Download or read book Keys to Achieving the American Dream Among Mexican Immigrants written by Esther Castillo and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the general area of immigrant incorporation studies, few investigations have looked at interconnections among different kinds of incorporation, but instead have usually focused on only one facet of incorporation at a time. Scholars vary considerably in their perceptions of immigrant incorporation, and this variation is particularly pronounced for Mexican immigrants. Some scholars emphasize slow but steady mobility while others focus on barriers and downfalls. Still others see Mexicans and their descendants as unassimilable. Classic assimilation theory proposes that with the occurrence of "structural assimilation," or entrance into mainstream primary groups, all other forms of assimilation will naturally follow in no particular order. It further holds that exposure to the host country will also help account for similarities shared by newcomers and natives, if for no other reason than time diminishes differences. This dissertation investigates relationships between indicators of the American Dream and some of the most important aspects of the incorporation of Mexican immigrants-the strength and direction of the relationship between an important aspect of economic incorporation, homeownership, critical aspects of political and sociocultural incorporation, ethnoracial identity, and naturalization, respectively. It also investigates for U.S.-born Mexican Americans the relationship between homeownership and ethnoracial identity. The findings indicate that Mexican immigrant homeowners (44.6%) are more likely than non-homeowners (21.6%) to be naturalized. Time in the country for Mexican immigrants has a positive effect on homeownership, as age has a positive odds (1.012) on identifying as white in the race category listed by the U.S. Census Bureau. The data shows that 57% of Mexican Americans are homeowners, 54% identify as being white, and their mean years of education is just below 12 years, not too far from that of the average American-born native, with just above a mean household income of $46,000. These findings suggest exposure to American ways of life, or proactively incorporating, is working for Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans on their pathway to achieving the American Dream. Key words: Immigration, Incorporation, Mexican Immigrants, Mexican Americans, Homeownership, Naturalization, Citizenship, Racial Identity, American Dream.
Download or read book Remembering the American Dream written by Roberto Suro and published by Twentieth Century Foundation. This book was released on 1994 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Twentieth Century Fund paper.
Download or read book We Became Mexican American written by Carlos B. Gil and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2012-08-17 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a story of Mexican family that arrived in America in the 1920s for the first time. And so, it is a tale of immigration, settlement and cultural adjustment, as well as generational progress. Carlos B. Gil, one of the American sons born to this family, places a magnifying glass on his ancestors who abandoned Mexico to arrive on the northern edge of Los Angeles, California. He narrates how his unprivileged relatives walked away from their homes in western Jalisco and northern Michoacán and traveled over several years to the U.S. border, crossing it at Nogales, Arizona, and then finally settling into the barrio of the city of San Fernando. Based on actual interviews, the author recounts how his parents met, married, and started a family on the eve of the Great Depression. With the aid of their testimonials, the author’s brothers and sisters help him tell of their growing up. They call to memory their father’s trials and tribulations as he tried to succeed in a new land, laboring as a common citrus worker, and how their mother helped shore him up as thousands of workers lost their jobs on account of the economic crash of 1929. Their story takes a look at how the family survived the Depression and a tragic accident, how they engaged in micro businesses as a survival tactic, and how the Gil children gradually became American, or Mexican American, as they entered young adulthood beginning in the 1940s. It also describes what life was like in their barrio. The author also comments briefly on the advancement of the second and third Gil generations and, in the Afterword, likewise offers a wide-ranging assessment of his family’s experience including observations about the challenges facing other Latinos today.
Download or read book Quest of the American Dream A Guide to Culture Shock Encounters among Immigrants and American Visitors written by Dominic Charles Okero and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Italians Then Mexicans Now written by Joel Perlmann and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2005-11-17 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to the American dream, hard work and a good education can lift people from poverty to success in the "land of opportunity." The unskilled immigrants who came to the United States from southern, central, and eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries largely realized that vision. Within a few generations, their descendants rose to the middle class and beyond. But can today's unskilled immigrant arrivals—especially Mexicans, the nation's most numerous immigrant group—expect to achieve the same for their descendants? Social scientists disagree on this question, basing their arguments primarily on how well contemporary arrivals are faring. In Italians Then, Mexicans Now, Joel Perlmann uses the latest immigration data as well as 100 years of historical census data to compare the progress of unskilled immigrants and their American-born children both then and now. The crucial difference between the immigrant experience a hundred years ago and today is that relatively well-paid jobs were plentiful for workers with little education a hundred years ago, while today's immigrants arrive in an increasingly unequal America. Perlmann finds that while this change over time is real, its impact has not been as strong as many scholars have argued. In particular, these changes have not been great enough to force today's Mexican second generation into an inner-city "underclass." Perlmann emphasizes that high school dropout rates among second-generation Mexicans are alarmingly high, and are likely to have a strong impact on the group's well-being. Yet despite their high dropout rates, Mexican Americans earn at least as much as African Americans, and they fare better on social measures such as unwed childbearing and incarceration, which often lead to economic hardship. Perlmann concludes that inter-generational progress, though likely to be slower than it was for the European immigrants a century ago, is a reality, and could be enhanced if policy interventions are taken to boost high school graduation rates for Mexican children. Rich with historical data, Italians Then, Mexicans Now persuasively argues that today's Mexican immigrants are making slow but steady socio-economic progress and may one day reach parity with earlier immigrant groups who moved up into the heart of the American middle class. Copublished with the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
Download or read book How to Achieve the American Dream Without Losing Your Latin Soul written by Don Daniel Ortiz and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2013-04 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many Latinos have a deep desire to achieve the "American Dream", to attain success and discover their life purpose. Yet, in the pursuit of these elusive goals, many end up merely "Keeping up with the Joneses" or realize too late that the ladder of success they are climbing is leaning against the wrong wall. Now, in How to Achieve the 'American Dream' – Without Losing Your Latin Soul, author and "America's #1 Latino Success Coach" Don Daniel Ortiz shows readers of all backgrounds that not only is reaching your "American Dream" possible, he also reveals a secret path, hidden in the stories of ancient mythology, that will lead you directly to the achievement of your deepest desire, your highest hopes and personal fulfillment. In, How to Achieve the 'American Dream' – Without Losing Your Latin Soul, readers will discover how to: * Stop chasing success and start living your life purpose * Bridge the gap between your "Two Worlds" * Harness the power of Latino values Faith, Family & Frijoles * Define your Latino version of the "American Dream" * Unlock the secrets of your personal story * Follow a proven 7-Step path for achieving your "American Dream" * Overcome fear to find peace, happiness and fulfillment * And much more Written with a unique Latino perspective, How to Achieve the 'American Dream' – Without Losing Your Latin Soul is an inspiring, insightful and entertaining book that unlocks the powerful, profound secrets hidden in your personal story – and about overcoming fear to achieve your American Dream.
Download or read book Stagnant Dreamers written by Maria G. Rendon and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2019-12-31 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2020 Robert E. Park Award for Best Book from the Community and Urban Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association Winner of the 2020 Distinguished Contribution to Research Award from the Latino/a Section of the American Sociological Association Honorable Mention for the 2020 Thomas and Znaniecki Award from the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association A quarter of young adults in the U.S. today are the children of immigrants, and Latinos are the largest minority group. In Stagnant Dreamers, sociologist and social policy expert María Rendón follows 42 young men from two high-poverty Los Angeles neighborhoods as they transition into adulthood. Based on in-depth interviews and ethnographic observations with them and their immigrant parents, Stagnant Dreamers describes the challenges they face coming of age in the inner city and accessing higher education and good jobs, and demonstrates how family-based social ties and community institutions can serve as buffers against neighborhood violence, chronic poverty, incarceration, and other negative outcomes. Neighborhoods in East and South Central Los Angeles were sites of acute gang violence that peaked in the 1990s, shattering any romantic notions of American life held by the immigrant parents. Yet, Rendón finds that their children are generally optimistic about their life chances and determined to make good on their parents’ sacrifices. Most are strongly oriented towards work. But despite high rates of employment, most earn modest wages and rely on kinship networks for labor market connections. Those who made social connections outside of their family and neighborhood contexts, more often found higher quality jobs. However, a middle-class lifestyle remains elusive for most, even for college graduates. Rendón debunks fears of downward assimilation among second-generation Latinos, noting that most of her subjects were employed and many had gone on to college. She questions the ability of institutions of higher education to fully integrate low-income students of color. She shares the story of one Ivy League college graduate who finds himself working in the same low-wage jobs as his parents and peers who did not attend college. Ironically, students who leave their neighborhoods to pursue higher education are often the most exposed to racism, discrimination, and classism. Rendón demonstrates the importance of social supports in helping second-generation immigrant youth succeed. To further the integration of second-generation Latinos, she suggests investing in community organizations, combating criminalization of Latino youth, and fully integrating them into higher education institutions. Stagnant Dreamers presents a realistic yet hopeful account of how the Latino second generation is attempting to realize its vision of the American dream.
Download or read book Undocumented Mexican Immigrants and the American Dream written by Justin D. García and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book My Underground American Dream written by Julissa Arce and published by Center Street. This book was released on 2016-09-13 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A National Bestseller! What does an undocumented immigrant look like? What kind of family must she come from? How could she get into this country? What is the true price she must pay to remain in the United States? JULISSA ARCE knows firsthand that the most common, preconceived answers to those questions are sometimes far too simple-and often just plain wrong. On the surface, Arce's story reads like a how-to manual for achieving the American dream: growing up in an apartment on the outskirts of San Antonio, she worked tirelessly, achieved academic excellence, and landed a coveted job on Wall Street, complete with a six-figure salary. The level of professional and financial success that she achieved was the very definition of the American dream. But in this brave new memoir, Arce digs deep to reveal the physical, financial, and emotional costs of the stunning secret that she, like many other high-achieving, successful individuals in the United States, had been forced to keep not only from her bosses, but even from her closest friends. From the time she was brought to this country by her hardworking parents as a child, Arce-the scholarship winner, the honors college graduate, the young woman who climbed the ladder to become a vice president at Goldman Sachs-had secretly lived as an undocumented immigrant. In this surprising, at times heart-wrenching, but always inspirational personal story of struggle, grief, and ultimate redemption, Arce takes readers deep into the little-understood world of a generation of undocumented immigrants in the United States today- people who live next door, sit in your classrooms, work in the same office, and may very well be your boss. By opening up about the story of her successes, her heartbreaks, and her long-fought journey to emerge from the shadows and become an American citizen, Arce shows us the true cost of achieving the American dream-from the perspective of a woman who had to scale unseen and unimaginable walls to get there.
Download or read book Succeeding in America written by Leticia Gallares-Japzon and published by Teamcom Books. This book was released on 2001 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Succeeding in America explores the principles and techniques used by immigrants to overcome all manner of obstacles and become highly successful citizens of the United States.
Download or read book The American Dream written by Jessica Leigh Del Cid and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many Latinos from Mexico, Central America, and South America have made the decision to immigrate to the United States in recent year -- whether legally or illegally. In the literature, stories of immigration and hopes for the American Dream proliferated; however, varying degrees of racism and anti-immigration sentiment were also revealed. Interviews of first-generation Latino immigrants and American citizens that were both attendees of a local Hispanic church in southcentral Virginia showed that Latino immigrants had hopes of achieving what they believed to be the American Dream, while realizing they had a long journey ahead. American citizens were more certain of having achieved at least some portion of the American Dream, and also had hopes of fully attaining what they believed to be the American Dream.
Download or read book Mexican Voices American Dreams written by Marilyn P. Davis and published by Owl Books. This book was released on 1991 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In these vivid recollections, recorded both in Mexico and the U.S., 90 Mexican-Americans share their innermost thoughts and feelings and reveal a wealth of experiences: the risks they take, what they left behind, their dreams versus the realities, and how immigration has changed their lives.
Download or read book We ARE Americans written by William Perez and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-03 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the CEP Mildred Garcia Award for Exemplary ScholarshipAbout 2.4 million children and young adults under 24 years of age are undocumented. Brought by their parents to the US as minors—many before they had reached their teens—they account for about one-sixth of the total undocumented population. Illegal through no fault of their own, some 65,000 undocumented students graduate from the nation's high schools each year. They cannot get a legal job, and face enormous barriers trying to enter college to better themselves—and yet America is the only country they know and, for many, English is the only language they speak. What future do they have? Why are we not capitalizing, as a nation, on this pool of talent that has so much to contribute? What should we be doing?Through the inspiring stories of 16 students—from seniors in high school to graduate students—William Perez gives voice to the estimated 2.4 million undocumented students in the United States, and draws attention to their plight. These stories reveal how—despite financial hardship, the unpredictability of living with the daily threat of deportation, restrictions of all sorts, and often in the face of discrimination by their teachers—so many are not just persisting in the American educational system, but achieving academically, and moreover often participating in service to their local communities. Perez reveals what drives these young people, and the visions they have for contributing to the country they call home.Through these stories, this book draws attention to these students’ predicament, to stimulate the debate about putting right a wrong not of their making, and to motivate more people to call for legislation, like the stalled Dream Act, that would offer undocumented students who participate in the economy and civil life a path to citizenship. Perez goes beyond this to discuss the social and policy issues of immigration reform. He dispels myths about illegal immigrants’ supposed drain on state and federal resources, providing authoritative evidence to the contrary. He cogently makes the case—on economic, social, and constitutional and moral grounds—for more flexible policies towards undocumented immigrants. If today’s immigrants, like those of past generations, are a positive force for our society, how much truer is that where undocumented students are concerned?
Download or read book I Wish Everyone Was an Immigrant written by Pedro Mattos and published by . This book was released on 2018-11-12 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you an immigrant who feels like no one around you understands the daily challenges you face?Do you ever wonder why so many immigrants reach a massive level of success, despite being faced with enormous challenges?Are you someone who wants to learn how to better turn your perceived short-comings into your greatest advantages? In this inspiring and action-packed book, you will follow Pedro's incredible immigrant journey, as well as learn about the 8 key principles that immigrants use to reach the American Dream. In I Wish Everyone Was an Immigrant you will find:-The 8 Key Principles that have helped immigrants succeed in the United States.-Pedro's and his mother's immigration journey, including how he built a successful business, landed his dream job and published his first book all before the age of 20.-The #1 edge that all immigrants have, and how to leverage it in your own journey even if your not an immigrant. I Wish Everyone Was an Immigrant equips immigrants with the self-awareness to understand their own blessings, and non-immigrants the incites into the group that continues to make the country of the United States amazing.
Download or read book The Americano Dream written by Lionel Sosa and published by Plume Books. This book was released on 1999 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sosa draws on his own experiences as well as those of other successful Latino politicians, entertainers, sports stars, and business people to illustrate the obstacles that Latinos must overcome and the power of their heritage. By showing in detail how Latinos can compete and win in American society, The Americano Dream is unique in the marketplace, and will quickly become the business bible for a new generation of Latino entrepreneurs.
Download or read book The Dream Fields of Florida written by Ella Schmidt and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2009-10-29 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Immigrant workers from indigenous communities who are working in low-wage jobs are often stigmatized for their origins, their status, and their poverty. For them, achieving the American Dream means overcoming the historic biases of contemporary economic, cultural, social, and political systems. The Dream Fields of Florida explores the limits of accessibility to the American Dream for Mexican-American farmworkers. Using ethnographic data from several immigrant communities in Florida, Ella Schmidt studies the intersecting and often contradicting issues of identity, citizenship, and belonging. She unravels the embedded structural inequalities of U.S. society and the ideological discourses that mask them and finds that only through playing by the rules can Mexican farmworkers be selectively granted second-class citizenship-if any at all. This book is a timely and increasingly necessary look at one of the most invisible populations in the United States, one that has been systematically ignored and continuously misrepresented. Contrary to their imposed labels as subservient 'illegal aliens,' Mexican farmworkers are the epitome of agency, embodying the American ideals that are at the basis of the (Mexican-) American Dream.
Download or read book Parents Without Papers written by Frank D. Bean and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For several decades, Mexican immigrants in the United States have outnumbered those from any other country. Though the economy increasingly needs their labor, many remain unauthorized. In Parents Without Papers, immigration scholars Frank D. Bean, Susan K. Brown, and James D. Bachmeier document the extent to which the outsider status of these newcomers inflicts multiple hardships on their children and grandchildren. Parents Without Papers provides both a general conceptualization of immigrant integration and an in-depth examination of the Mexican American case. The authors draw upon unique retrospective data to shed light on three generations of integration. They show in particular that the “membership exclusion” experienced by unauthorized Mexican immigrants—that is, their fear of deportation, lack of civil rights, and poor access to good jobs—hinders the education of their children, even those who are U.S.-born. Moreover, they find that children are hampered not by the unauthorized entry of parents itself but rather by the long-term inability of parents, especially mothers, to acquire green cards. When unauthorized parents attain legal status, the disadvantages of the second generation begin to disappear. These second-generation men and women achieve schooling on par with those whose parents come legally. By the third generation, socioeconomic levels for women equal or surpass those of native white women. But men reach parity only through greater labor-force participation and longer working hours, results consistent with the idea that their integration is delayed by working-class imperatives to support their families rather than attend college. An innovative analysis of the transmission of advantage and disadvantage among Mexican Americans, Parents Without Papers presents a powerful case for immigration policy reforms that provide not only realistic levels of legal less-skilled migration but also attainable pathways to legalization. Such measures, combined with affordable access to college, are more important than ever for the integration of vulnerable Mexican immigrants and their descendants.
