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By laurahernandez, November 20, 2009 3:59 pm

Dear Colleagues,

Please join us on Tuesday, December 1, from 12:00pm to 1:30pm. We are happy to have Professor Nae Ngai, Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and Professor of History at Columbia University.  Please note that this meeting will be co-sponsored with the Social History Workshop and we will be meeting in the John Hope Franklin room.

Immigration Workshop

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The University of Chicago

Social Science Research Building

1126 East 59th Street

John Hope Franklin Room (224)

12:00 – 1:30

“The True Story of Ah Jake: Language and Justice in the California Interior in the Late 19th Century”

by Professor Mae Ngai

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By laurahernandez, November 5, 2009 4:30 pm

Please join us on Tuesday, November  17, from 12:00pm to 1:20pm. We are happy to have Maria Medvedeva, a Ph.D. Candidate from the Department of Sociology as our speaker.

Immigration Workshop
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The University of Chicago
William Rainey Harper Memorial Library
1116 E. 59th St., Room 102
12:00 – 1:20

“Bilingualism in Adolescence: Challenges and Opportunities”

Abstract

This presentation will provide an overview of sociological and linguistic studies on immigrant linguistic adaptation. It will begin with a simple distinction between bilingualism by choice and bilingualism by necessity to emphasize the critically distinct conditions for the foreign language learning by linguistic majorities and the majority language acquisition by linguistic minorities. Then it will turn to general causes of linguistic adaptation (including ethnic origin, age, age at arrival and length of residence in the host country, gender, household composition and family socio-economic status) and specific causes of adolescent adaptation (including the role of child-parent relationships and peer relationships in defining youth’s linguistic self-consciousness and linguistic self-confidence). After that it will review possible consequences of linguistic adaptation for youth’s well-being and socio-economic prospects. The presentation will conclude with theoretical and methodological considerations for studies of immigrant linguistic adaptation in adolescence.

For further information or to make arrangements for a person with a disability, please contact Laura Hernandez (lah@uchicago.edu).

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By laurahernandez, October 27, 2009 10:06 pm

Dear Colleagues,

Please join us on Tuesday, November 3, from 12:00pm to 1:20pm. We are happy to have Jennifer Buntin, a Ph.D. Candidate from the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago as our speaker.

Immigration Workshop

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The University of Chicago
William

Rainey Harper Memorial Library
1116 E. 59th St.,

Room 102,
12:00 – 1:20

“Beyond the immigrant church:  conceptualizing connections between immigrants and non-immigrant churches”

Presented by:

Jennifer Buntin

Department of Sociology

Abstract

Current approaches to migration generally limit their analyses to the migrants and the  migrant community, in isolation from the broader receiving community.  With regard to religion,  this limitation translates into a focus on the immigrant or ethnic church as the primary unit of analysis for the study of immigrant religious participation.  In this article, I challenge this assumption by asking the following question: In new US immigrant destinations, do non- immigrant churches interact with and incorporate the immigrants?  If so, in what ways?  To answer this question, I utilise data from a case study of non-immigrant churches in Aurora, Illinois, a community on the western edge of the Chicago metropolitan area that has experienced a dramatic influx of Mexican immigrants since the 1990s.  My findings suggest three models for understanding these interactions: the mission model, the sister church model, and the multi- ethnic congregation model.  In sum, these models depict varying degrees of immigrant/ethnic incorporation, as well as a diverse set of social relations between immigrants and non-immigrants that are obscured by current approaches to studying immigrant religious activity.

Paper: Buntin Church Paper

For further information or to make arrangements for a person with a disability, please contact Laura Hernandez (lah@uchicago.edu).

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By laurahernandez, October 12, 2009 9:36 am

Please join us on Tuesday, October 20, from 12:00pm to 1:30pm. We are happy to have Professor Donald Bogue, as our speaker. Dr. Bogue is a Professor of Sociology and the Harris School of Public Policy as well as a research associate at the Population Research Center at NORC.

Immigration Workshop
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The University of Chicago
William Rainey Harper Memorial Library
1116 E. 59th St., Room 102
12:00 – 1:30

“A Review of Three Recent Monographs (Iceland, White, Bogue) on Immigrant Adjustment/Assimilation”

Presented by:

Donald J. Bogue

Department of Sociology,

Harris School of Public Policy

Population Research Center, NORC

Abstract

Within the past year three noteworthy research monographs have been published focused on the adjustment, accommodation, or assimilation of immigrants to the United States.  All were written by responsible demographers.   They are of a statistical nature, based on data representative of the entire nation.  Immigrant adjustment/assimilation is truly the province of qualitative research—anthropology, social psychology, sociology  (“the migration experience.” for both immigrants and their hosts)  However, demographers can also make a meaningful contribution. They can identify objective conditions that indicate assimilation or lack of it, and provide comprehensive nationwide data for each. This sketches a factual picture of what the immigrant adjustment situation is right now and how it appears to be currently changing.  Hence, the three monographs are significant foundation resources in the current policy discussions about the immigration policy of the U.S. and proposed changes to it.

The monographs are:

• John Iceland. This is Where We Live Now. Russell Sage, 2009
• Michael J. White and Jennifer E. Glick. . Achieving Anew. Russell Sage, 2009
• Donald J. Bogue, Gregory Liegel, and Michael Kozlinski. Immigration, Internal Migration, and Local Mobility in the United States. Elgar publishers. 2009.

Together, five basic demographic indicators of adjustment/assimilation are selected:

• Residential concentration (segregation) of immigrants apart from natives.
• Educational performance of immigrant and second generation children
• Labor force characteristics(participation, unemployment, income, poverty)
• Fertility rates and intermarriage
• Naturalization (citizenship)

They all review the research that predated them. They all discuss the theories and concepts that underlie the study of immigrant adjustment. All explain the methodological issues and techniques that underlie their analysis. Together, they bring the study of immigrant adjustment to a new level, which all future work can build on.

The combined findings of these studies is that progress toward assimilation is being made along each of the dimensions, but that there are wide differentials.  The personal characteristics of immigrants, more than their nation of origin, is the major differentiating factor.

A Review of Three Recent Monographs on Immigrant Adjustment

HANDOUT #1

HANDOUT #2

For further information or to make arrangements for a person with a disability, please contact Laura Hernandez (lah@uchicago.edu).

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By laurahernandez, October 4, 2009 3:40 pm

Please join us on Thursday, October 8, from 4:15pm to 5:30pm. We are happy to have Jonathan Rosa, a Ph.D. Candidate from Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago as our speaker. Please note that this meeting will be co-sponsored with the Workshop on Race and Racial Ideologies and we will meet at The Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture (CSRPC) at 5733 S. University Ave.

Immigration Workshop &
Workshop on Race and Racial Ideologies
Thursday, October 8, 2009
The University of Chicago
The Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture
5733 S. University Ave.
4:15pm – 5:30pm

Transforming “At Risk Youth” into “Young Latino Professionals”: Extreme Makeovers and the Ambivalent Management of Stigmatized Identities
Presented by:
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago

This paper focuses on efforts toward the creation of “Young Latino Professionals” within a highly segregated Chicago public high school whose student body is more than 90% Mexican and Puerto Rican. It analyzes the contradictions teachers and administrators face as they simultaneously work to validate and transform students’ modes of self-making. The paper begins by presenting a thick description of the anxieties surrounding violence, sex, and poverty that surround Latina/o youth socialization in the Chicago context. It goes on to analyze the ways in which students conceptualize the transformation that they are encouraged to experience within school. I argue that this transformation becomes an ambivalent negotiation that alternately locates the “problem” within the students themselves and outsiders’ perceptions of them. This ambivalence demonstrates the complex ways in which youth socialization must be managed in the city with some of the nation’s highest youth homicide, pregnancy, and dropout rates.

Paper: Jonathan Rosa – Race Workshop – 10.8.09

For further information or to make arrangements for a person with a disability, please contact Laura Hernandez (lah@uchicago.edu).