashion. In particular, it is typically assumed that the social, economic, or cultural assimilation of immigrants leads directly to their political assimilation, by which is invariably meant traditional ethnic politics as practiced by European immigrants at the beginning of this century.
But as Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan observed many years ago in Beyond the Melting Pot, what makes sociological or economic sense for a group does not necessarily make political sense. Certainly today, what makes political sense for immigrants is often at odds with their cultural, social, and economic circumstances. Take the situation of Mexican Americans, which term I use loosely to include all Mexican-origin individuals living in the United States.
As I have indicated above, there is evidence that Mexican Americans are having problems advancing economically. Nevertheless, there are other indicators—of Englishacquisition, of residential mobility, of intermarriage—demonstrating that Mexican Americans are assimilating socially, culturally, and to some extent even economically. In other words, the evidence on Mexican-American progress is mixed and, as I have already suggested, our understanding of the underlying dynamics is limited.
More specifically, these leaders define their group as a racial minority that has suffered the same kind of systematic discrimination as have black Americans. However regrettable and divisive, this political stance is hardly irrational.
Indeed, it is a response to the incentives of our post-civil rights institutions, which have brought us to the point where our political vocabulary has only one way of talking about disadvantage—in terms of race. The resulting irony is that even though Mexican Americans are assimilating along various dimensions much as other immigrants have, their political assimilation is following a very different and highly divisive path.
The second point to be made about assimilation is that it is not necessarily an irreversible process. A case in point is intermarriage. Social scientists and laymen alike point to intermarriage as one of the most-if not the most-telling indices of social assimilation.
I myself did so above, when highlighting evidence of Mexican-American assimilation. Yet when we cite these data for such purposes, we make large and not always justified assumptions about how the offspring of such unions will identify themselves, or be identified by others. For example, we point to blackwhite intermarriage as an indicator of a desirable amalgamation of the races. And to be sure, in this spirit the children of some such marriages now refer to themselves not as black or white, but as multiracial.
Second, comparative studies are needed on poverty and economic change for immigrants in different areas and cities. Workshop discussion suggested that it would be useful to have a set of comparative studies on immigrant adjustment, conducted with common variables, for a variety of metropolitan areas. Third, more studies are needed of the different types of immigrants in order to note the comparative effect of assistance on economic adjustment.
Refugees political immigrants are eligible for different federal assistance programs than economic migrants, who enter the United States based on scrutiny of their ability to gain successful employment.
A final area that warrants attention is the effect of the legal status, especially legalization, on immigrant adjustment. A substantial proportion probably one-fifth or more of the current foreign-born population entered the United States illegally during recent decades, and many of these illegal aliens are seeking legal status under the general and special agricultural workers provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act.
Comprehensive studies are needed of the adjustment of this newly legalized population, compared with immigrants who entered legally.
Research is needed to improve our understanding of an important, contemporary public health enigma: the apparently better-than-average pregnancy outcomes among immigrant groups, regardless of socioeconomic status.
Current health data on specific immigrant groups are limited national-level vital statistics data lack information on immigration status , and immigrants' ethnic groups are often reported only for pan-ethnic categories Asians and Hispanics.
Still, pregnancy outcomes as measured either by birthweight or mortality are better among babies born to immigrant than to native-born mothers Eberstein, Similar results have been reported for Spanish-surname mothers in California Williams et al.
Guendelman et al. The risk of low birthweight was about four times higher for second-generation compared with first-generation primiparous women, and two times higher for second-generation compared with first-generation multiparous women. Earlier, Yu reported that Chinese-American women have lower fetal, neonatal, and postneonatal mortality rates than women of European origin and those in other major ethnic and racial groups in the United States.
Yu also reported that the superior health profile of Chinese-origin infants was observed at every level of maternal education and for all maternal ages.
The results are noteworthy because the Southeast Asians had the highest rates of poverty and fertility in the state, had experienced very high infant death rates prior to their arrival in the Unites States, lacked English proficiency, and had the latest onset of prenatal care of all ethnic groups.
Other Asian groups Japanese, Chinese, and Filipinos and Hispanics mostly of Mexican origin also had lower infant death rates than whites, and much lower rates than those observed for Native Americans and blacks. The groups with below-average infant mortality rates consist largely of immigrants. The evidence indicates that positive perinatal health outcomes among immigrant groups are a real phenomenon, worthy of further investigation.
Are immigrant women superior health achievers, even when socioeconomic status is controlled and, if so, why? What are the effects on pregnancy outcomes of a wide variety of sociocultural and biomedical risk factors for foreign-born and native-born women of diverse ethnic and racial groups? Although there are significant differences by nativity and ethnicity in pregnant women's histories of smoking, alcohol, and drug abuse during pregnancy—behaviors that are deleterious to the infant's health at birth and that appear to be more prevalent among the native-born—such variables do not explain other independent effects of nativity and ethnicity on outcomes.
There is considerable complexity to carrying out research in an area in which immigration, assimilation, and health interact. Existing vital statistics by themselves will not provide the research answers; alternative sources of data are needed and should include qualitative information as well as new studies based on comparative longitudinal designs e.
If we are to add significantly to the store of knowledge and to develop a larger set of intervention options, such research and data are essential. Intriguing questions have been raised by research on the mental health of ethnic minorities in the United States, including immigrants.
In a review of mental health prevalence rates reported in research over the past two decades Vega and Rumbaut, , studies suggest that rapid acculturation does not necessarily lead to conventionally anticipated outcomes, i. Instead, mental health studies suggest that assimmilation—in the various forms it can take—can itself be a traumatic process rather than a simple solution to the traumas of immigration.
Significantly, among Mexican-Americans, immigrants had lower rates of lifetime major depression than native-born people of Mexican descent; and among Mexican immigrants, the higher the level of acculturation, the higher was the prevalence of various types of psychiatric disorder Burnam et al. Furthermore, the native-born Mexican-Americans and non-Hispanic whites were much more likely than immigrants to be drug abusers. Other suggestions for future research emerged from the workshop discussions.
Research should take the social and historical contexts of immigrants fully into account, in terms of entries, exits, and assimilation. And among nonimmigrant ethnic and racial groups, studies need to distinguish between different American-born generations how many generations have passed since the immigration? Moreover, research is needed to identify protective factors that appear to reduce mental health problems within diverse ethnic minority groups; recent findings show that certain immigrant groups exhibit lower symptom levels of psychiatric disorders than do majority group natives.
Longitudinal studies are especially needed to characterize and investigate stress and its temporal patterning among immigrant groups, including patterns of immigrant adaptation to specific conditions of life change and their psychological or emotional sequence.
And, given the unprecedented racial and ethnic diversification of the U. The rapid surge of recent immigration has been accompanied by a rapid growth in the research literature on the educational attainment of immigrants; the research has concentrated predominantly on the educational levels of adult immigrants of working ages.
Relatively little study has been given to the educational achievements of the U. The patterns of their educational attainment, language shift, and psychological adaptation cannot be predicted on the basis of their.
Research on the children of immigrants poses significant but so far unanswered theoretical and empirical questions. What factors account for variations in successful English-language acquisition for the children of immigrants? What is the role of family factors encouragement of regular study and the setting of education and occupation goals, for example for educational attainment? Available results from the limited studies available are suggestive. In a study of students in the San Diego high schools, lower grade point averages were noted for Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, and blacks than for all other students.
With the exception of Hispanics, immigrant minority students from non-English-speaking families had higher grade averages than either majority native-born students or immigrant minority students from English-speaking families.
The highest grade point averages were those of students in immigrant families from China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines. More remarkably, Hmong students whose parents are largely illiterate peasants from the Laotian high-lands and Cambodian students whose parents are mostly from poorly educated rural areas were outperforming the average native-born student.
Other research has reported similar findings among immigrants of lower socioeconomic status from Central America, Southeast Asia, and the Punjab, and similar studies have found that Mexican-born immigrant students do better in school and are less likely to drop out than U.
Studying the adaptation process of immigrant children—patterns of language acquisition, educational attainment, cultural and psychological adjustment, ethnic identity, and acculturation strategies—can best be approached through comparative longitudinal research designs in a variety of community contexts, supplemented by intensive ethnographic field work.
Parental socioeconomic status and individual human capital can certainly be expected to have a strong effect on every aspect of the adaptation process, but those characteristics and related demographic variables cannot by themselves provide a completely satisfactory explanation. For that purpose, existing data sets are not adequate to the research tasks.
Data are needed on the different contexts of reception and incorporation facing different immigrant groups, including the presence or absence of discrimination and the character of the ethnic communities in which immigrant children are raised. Such data would be further enhanced if information on schools and the school environment were collected.
In studying the effects of immigrants on American society, as well as the effects of American society on immigrants, better information is needed in five areas:. Workshop participants observed that there is a need for further research on immigrant adjustment and the policies necessary for improved adjustment by. There are examples of ways to improve data sources without beginning new data collection systems.
The Comprehensive Perinatal Programs in California and elsewhere have collected extensive, high-quality data. Identifying such programs may be useful in order to computerize the existing data for research uses inexpensively. Policy analysis requires improved information on, for example, the speed of adjustment to jobs, English language abilities, fertility changes, and individual endowments and community context.
Workshop discussion suggested that additional research is needed on immigrant assimilation and federal programs. First, workshop participants emphasized the need for contextual analysis, work that takes into account situations in which immigrants differ by type of entry and type of environment. Second, a moderate proportion of immigrants return to their countries of origin.
Studies of return migration could provide useful insights into assimilation or, in some cases, lack of assimilation. Third, different types of immigrants face different eligibility rules for welfare participation. Useful comparative studies of recent immigrants could be conducted that take advantage of the natural variation in welfare eligibility.
Fourth, the visa category of immigrant entry is important for policy studies on the effects of immigration because the characteristics of legal immigration are affected by the number of visas issued. The decennial census and the Current Population Survey are not appropriate for collecting immigration status, however, because they are self-administered respondents often do not know their specific immigrant status and questions on immigration status on the Current Population Survey could affect the collection of employment data.
Expanded data on immigration status could be collected better on special surveys or in conjunction with linked Immigration and Naturalization Service administration records.
Fifth, most new immigrants in recent decades are members of racial and ethnic minorities. This introduces a new and complicated context for immigration studies, with the requirement for information on racial identity in conjunction with the analysis of other immigrant characteristics. In the absence of a longitudinal survey of immigrants that would permit the estimation of duration models, the decennial census and the Current Population Survey are the primary instruments for analyzing the impacts of immigration.
Modest revisions to both instruments with data on place of birth, citizenship, and year of arrival would greatly enhance the range of possible analyses. It would also be worthwhile to add questions on immigration status to the core questionnaire for the Survey of Income and Program Participation, rather than limiting these questions to the topical modules. I am a third-generation Austrian-American. My great-grandmother lived in Chicago for 40 years, in a neighbourhood where everybody spoke her native German; she actually never learned to speak English.
However, the barriers go beyond language. So how do we smooth the path of assimilation for immigrants in their new homeland? At Tupperware Brands, we have a diverse workforce of more than 3 million women operating around the world. We are good at managing a broad range of cultures; still, in each of our markets we face the challenges of working with members of new immigrant communities.
To better understand the dynamics, we had a closer look at our German business, because Germany is home to more than 12 million immigrants, one of the largest immigrant populations in the world.
GFI interviewed members of our sales force, both native Germans and first- and second-generation migrants, specifically from Turkey and Russia. Initially, we got it wrong as well. For years, we gave everybody identical support — both the locals and the migrants. It was obvious that our German business leaders had to rethink the entire recruitment path for immigrants, to ensure they would successfully onboard and train them.
So we changed the internal process to focus on learning, and working with the skills and qualities these women already possessed. We basically levelled the playing field by eliminating the potential barriers faced by immigrants entering the workforce. We provided tools that could be flexibly applied, ease their paths and built bridges.
Tearing down barriers such as language and requirements for formal levels of education resulted in job opportunities and less discrimination. We shifted to help immigrant women work as peers, so that they could succeed based on their accomplishments, regardless of education, background or economic status. In other words, we are enabling participation rather than forcing assimilation. Language: Allow them to work in their native tongue … so translate all materials! After all, for some time their customers will be those most like them.
Skills: Enough already about the tough cognitive skills taught in school! Self- discipline. These essentials are not taught in any aspect of formal education yet are inherent in so many people. Coaching: Immigrants need a guiding hand, and who better to give this responsibility to than those who actually speak their language and understand their culture? Template: Provide a step-by-step formula to minimize mistakes and early failures.
Create guiderails that develop and enhance positive experiences and build confidence. These four basic tools help immigrants participate and eventually integrate in the economy and society.
They are transferable and can be used in many industries, from real estate and insurance to teaching. These tools can help build professional skills that will allow women — both native and migrant — to compete in a rapidly changing job market that is increasingly valuing transferrable essential skills over more narrow hard skills. Yet these are often relationships with people like themselves, and do little to achieve true participation.
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