Showing papers by "Alejandro Portes published in 2004"

The schooling of children of immigrants: contextual effects on the educational attainment of the second generation.

Abstract: We supplement earlier published findings on the academic achievement of the immigrant second generation with an analysis of school contextual effects based on the same large data set used by the best-known prior analyses, the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study. A hierarchical model of contextual and individual-level effects on academic achievement and school attrition reveals patterns that reproduce those found in national student surveys but also others that are unique to the second generation. Among the latter are the resilient negative effect of length of U.S. residence on achievement across school contexts and the fact that strong effects of national origin on grades are attenuated in schools with high proportions of coethnics. Mexican-origin students display significant disadvantages in achievement and retention that are generally compounded, not alleviated, by the schools that they attend. A theoretical explanation of this pattern is advanced, and its practical implications are discussed.

A Cross-Atlantic Dialogue: The Progress of Research and Theory in the Study of International Migration

Abstract: The articles included in this issue were originally presented at a conference on Conceptual and Methodological Developments in the Study of International Migration held at Princeton University in May 2003. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Committee on International Migration of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the Center for Migration and Development (CMD) at Princeton, and this journal. Its purpose was to review recent innovations in this field, both in theory and empirical research, across both sides of the Atlantic. The conference was deliberately organized as a sequel to a similar event convened by the SSRC on Sanibel Island in January 1996 in order to assess the state of international migration studies within the United States from an inter-disciplinary perspective. A selection of articles from that conference was published as a special issue of International Migration Review (Vol. 31, No. 4, Winter), and the full set of articles was published as the Handbook of International Migration: The American Experience (Hirschman, Kasinitz and DeWind, 1999).

La economía informal

Abstract: El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar de que manera las actividades desarrolladas por las empresas informales interactuan con las estructuras sociales existentes y las practicas y politicas de fiscalizacion de los Estados nacionales. Es a traves de estas interacciones como se pone de manifiesto el caracter paradojico de la economia informal y se ilustran con mayor fuerza las conclusiones que se emplean para elaborar las teorias economicas y sociologicas del comportamiento del mercado. Tras analizar varias definiciones y enfoques de medicion posibles, el trabajo centra la atencion en estos factores dinamicos, focalizados en cuatro paradojas: los fundamentos sociales de la economia informal; la ambiguedad de las relaciones con las regulaciones del Estado; las dificultades para definirla; su funcionalidad en relacion con las instituciones economicas y politicas que presuntamente socava.

Convergências teóricas e dados empíricos no estudo do transnacionalismo imigrante

Abstract: Sintetizam-se alguns dos pontos empiricos e conceptuais em relacao aos quais os estudos sobre o transnacionalismo, ate ha pouco envolvidos em litigio, atingiram uma certa forma de consenso Esses pontos sao indicadores de progresso, na medida em que a evidencia dos dados e a reflexao subsequente sobre eles levaram investigadores com perspectivas muito diferentes a porem-se de acordo sobre a consistencia de certos argumentos e a fragilidade de outros Apresentam-se cinco conclusoes que parece terem-se tornado consensuais entre os especialistas desta area

La sociología en el continente: convergencias pretéritas y una nueva agenda de alcance medio

Abstract: THE ARTICLE EXAMINES CONVERGENCIES IN THE PRACTICE OF SOCIOLOGY IN THE UNITED STATES AND LATIN AMERICA, CRITIQUES PAST RELIANCE ON GRAND THEORY, AND ADVANCES A RESEARCH AGENDA BASED ON A SET OF MID-RANGE CONCEPTS STEMMING FROM RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF THE DISCIPLINE IN BOTH PARTS OF THE HEMISPHERE ARE DISCUSSED.

Empleo y desigualdad urbanos bajo libre mercado: consecuencias del experimento neoliberal

Abstract: Se reune evidencia sobre la forma en que han evolucionado diferentes aspectos de la vida urbana en America Latina durante las ultimas decadas. El periodo coincide con un cambio dramatico del modelo de sustitucion de importaciones por uno nuevo de libre mercado, inspirado en la economia ortodoxa. Este cambio politico y economico no podia dejar de tener correlatos significativos. En el presente articulo se plantea una serie de predicciones experimentales sobre los vinculos entre las nuevas politicas y la evolucion de los mercados laborales urbanos y las tendencias de la pobreza y la desigualdad.