Cynthia Feliciano

Bio: Cynthia Feliciano is an academic researcher from University of California, Irvine. The author has contributed to research in topics: Ethnic group & Educational attainment. The author has an hindex of 24, co-authored 39 publications receiving 2924 citations. Previous affiliations of Cynthia Feliciano include University of California, Los Angeles & Washington University in St. Louis.

Educational selectivity in U.S. Immigration: How do immigrants compare to those left behind?

Abstract: Current immigration research has revealed little about how immigrants compare to those who do not migrate. Although most scholars agree that migrants are not random samples of their home countries’ populations, the direction and degree of educational selectivity is not fully understood. This study of 32 U.S. immigrant groups found that although nearly all immigrants are more educated than those who remain in their home countries, immigrants vary substantially in their degree of selectivity, depending upon the origin country and the timing of migration. Uncovering patterns of immigrant selectivity reveals the fallacy in attributing immigrants’ characteristics to national groups as a whole and may help explain socioeconomic differences among immigrant groups in the United States.

Gendered paths: Educational and occupational expectations and outcomes among adult children of immigrants

Abstract: This article examines young adults’ educational and occupational trajectories over a ten-year period using panel data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study in California. While many of the young men and women in the study are on straightforward paths to socio-economic success, others are falling well short of their goals and imagined futures. Males begin with lower educational and occupational expectations than females in junior high school, and are also less likely to translate high expectations into realities in early adulthood. While some occupational choices remain traditionally gendered, females are more likely than males to aspire to and to attain the highest status occupations, even those that are male-dominated. Early educational expectations are important predictors of subsequent success for both males and females. But determinants of outcomes differ significantly for men and women, showing how paths are segmented not only by class and ethnicity, but also by gender.

Gendered Paths: Educational and Occupational Expectations and Outcomes Among Adult Children of Immigrants

Abstract: This article examines young adults’ educational and occupational trajectories over a ten-year period using panel data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) in California. While many of the young men and women in the study are on straightforward paths to socioeconomic success, others are falling well short of their goals and imagined futures. Males begin with lower educational and occupational expectations than females in junior high school, and are also less likely to translate high expectations into realities in early adulthood. While some occupational choices remain traditionally gendered, females are more likely than males to aspire to and to attain the highest status occupations, even those that are male-dominated. Early educational expectations are important predictors of subsequent success for both males and females. But determinants of outcomes differ significantly for men and women, showing how paths are segmented not only by class and ethnicity, but also by gender.

Will the new second generation experience ‘downward assimilation’? Segmented assimilation re-assessed

Abstract: Research on the “new second generation” in the United States has been deeply influenced by the hypothesis of “segmented assimilation”, which contends that the children of immigrants are at risk of downward mobility into a “new rainbow underclass”. This article seeks to assess that assertion, focusing on the experience of Mexicans, the overwhelmingly largest of today’s second-generation groups, and a population of predominantly working- or lower-class origins. The empirical component of this article rests on analysis of a combined sample of the 1996‐2001 Current Population Survey.

Does Selective Migration Matter? Explaining Ethnic Disparities in Educational Attainment among Immigrants' Children

Abstract: Understanding why some national-origin groups excel in school while others do not is an enduring sociological puzzle. This paper examines whether the degree of immigrants’educational selectivity - that is, how immigrants differ educationally from non-migrants in the home country - influences educational outcomes among groups of immigrants’children. This study uses published international data and U. S. Census and Current Population Survey data on 32 immigrant groups to show that as immigrants’educational selectivity increases, the college attainment of the second generation also increases. Moreover, the more positive selection of Asian immigrants helps explain their second generations’higher college attendance rates as compared to Europeans, Afro-Caribbeans, and Latinos. Thus, the findings suggest that inequalities in relative pre-migration educational attainments among immigrants are often reproduced among the next generation in the United States.

In a Different Voice. Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA (Harvard University Press) 1982.

Abstract: Introduction 1. Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle 2. Images of Relationship 3. Concepts of Self and Morality 4. Crisis and Transition 5. Women's Rights and Women's Judgment 6. Visions of Maturity References Index of Study Participants General Index

Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race

Abstract: MC 281 is the second in the required sophomore sequence for Social Relations and Policy. In this course, we will explore the interactions and experiences between and among various groups in American history. We will consider how Americans both defended and contested prevailing definitions of fitness for citizenship and inclusion in the political process and American life, and how groups sought to gain access to social and political equality. This course focuses on the history of relationships within and between different groups in the United States, and explores the complexities of those relations. Rarely centered solely on race or ethnicity, such interactions were also affected by gender, sexuality, religion, nation, and class. We will also explore the shifting definitions of race and ethnicity. Students will analyze not only the experiences of the different groups, but also the connections between them to assess the larger dynamics and their implications for public policy.