Attitudes About Immigration

2019 ◽  
pp. 146-177
Author(s):  
Edward Telles ◽  
Christina A. Sue
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
American Identity ◽  
American Population ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigrants ◽  
Small Minority ◽  
Mexican Heritage ◽  
The Media

This chapter addresses Mexican Americans’ attitudes about Mexican immigrants in the context of mass immigration. In addition to the boundary that exists between persons of Mexican heritage and non-Latinos, there is another important social boundary operating that highlights Mexican Americans’ understandings of their own ethnicity and American identity—the boundary between Mexican immigrants and themselves. Study respondents displayed a broad range of attitudes toward immigrants, illustrating the internal diversity of the Mexican American population, which runs contrary to their treatment in the media as a homogeneous ethnic group in terms of attitudes, politics, and voting. This chapter also demonstrates the underlying ideologies, philosophies, and rationales that respondents used to justify their immigration positions: whereas many framed their views based on American ideals, only a small minority framed them in terms of their ethnicity, basing their perceptions in an understanding of Mexican immigrants as co-ethnics.

Language as a representation of Mexican American identity

English Today ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-48
Author(s):  
Carmen Fought
Keyword(s):  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Minority Ethnic Group ◽  
American Population ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Mexican American Population

Demographic data indicate that the English of Mexican Americans is destined to play a key role in the sociolinguistic study of language variation in the United States. In fact, Mexican American speakers are reported to account for more than 12.5% of the U.S. population. In 2003, the U.S. Census released data showing that Latinos and Latinas had replaced African Americans as the largest minority ethnic group in the U.S., and by 2007, 29.2 million Americans listed their ancestry as Mexican (Pew Hispanic Center, 2009). Moreover, in addition to the large numbers of Mexicans (first generation) and Mexican Americans (second generation) living in the Southwest, we are now seeing a new representation of these ethnic groups in other areas, such as the South. For example, between 1990 and 2000, North Carolina experienced a higher percentage of growth in its Mexican American population than any other state (Wolfram, Carter & Moriello, 2004).These statistics are important with respect to language because they reveal that a large and increasing population of English speakers in the U.S. are Latinos and Latinas of Mexican origin. Our notion of American English, then, must be extended to include the variety traditionally spoken by the children of Mexican immigrants in the U.S., generally referred to in the literature as Chicano English. In addition, if we look at the Mexican American population as a whole, we will find a number of other varieties of English spoken.

Mexican American Identity: Regional Differentiation in New Mexico

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casandra D. Salgado
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
Ethnic Identification ◽  
Regional Differentiation ◽  
Defensive Strategy ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mexican American Identity

Existing research inadequately addresses the variation in Mexican Americans’ patterns of ethnic identification. Drawing on 78 interviews, I address this question by exploring how conceptions of ancestry and nationality shape ethnic identification among New Mexico’s long-standing Mexican American population, Nuevomexicanos. I find that Nuevomexicanos emphasized their ties to Spanish heritage within the history of New Mexico to explain their ethnicity and to construct their identity in opposition to Mexican immigrants. Although Nuevomexicanos varied in their claims to Mexican ancestry, they generally prioritized their roots in the original Spanish settlement of New Mexico to emphasize distinctions in ancestry, nationality, and regionality from Mexican immigrants. Moreover, despite Nuevomexicanos’ persistent claims to Spanish ancestry, they did not perceive themselves as racially White. Instead, Spanish ancestry was integral to Nuevomexicano identity because it enabled them to highlight their regional ties to New Mexico and long-time American identities. Thus, I argue that Nuevomexicanos’ enduring claims to Spanish ancestry represent a defensive strategy to enact dissociation from stigmatized Mexican immigrants. Overall, these findings show that Mexican Americans’ dissociation strategies are contingent on how they define themselves as members of an ethnic and national community. These findings also indicate that “Mexican American” as an identity term is a loosely maintained membership category among “Mexican Americans” because of their intragroup heterogeneity.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 178-200
Author(s):  
Edward Telles ◽  
Christina A. Sue
Keyword(s):  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Ethnic Background ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
American Identity ◽  
The Future

This chapter summarizes the study’s findings regarding how U.S.-born Mexican American respondents negotiate the ethnic and American aspects of their identities, as well as the Spanish language, and their attitudes on immigration. Almost without exception, the American identity of the respondents remained constant, whereas the strength and meaningfulness of their ethnic background varied by individual and context. The chapter then expounds on the concept of the ethnic core as necessary for understanding the experiences of Mexican Americans, as well as other groups, and why it fills explanatory gaps left by theories of assimilation and race. Finally, it assesses the likelihood that ethnicity will remain durable for Mexican Americans in the future based on a variety of factors.

Spanish Language

2019 ◽  
pp. 105-145
Author(s):  
Edward Telles ◽  
Christina A. Sue
Keyword(s):  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Ethnic Community ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
American Identity ◽  
Primary Language ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
English Only ◽  
Central Characteristic ◽  
Mexican American Identity

This chapter explores Mexican American identity and ethnicity through the prism of the Spanish language, which is perhaps the central characteristic in ethnic culture and identity among Mexican Americans. However, whereas virtually all U.S.-born Mexican Americans speak English, not all speak Spanish. More precisely, Mexican Americans are distributed along a continuum of language competence that ranges from English only to complete fluency in both English and Spanish, with the majority of individuals falling somewhere in-between. For the respondents, English is their primary language, whereas the use of Spanish varies greatly, depending on the situation and each individual’s linguistic abilities. Thus, regardless of actual linguistic ability, language as a concept raises a number of issues regarding Mexican Americans’ own ethnic identities and their relationship to members of the ethnic community.

English Skills, Earnings, and the Occupational Sorting of Mexican Americans along the U.S.-Mexico Border

2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Dávila ◽  
Marie T. Mora
Keyword(s):  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
Labor Market Outcomes ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
Language Region ◽  
Occupational Sorting ◽  
The U.S

While English proficiency enhances labor market outcomes, its role in minority-language regions remains largely unexplored. Employing the U.S.-Mexico border as a minority-language region, we analyze whether English skills differently affect the earnings and occupational sorting of Mexican Americans along the border relative to their non-border peers. We find comparable English deficiency earnings penalties for Mexican immigrants, suggesting that this group responds to English-specific regional wage gaps. U.S.-born men, however, have a larger earnings penalty along the border, possibly reflecting natives’ relative immobility owing to strong geographic preferences. Occupational sorting exercises give credence to this interpretation for native Mexican American females.

The Catholic Church and Mexican American Social Mobility in the Postwar Midwest: Evidence from Life and Family Histories

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-48
Author(s):  
Bienvenido Ruiz ◽  
Ramon S. Guerra ◽  
Arlett S. Lomeli ◽  
Rolando R. Longoria ◽  
Billy James Ulibarrí
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Family Histories ◽  
American Society ◽  
American Catholic ◽  
Human And Social Capital

Religious affiliation has long been recognized as a relevant factor among the variables that intervene in the integration of immigrants to American society. While previous generations of many predominantly Roman Catholic ethnic groups are thought to have been helped along their way to assimilation by strong institutional support from American Catholic church institutions, Latinos, and in particular Mexican Americans, are considered an exception. This study examines the role that inclusion in Catholic institutions played in the social mobility experienced by multigenerational families of Mexican immigrant origin in the Midwest during the decades between 1945 and 1975. The analysis of life and family histories collected from in-depth interviews with older second- and third-generation Mexican Americans illustrates how integration into urban Catholic institutions and communities was instrumental in the upward social mobility observed in many of their family trajectories during the postwar decades. In particular, access to parochial schools and other institutions in the Catholic educational system once provided the children and grandchildren of Mexican immigrants the forms of human and social capital that allowed many in that generation to attain social mobility.

scholarly journals Social Determinants of Polypharmacy in First Generation Mexican Immigrants in the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 86-90
Author(s):  
Shervin Assari ◽  
Mohammed Saqib ◽  
Cheryl Wisseh ◽  
Mohsen Bazargan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
The United States ◽  
Foreign Born

Introduction: Socioeconomic status (SES) indicators are among the main social determinants of health and illness. Less, however, is known about the role of SES in the epidemiology of polypharmacy in immigrant Latino Americans living in the United States. This research studied the association between three SES indicators, education, income, and employment, and polypharmacy in older first generation Latino American immigrant adults. Methods: Data was obtained from the Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging (SALSA, 1996-2008). A total of 632 older first generation Mexican-American immigrants to the U.S. entered this analysis. The independent variables were education, income, and employment. Polypharmacy was the outcome. Age, gender, physical health, smoking, and drinking were the covariates. Binary logistic regression was used to analyze the data. Results: Employment was associated with lower odds of polypharmacy. The association between education and polypharmacy was above and beyond demographic factors, physical health, health behaviors, and health insurance. Neither education nor income were associated with polypharmacy. Other determinants of polypharmacy were poor self-rated health (SRH) and a higher number of chronic medical conditions (CMCs). Conclusion: Employment appears to be the major SES determinant of polypharmacy in older foreign-born Mexican Americans. Unemployed older Mexican American immigrants with multiple chronic diseases and those who have poor SRH have the highest need for an evaluation of polypharmacy. Given the age group of this population, most of them have health insurance, which provides an opportunity for reducing their polypharmacy.

Mexican-American resistance to school segregation

2019 ◽  
Vol 100 (5) ◽  
pp. 39-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rubén Donato ◽  
Jarrod Hanson
Keyword(s):  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Natural Occurrence ◽  
School Segregation ◽  
Educational Equality ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
School Practices ◽  
Mexican Heritage

Mexican Americans have a long history in the struggle to end school segregation and achieve educational equality. Rubén Donato and Jarrod Hanson trace that history through a series of court cases that show how their fight for desegregation both intersects with and differs from the more well-known struggle of Black Americans. In some cases, Mexican Americans were determined to be White and therefore not potential victims of racial discrimination, even when school practices showed that their Mexican heritage, rather than differing educational needs, drove district decisions. The authors suggest that advocates of desegregation should avoid accepting the notion that segregation is a natural occurrence but should instead broaden their understanding of what intentional segregation looks like.

scholarly journals PNPLA3 Polymorphisms and Liver Aminotransferase Levels in a Mexican American Population

2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quan Li ◽  
Hui-Qi Qu ◽  
Anne R. Rentfro ◽  
Megan L. Grove ◽  
Shaper Mirza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Association ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
American Population ◽  
Genetic Associations ◽  
The Metabolic Syndrome ◽  
Elevated Liver Enzymes ◽  
Mexican American Population

Purpose: This study examined genetic associations of patatin-like phospholipase domain containing 3 gene (PNPLA3) polymorphisms and liver aminotransferases in an extensively documented, randomly recruited Mexican American population at high risk of liver disease. Methods: Two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the PNPLA3 gene (i.e., rs738409 and rs2281135) were genotyped in 1532 individuals. Population stratification was corrected by the genotyping of 103 ancestry informative markers (AIMs) for Mexican Americans. Results: Both PNPLA3 SNPs showed highly significant association with alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels, but was also, in males, associated with aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels. Haplotypic association test of the two SNPs suggested stronger genetic association with rs738409 than rs2281135. Obvious sex effects were observed: rs738409-sex interaction in ALT levels P=8.37x10-4; rs738409-sex interaction in AST levels P=5.03x10-3. Conclusions: This population study highlights a sex-specific association of PNPLA3 polymorphisms and elevated liver enzymes in a population-based study, independent of common pathological factors of the metabolic syndrome. The strong genetic association found in women≤50 years old, but not in women > 50 years old, suggests that sex hormones may mediate the sex effect.

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