Benedict Anderson’s deservedly famous thesis about the origins and nature
of modern nationalism turns around the central notion of an “imagined
community.” This category provides him with a matrix out of which one
can apprehend-theoretically and historically-the different variants of nationalist discourse formulated over the last two hundred years. We will refer,
in the brief comments that follow, to three basic dimensions structuring
the fabric of Anderson’s argument: 1) the presuppositions implicit in the
notion of an “imagined” community; 2) the kind of substitutability or solidarity which is required to be a member of such a community; 3) the kind
of relationship that is established between such a community-which is by
definition finite or limited-and its outside. Before that, however, let us
describe the main features of Anderson’s thesis.

On Imagined Communities

This article examines the transition to adulthood among 1.5-generation undocumented Latino young adults. For them, the transition to adulthood involves exiting the legally protected status of K to ...

Learning to Be Illegal: Undocumented Youth and Shifting Legal Contexts in the Transition to Adulthood

In the millennium's inaugural decade, 2 interrelated trends influenced research on America's families of color: the need for new knowledge about America's growing ethnic/racial minority and immigrant populations and conceptual advances in critical race theories and perspectives on colorism. Three substantive areas reflecting researchers' interests in these trends emerged as the most frequently studied topics about families of color: inequality and socioeconomic mobility within and across families, interracial romantic pairings, and the racial socialization of children. In this review, we synthesize and critique the decade's scholarly literature on these topics. We devote special attention to advances in knowledge made by family-relevant research that incorporated ways of thinking from critical race theories and the conceptual discourse on colorism.

Critical Race Theories, Colorism, and the Decade's Research on Families of Color

We summarize prior theories on the adaptation process of the contemporary immigrant second generation as a prelude to presenting additive and interactive models showing the impact of family variables, school contexts and academic outcomes on the process. For this purpose, we regress indicators of educational and occupational achievement in early adulthood on predictors measured three and six years earlier. The Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study, used for the analysis, allows us to establish a clear temporal order among exogenous predictors and the two dependent variables. We also construct a Downward Assimilation Index, based on six indicators and regress it on the same set of predictors. Results confirm a pattern of segmented assimilation in the second generation, with a significant proportion of the sample experiencing downward assimilation. Predictors of the latter are the obverse of those of educational and occupational achievement. Significant interaction effects emerge between these predictors and early school contexts, defined by different class and racial compositions. Implications of these results for theory and policy are examined.

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Dreams Fulfilled, Dreams Shattered: Determinants of Segmented Assimilation in the Second Generation

Over the past few decades, undocumented settlement in the United States has grown to unprecedented numbers. Among the nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants, a substantial portion of undocumented youth is growing up with legal access to public education through high school but facing legal restrictions and economic barriers to higher education and the workforce. Every year, about 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school nationwide. Like other children of immigrants, they plan to remain in the United States, but these young men and women have few means out of poverty. We provide a blueprint for assessing the future prospects of undocumented youth by offering a brief analysis of immigration and educational policies that currently affect the U.S. undocumented youth population and summarizing what is known about undocumented students' educational and occupational barriers and opportunities, particularly as they transition out of high school. We also discuss potential solutions to improve thei...

Blocked Paths, Uncertain Futures: The Postsecondary Education and Labor Market Prospects of Undocumented Latino Youth

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Edward TELLES y Vilma ORTIZ Generations of exclusion. Mexican Americans, assimilation, and race Nueva York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2008

Nowadays, basing ourselves on the perspective of the ongoing process of globalisation, the mutual interaction between sports and both sociological and political dimensions cannot be denied. Current...

Sports and Politics in Spain - Football and Nationalist Attitudes within the Basque Country and Catalonia

Spain is one of the EU countries most affected by the economic crisis and its deleterious impact on the labour market. With unemployment at record levels and specially affecting the young, men and foreign nationals, it is no surprise that emigration has increased significantly. Thus, after being a country of emigration and then attracting large inflows of migrants, Spain’s migratory balance has become negative again. Nevertheless, there is little clarity as to how important these new outflows are numerically and their main characteristics, something that is reflected in the policy responses and public debate. To help throw light on this, the current chapter first reviews the main official statistics in order to ascertain how many people are leaving, where and who they are. Although in absolute numbers current outflows do not reflect the severity of the socioeconomic context, emigration is on the rise and affects both Spaniards and non-natives. However, there are differences in the sociodemographic characteristics and main destinations of both groups. Second, the chapter argues that policy responses have been almost absent and the public debate polarized along ideological lines. While certain political parties and media denounce these flows as economically motivated and alert about the negative consequences, the government and others portray the phenomenon as mainly affecting return migration and young people in search of new experiences.

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Is Spain Becoming a Country of Emigration Again? Data Evidence and Public Responses

This article analyses the transition from temporary to permanent residency in Italy and Spain. Despite the growing number of permanent residents in Southern European countries, scholars have paid l...

A slow ride towards permanent residency: legal transitions and the working trajectories of Ukrainian migrants in Italy and Spain

Este articulo analiza el perfil de la nueva emigracion espanola durante la crisis economica iniciada en 2008. Los datos que presentamos muestran que el volumen de emigracion es comparativamente mayor que en las decadas anteriores, pero permanece relativamente bajo en terminos absolutos. Los nuevos emigrantes espanoles son, en su mayoria, jovenes con educacion universitaria, pero con escasos conocimientos de idiomas y poca experiencia laboral en los sectores laborales deseados. Ambos aspectos dificultan su integracion laboral en los paises de destino. Por ultimo, el articulo se centra en las experiencias de los nuevos emigrantes espanoles en el Reino Unido sobre la base de entrevistas en profundidad.

Elisa Brey

Papers

Edward TELLES y Vilma ORTIZ Generations of exclusion. Mexican Americans, assimilation, and race Nueva York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2008

Sports and Politics in Spain - Football and Nationalist Attitudes within the Basque Country and Catalonia

Is Spain Becoming a Country of Emigration Again? Data Evidence and Public Responses

A slow ride towards permanent residency: legal transitions and the working trajectories of Ukrainian migrants in Italy and Spain

¿Vente para Europa, Pepe? La nueva emigración desde España en tiempos de crisis económica