Contemporary immigrants cannot be characterized as the « uprooted » . Many are transmigrants, becoming firmly rooted in their new country but maintaining multiple linkages to their homeland. While in the United States and Europe, most social scientists and public policy makers have ignored these interconnections, anthropologists are currently engaged in building a transnational anthropology and rethinking their data on immigration. Migration proves to be an important transnational process that reflects and contributes to the current political configurations of the emerging global economy. In this paper, the AA. use their own studies of migration from Haiti, St. Vincent, Grenada and the Philippines to the United States to delineate some of the parameters of an ethnography of transnational migration and explore the reasons for and the implications of transnational migrations. They conclude that the transnational connections of immigrants provide a subtext for current efforts to redefine the nature of citizenship in relationship to the global economy

From immigrant to transmigrant : Theorizing transnational migration

This article analyzes how Central American immigrants in tenuous legal statuses experience current immigration laws. Based on ethnographic observations and over 200 interviews conducted between 1998 and 2009 with immigrants in Los Angeles and Phoenix and individuals in sending communities, this study reveals how the convergence and implementation of immigration and criminal law constitute forms of violence. Drawing on theories of structural and symbolic violence, the authors use the analytic category “legal violence” to capture the normalized but cumulatively injurious effects of the law. The analysis focuses on three central and interrelated areas of immigrants’ lives—work, family, and schooling—to expose how the criminalization of immigrants at the federal, state, and local levels is not only exclusionary but also generates violent effects for individual immigrants and their families, affecting everyday lives and long-term incorporation processes.

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Legal violence: immigration law and the lives of Central American immigrants

Few studies have investigated how the meanings attached to being of a particular culture vary within cultural groups. The meanings of “being Chinese” and “being American” were compared among three Chinese American groups: 122 American-born Chinese (ABC), 119 immigrant Chinese who arrived in the United States before or at age 12, and 112 immigrant Chinese who arrived in the United States after age 12. Participants completed the General Ethnicity Questionnaire (abridged version). For each group, the relationship between “being Chinese” and “being American” and the specific cultural domains (e.g., engagement in American activities, Chinese language proficiency) on which they were based were assessed. Results suggest that “being Chinese” and “being American” were unrelated for ABC, but were negatively related for immigrant Chinese. Results also suggest that for immigrants, the domains on which “being Chinese” and “being American” are based change with increased stay in the United States.

The Meaning of “Being Chinese” and “Being American” Variation among Chinese American Young Adults

The image of Asian-Americans as "model minorities" is driven, in part, by the high academic achievement of Asian-American children. To evaluate this characterization, I use the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) to compare Asian and white eighth graders on reading and math test scores and grades. Results indicate that the difference between Asians overall and whites on reading and math test scores can be explained by differences in family background. However, analyses by Asian subgroups reveal that Chinese, Korean, and Southeast Asian youth earn higher math scores while Pacific Islanders earn considerably lower math and reading scores than their white counterparts. Whites and Asians differ substantially in their grade performance, which suggests that cultural and behavioral differences may be an important influence on grades. Analyses of Asian subgroups show no statistical difference between ethnic groups, although only Southeast Asians earn perceivably higher grades than whites after...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1085574.pdf

Asian Americans as Model Minorities? A Look at Their Academic Performance

The association between racial and ethnic discrimination and psychological distress was examined among 2,047 Asians (18 to 75 years of age) in the National Latino and Asian American Study, the first-ever nationally representative study of mental health among Asians living in the United States. Stratifying the sample by age in years (i.e., 18 to 30, 31 to 40, 41 to 50, 51 to 75) and nativity status (i.e., immigrant vs. U.S.-born), ethnic identity was tested as either a protective or exacerbating factor. Analyses showed that ethnic identity buffered the association between discrimination and mental health for U.S.-born individuals 41 to 50 years of age. For U.S.-born individuals 31 to 40 years of age and 51 to 75 years of age, ethnic identity exacerbated the negative effects of discrimination on mental health. The importance of age and immigrant status for the association between ethnic identity, discrimination, and well-being among Asians in the United States is discussed.

/pdf/racial-discrimination-and-psychological-distress-the-impact-29aj4tzi4v.pdf

Robert C. Sims

Papers

Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans.