National Origin
Is Hispanic Population Dispersion into Rural Counties Contributing to Local Economic Growth?
Dennis Coates & T.H. Gindling
Contemporary Economic Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
In the 1990s, rural counties in the United States, which had been losing population, became the destinations for an increasing number of Hispanics, slowing and in some cases reversing population declines. In this paper, we examine whether faster growth in the Hispanic population is linked to faster growth in income per capita in rural counties. Our results indicate strong support for the hypothesis that population growth caused by the increase in Hispanics, whether from international immigrants, migrants from within the United States, or from natural growth in families, has fueled increased economic growth in those small, rural communities whose populations had been in decline during the 1970s or the 1980s.
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High Parenting Aggravation Among US Immigrant Families
Stella Yu & Gopal Singh
American Journal of Public Health, November 2012, Pages 2102-2108
Objectives: We examined the association between the joint effects of children's immigrant family type and race/ethnicity on parenting aggravation.
Methods: We analyzed data on a nationally representative sample of 101 032 children aged birth through 17 years from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health.
Results: Analysis of the Aggravation in Parenting Scale showed that 26% of foreign-born parents with foreign-born children were highly aggravated, followed by 22% of foreign-born parents with US-born children and 11% of US-born parents. Multivariable analyses indicated that all minority parents experienced high parenting aggravation compared with non-Hispanic White US-born parents; the odds of reporting parenting aggravation were 5 times higher for Hispanic foreign-born parents. All foreign-born parents, regardless of race/ethnicity, reported significantly elevated parenting aggravation. Parents of adolescents, children with special health care needs, and nontraditional and lower-income households were also more likely to report high parenting aggravation.
Conclusions: Our findings clearly document significantly elevated levels of parenting aggravation among immigrant and minority families. Public health programs and clinicians should target referrals and interventions for these families to avoid potential health problems for both children and their families.
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What is in a Name? Mutual Fund Flows When Managers Have Foreign Sounding Names
Alok Kumar, Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi & Oliver Spalt
University of Miami Working Paper, June 2012
Abstract:
This paper shows that stereotypes associated with a person's name affect the investment choices of U.S. mutual fund investors. Compared to managers with typical American names, fund managers with foreign-sounding names have lower fund flows, even though there are no significant differences in their investment style and performance. These managers also experience lower appreciation in flows following good performance and greater decline in flows following poor performance. The flow effects are stronger for funds that have more conservative investor clienteles or are located in regions where racial/ethnic stereotypes are more pronounced. Further, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, fund managers with Middle-Eastern and South-Asian names experience a drop in fund flows relative to other managers with foreign-sounding names. Even in an experimental setting where managerial skill differences do not exist, individuals allocate 14% less money to an index fund managed by an individual with foreign-sounding name. Our rough calculations indicate that lower fund flows can reduce the annual compensation of managers with foreign-sounding names by over hundred thousand dollars. Collectively, our results provide evidence of taste-based discrimination and show that social biases affect capital allocations even in one of the largest and most liquid capital market segments.
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New Destinations, New Trajectories? The Educational Progress of Hispanic Youth in North Carolina
Charles Clotfelter, Helen Ladd & Jacob Vigdor
Child Development, September/October 2012, Pages 1608-1622
Abstract:
Since 1990, Latin American immigrants to the United States have dispersed beyond traditional gateway regions to a number of "new destinations." Both theory and past empirical evidence provide mixed guidance as to whether the children of these immigrants are adversely affected by residing in a nontraditional destination. This study uses administrative public school data to study over 2,800 8- to 18-year-old Hispanic youth in one new destination, North Carolina. Conditional on third-grade socioeconomic indicators, Hispanic youth who arrive by age 9 and remain enrolled in North Carolina public schools close achievement gaps with socioeconomically similar White students by sixth grade and exhibit significantly lower high school dropout rates. Their performance resembles that of first-generation youth in more established immigration gateways.
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Opposition to Pro-Immigrant Public Policy: Symbolic Racism and Group Threat
Justin Allen Berg
Sociological Inquiry, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examines the relationship between symbolic racism and native-born citizens' policy opinions toward legal and undocumented immigration. With data from the 1994 General Social Survey and the NPR/Kaiser Foundation/Kennedy School of Government 2004 Immigration Survey, the results from logit regression models indicate that symbolic racism significantly predicts opposition to legal immigration, immigrant access to federal aid, and standard costs for college, citizenship for U.S.-born children, and work permits for undocumented immigrants. The effects are independent of group threat and other factors. Symbolic racism explained more variation in policy opinions toward government assistance, while group threat explained more variation toward immigration levels and citizenship status. Depending on the issue, native-born citizens likely derive their immigration policy opinions from moral ideologies in addition to intergroup competition.
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Caroline Sten Hartnett & Emilio Parrado
Sociological Quarterly, Autumn 2012, Pages 636-653
Abstract:
Familism has been described as a cultural trait that might explain why the fertility of Hispanic women remains higher than non-Hispanic white women. Still, few studies have analyzed group differences in childbearing attitudes. This article focuses on two dimensions of childbearing orientation: social value of children and fertility intentions. Using the National Survey of Family Growth, we find limited support for the idea that familism undergirds differentials in fertility between native-born Hispanics and whites. However, for foreign-born Hispanics, there are some differences in the perceived value of children compared with whites, and these differences could contribute to fertility differentials.
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Discovering Diverse Mechanisms of Migration: The Mexico-US Stream 1970-2000
Filiz Garip
Population and Development Review, September 2012, Pages 393-433
Abstract:
Migrants to the United States are a diverse population. This diversity, identified in various migration theories, is overlooked in empirical applications that describe a typical narrative for an average migrant. Using the Mexican Migration Project data from about 17,000 first-time migrants from Mexico to the US between 1970 and 2000, this study employs cluster analysis to identify four types of migrants with distinct configurations of characteristics. Each migrant type corresponds to a specific theoretical account and becomes prevalent in a specific period, depending on economic, social, and political conditions in Mexico and the US. Around the period when each migrant type becomes prevalent, a corresponding theory is also developed.
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Distinct Trajectories in the Transition to Adulthood: Are Children of Immigrants Advantaged?
Lingxin Hao & Han Woo
Child Development, September/October 2012, Pages 1623-1639
Abstract:
Studies on children of immigrants have generally ignored distinct developmental trajectories during adolescence and their role in the transition to adulthood. This study identifies distinct trajectories in cognitive, sociobehavioral, and psychological domains and estimates their consequences for young adults. Drawing data from a nationally representative sample of 10,795 adolescents aged 13-17 who were followed up to ages 25-32, the study uses growth mixture modeling to test advantages for children of immigrants. The analysis shows a 1.5-generation advantage in academic achievement and school engagement, as well as a weaker second-generation advantage in academic achievement, but no disadvantage in depression for children of immigrants. In addition, these results hold for children of Hispanic origin. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.
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Dina Okamoto, Daniel Herda & Cassie Hartzog
Social Science Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Past research has typically focused on educational attainment and achievement to understand the assimilation process for immigrant youth. However, academic achievement constitutes only part of the schooling experience. In this paper, we move beyond traditional measures such as test scores and dropout, and examine patterns of school-sponsored extracurricular activity participation. Analyzing data from Add Health and drawing upon the frog-pond and segmented assimilation frameworks, we find that immigrant minority youth are disadvantaged in regards to activity participation relative to the average student in high- compared to low-SES schools. In high-SES schools, immigrant youth are less similar to their peers in terms of socioeconomic, race, and immigrant status, and as suggested by the frog-pond hypothesis, social comparison and ranking processes contribute to lower levels of social integration of immigrant youth into the school setting. We also find that as percent minority rises in high-SES schools, participation increases as well. The opposite pattern appears in low-SES schools: when percent minority increases, activity participation among immigrant minority students declines. These results are commensurate with both theoretical frameworks, and suggest that different mechanisms are at work in high- and low-SES schools. However, the effects of minority peers do not seem to hold for sports participation, and we also find that percent immigrant operates differently from percent minority, depressing the probability of activity participation across both high- and low-SES schools. The main implication of our results is that racially diverse, higher-SES schools are the most favorable contexts for the social integration of immigrant minority youth as well as third- and later-generation blacks and Hispanics.
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International migration and the welfare state revisited
Noel Gaston & Gulasekaran Rajaguru
European Journal of Political Economy, forthcoming
Abstract:
Immigration is a controversial topic in most developed economies. The presence of a redistributive welfare state in all major immigrant host countries creates a margin on which immigration affects native welfare. The primary focus of the paper is whether a large intake of immigrants reduces welfare state effort. It is usually argued that steady increases in immigration lead to public pressure for lower levels of publicly-funded social expenditures. In contrast to the earlier empirical literature on this topic, we find little evidence in favour of this hypothesis. While immigration does have a relatively modest effect on the welfare state, if anything there is some support for the view that a greater influx of immigrants has lead policy-makers to increase welfare state spending.
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Ethnic Change, Concern over Immigration, and Approval of State Government
Benjamin Newman & Joshua Johnson
State Politics & Policy Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
The popularity and approval of a governor among their state citizenry is a central form of political capital that animates the informal power key to their legislative success and bolsters their prospects for reelection. Within the extant literature exploring the sources of approval of state executives, the lion's share of the work focuses on the deleterious effects on approval of a poorly performing national and state economy. In the present article, we rely on the same logic underlying the economic-centered research - namely, that unhappy citizens blame governors and state governments for their discontent - but focus on the impact on approval of an entirely separate and relatively unexplored domain of life in a state: ethno-demographics. This article advances the hypothesis that citizen discontent over drastic ethnic change in their local environment is politicized as concern over immigration, which in turn serves as a concrete political issue through which personal discontent over increased ethnic diversity is translated into lower approval of state government. This hypothesis is tested within the context of the state of California using pooled statewide survey data. Our analyses demonstrate that growth in the Hispanic population within a respondent's county of residence significantly increases concern over immigration within the state, and that concern over immigration significantly decreases approval of state government across the board, including the governor, the state legislature, and one's local state representatives.
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Priya Mariana Shimpi & Sabrina Zirkel
Journal of Social Issues, September 2012, Pages 534-558
Abstract:
Increased migration is, in many ways, the sine qua non of globalization. In this manuscript, we examine the single case of Chinese American immigration in the United States over a 150-year period to explore how race and interracial attitudes shape immigrant-host relations in very deep ways. We find remarkably little change in the valence of these conversations or even in the precise content of the depictions of Chinese Americans over time. A detailed analysis of depictions and conversations about Chinese Americans in a variety of contexts finds that European Americans in the United States often describe them as: (1) self-segregating, (2) lacking loyalty to the United States, and (3) hardworking and successful, but simultaneously lacking in "humanity." We highlight the way such depictions ignore any attention to basic facts; we use these data to discuss the ways that race and interracial interaction form the core of immigrant-host relations; and we use this case study to highlight how race shapes immigrant-host relations around the globe.
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Elizabeth Washbrook et al.
Child Development, September/October 2012, Pages 1591-1607
Abstract:
In spite of important differences in some of the resources immigrant parents have to invest in their children, and in immigrant selection rules and settlement policies, there are significant similarities in the relative positions of 4- and 5-year-old children of immigrants in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Children of immigrants underperform their counterparts with native-born parents in vocabulary tests, particularly if a language other than the official language is spoken at home, but are not generally disadvantaged in nonverbal cognitive domains, nor are there notable behavioral differences. These findings suggest that the cross-country differences in cognitive outcomes during the teen years documented in the existing literature are much less evident during the early years.
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Jayanti Owens & Scott Lynch
Sociology of Education, October 2012, Pages 303-325
Abstract:
Stereotype threat is a widely supported theory for understanding the racial achievement gap in college grade performance. However, today's minority college students are increasingly of immigrant origins, and it is unclear whether two dispositional mechanisms that may increase susceptibility to stereotype threat are applicable to immigrants. We use survey data to examine whether and how negative-ability stereotypes affect the grades of 1,865 first-, second-, and third-generation or higher (domestic) minority students at 28 selective American colleges. Structural equation model results indicate that first-generation immigrants are highly resistant to both dispositional identity threat mechanisms we consider. Second-generation immigrants experience only certain dispositional elements of identity threat. Drawing on research in social psychology, we suggest immigrants tend to resist stereotype threat in part due to the primacy of their immigrant identities and their connectedness to the opportunity structure of mainstream society.
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Alexandra Filindra
State Politics & Policy Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
This article examines differences in the drivers of state Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Medicaid immigrant eligibility policies, determined in the wake of the 1996 Welfare Reform. The findings show that differences in the incentive structures of the two programs may affect the way race politics influence each. Specifically, race is a strong negative correlate for TANF inclusion of immigrants as states with large African American populations were more likely to exclude legal permanent residents from the program. In the case of Medicaid, the size of the immigrant population is a strong positive correlate for inclusion. The effect of the size of the black population, although negative, is small and not significant. The study confirms extant research findings that ideological factors play an important role in the formation of both policies.
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Health and Medical Care among the Children of Immigrants
Kathleen Ziol-Guest & Ariel Kalil
Child Development, September/October 2012, Pages 1494-1500
Abstract:
Using data spanning 1996-2009 from multiple panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, this study investigates children's (average age 8.5 years) physical health, dental visits, and doctor contact among low-income children (n = 46,148) in immigrant versus native households. Immigrant households are further distinguished by household citizenship and immigration status. The findings show that children residing in households with non-naturalized citizen parents, particularly those with a nonpermanent resident parent, experience worse health and less access to care even when controlling for important demographic, socioeconomic, and health insurance variables.
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Latino Immigration and Representation in Local Politics
Rene Rocha & Tetsuya Matsubayashi
Urban Affairs Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Theories of racial politics argue that areas with large minority population are characterized by greater levels of policy equity, yet empirical research often fails to find evidence for this prediction. In this article, we develop and test an alternative view of the relationship between minority group size and the representation of minority interests in government using the case of Latino representation in local politics. We argue that Latino group size results in both favorable and unfavorable policy outcomes for Latino communities. The nature of the Latino population, specifically the extent to which it is composed primarily of citizens or noncitizens, explains when each outcome will occur. Latinos achieve more favorable policy outcomes for their interests when the size of the Latino citizen population increases but less favorable outcomes when the number of Latino noncitizens increases. The negative effect of noncitizen group size is mediated by the presence of Latino citizens and representatives. Our hypotheses are tested using data from a national sample of several hundred local school districts and educational policy outcomes.
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Globalization, Brain Drain, and Development
Frédéric Docquier & Hillel Rapoport
Journal of Economic Literature, September 2012, Pages 681-730
Abstract:
This paper reviews four decades of economics research on the brain drain, with a focus on recent contributions and on development issues. We first assess the magnitude, intensity, and determinants of the brain drain, showing that brain drain (or high-skill) migration is becoming a dominant pattern of international migration and a major aspect of globalization. We then use a stylized growth model to analyze the various channels through which a brain drain affects the sending countries and review the evidence on these channels. The recent empirical literature shows that high-skill emigration need not deplete a country's human capital stock and can generate positive network externalities. Three case studies are also considered: the African medical brain drain, the exodus of European scientists to the United States, and the role of the Indian diaspora in the development of India's information technology sector. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of the analysis for education, immigration, and international taxation policies in a global context.
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The children of immigrants' diminishing perceptions of just and fair punishment
Anthony Peguero
Punishment & Society, October 2012, Pages 429-451
Abstract:
Perceptions of school rules and punishment practices, particularly for racial and ethnic minority youth, are related to educational progress, psychological well-being, and adult stability and success. What remains uncertain is how the fastest growing segment of the population in the USA, the children of immigrants, perceives the rules and punishment practices within their schools. This study utilizes data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 and incorporates multilevel analysis to examine the children of immigrants' perceptions of the school rules and punishment practices, which indeed reveal imperative findings. First generation youth have increased perceptions of just and fair punishment practices within their schools; however, Black/African American and Latino American third-plus generation youth have diminished perceptions of just and fair punishment practices within their schools. The implications of the evident racial and ethnic, as well as generational, disparities in the perceptions of the school rules and punishment practices in the USA are discussed more generally.
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Juan Falomir-Pichastor & Natasha Frederic
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, January 2013, Pages 72-79
Abstract:
The present research examined the impact of perceived ingroup identity heterogeneity on intergroup relations. We predicted that the effect of a heterogeneous national identity on perceived ingroup threat and prejudice toward immigrants would be moderated by strength of national identification. To test this hypothesis, we conducted two studies (N = 230) in which we evaluated national identification and experimentally manipulated national identity heterogeneity (low versus high), and then assessed perceived ingroup threat and prejudice toward immigrants. Study 1 showed that perception of immigrants as a threat increased as national identification increased. Moreover, national identity heterogeneity increased the perceived threat when national identification was high, but not when it was low. Study 2 extended these findings to a measure of prejudice against immigrants from either similar or very different countries. We discuss our findings in terms of the impact heterogeneous social identities may have when there is a perceived threat to the clear and representative definition of the ingroup identity.
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Fernando Riosmena & Jeff Dennis
Social Science Journal, September 2012, Pages 325-329
Abstract:
Previous studies find U.S. immigrants have weaker socioeconomic gradients in health relative to non-Hispanic Whites and their U.S.-born co-ethnics. Several explanations have been advanced but few have been tested empirically. We use data from the Mexican Family Life Survey and the U.S. National Health Interview Survey, including longitudinal data in the former measuring socioeconomic status (SES) and health previous to emigration, to test if (1) immigrants "import" their gradients from the sending country, or if (2) they may be changing as a result of SES-graded acculturation among Mexican migrant men in two health indicators: obesity and current smoking. We find evidence consistent with the first hypothesis: the gradients of migrants measured prior to coming to the U.S. are not statistically different from those of nonmigrants, as the gradients of each are relatively weak. Although the gradients for obesity and smoking appear to weaken with time spent in the U.S., the differences are not significant, suggesting little support for the selective acculturation hypothesis.
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M. Kreither et al.
Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, September 2012, Pages S39
Abstract:
Recent work from our laboratory shows that overall stress and pregnancy-specific distress can have a negative impact on pregnancy. However, the impact of maternal ethnicity and sociocultural factors on these relationships remains to be understood. In present study one hundred nine Latina women were recruited at Denver Health. The study assessed the role of maternal ethnicity and acculturation on the effects of pregnancy-specific distress, overall social support, medical staff and partner support upon pregnancy complications including low birthweight (LBW) and preterm birth, as well as overall stress and life events early (14-17 weeks) and later (28-32 weeks) during pregnancy. T-tests showed that Latinas reported significantly higher levels of partner support and support from medical personnel than Caucasian women throughout pregnancy. Analyses of the Latina sample alone showed that low partner support early and later in pregnancy were associated with higher maternal acculturation, lower 1-min APGAR scores, and lower infant birthweight. Higher maternal acculturation was also significantly related to more pregnancy and birth complications, lower infant birthweight and lower gestational age at birth. Additional analyses showed that the effects of partner support early and later in pregnancy upon infant birthweight and pregnancy complications were significantly mediated by levels of maternal acculturation.
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Digging for "Spanish Gold": How to Connect with Hispanic Consumers
Cynthia Rodriguez Cano & David Ortinau
Journal of Advertising Research, Summer 2012, Pages 322-332
Abstract:
The current study introduces the concept of ethnic compatibility to explain differences between strong and weak Hispanic identifiers' evaluation of print advertising. The findings challenge the effectiveness of multicultural advertisements that are intended to reach multiple ethnic groups simultaneously by featuring various ethnicities' models together. Although this non-adaptation communication strategy is mainstream in the United States, the findings suggest that it may be ineffective in connecting with strong Hispanic identifiers.