Linguistic Insecurity and Lack of Entitlement to Spanish among Third-Generation Mexican Americans in Narrative Accounts

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-54
Author(s):  
Ryan A. Goble
Keyword(s):  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Imagined Communities ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Linguistic Insecurity

The purpose of this study is to examine the narrative accounts (De Fina, 2009) of third-generation (3G) Mexican-Americans, as they aim to excuse their English monolingualism in contexts that have reinforced the ideology that they should speak native-like Spanish. Traditionally, studies that have investigated the intergenerational disappearance of Spanish by the 3G have focused on how parents and grandparents have socialized the 3G to use or not use Spanish, without much attention to the 3G themselves. The present study aims to extend this line of research by analyzing the narrated and recontexutalized interactions that the 3G claims have resulted in the attrition of Spanish in their respective families. Through the theoretical frameworks of indexicality (Ochs, 1992) and imagined communities (Anderson, 1991), the findings indicate that the participants index linguistic insecurity (Preston, 2013) when they recount using Spanish with their generational predecessors, whom they construct as having a stronger nativist orientation. Such insecurity emanates from the unattainable goal to speak native-like Spanish, which is exacerbated by familial teasing. These speakers’ negative selfperception consequently leads to their withdrawal from imagined communities of Spanish owners, contributing to the intergenerational loss of Spanish.

scholarly journals Third Generation Disadvantage among Mexican Americans

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vilma Ortiz ◽  
Edward Telles
Keyword(s):  
Generational Differences ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Economic Outcomes ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Lower Education ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
National Educational Longitudinal Survey

Among Mexican Americans, generational differences in education do not fit with assimilation theory’s predictions of significant improvement from the second to third generation; instead, education for third generation remains similar to the second generation and falls behind that of non-Hispanic whites. Scholars have not examined this educational gap for recent cohorts, nor have they considered a wide range of economic outcomes by generation. Using a nationally representative sample of young adults from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey, we examine various educational and economic outcomes among second- and third-generation Mexican Americans and compare it to whites and blacks. We find that third-generation Mexican Americans have similar outcomes to the second generation and lower education and economic levels than whites and blacks, even when controlling for key factors. Our findings reveal limitations to assimilation theory and suggest that the persistent low status of third-generation Mexican Americans may be largely due to their racialization. These findings coupled with prior research on Mexican Americans point to a consistent pattern of third generation disadvantage, which stands in contrast to second generation advantage.

Mexican-American Educational Stagnation

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Neil Turner ◽  
Brian Thiede
Keyword(s):  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
Sibship Size ◽  
Current Population Survey Data ◽  
High School Dropout Rates ◽  
Regression Decomposition

High school dropout rates among Mexican Americans decline markedly between the first and second immigrant generations and, consequently, move closer to non-Hispanic white levels. However, the third generation makes little progress in closing the remaining gap with whites despite their parents having more schooling on average than those of the second generation. Utilizing 2007–2013 Current Population Survey data, we examine whether an inter-generational shift away from two-parent families contributes to this educational stagnation. We also consider the effect of changes in sibship size. The analysis involves performing a partial regression decomposition of differences between second- and third-generation Mexican-American adolescents (aged 16–17 years) in the likelihood of having dropped out. We find that Mexican third-generation teens are close to nine percentage points less likely than second-generation peers to live with two parents. The decomposition results suggest that this change in family structure offsets a substantial portion of the negative influence of rising parental education on third-generation dropout risk.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-39
Author(s):  
Edward Telles ◽  
Christina A. Sue
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Multiple Generations ◽  
The Third ◽  
Group Variation

Mexican Americans are unique in the panoply of American ethnoracial groups in that they are the descendants of the largest and longest lasting immigration stream in U.S. history. Today, there are approximately 24 million U.S.-born Mexican Americans, many of whom are multiple generations removed from their immigrant ancestors. Contrary to traditional assimilation theories, which predict that ethnicity and ethnic distinctions will disappear by the third generation, Mexican Americans exhibit a persistent and durable ethnicity with regard to their ethnic identity, culture, and networks. However, there is much heterogeneity within the population which ranges on a continuum from symbolic ethnicity to consequential ethnicity. We argue that one of the reasons for the group-level durability and the within-group variation is due to the existence of a strong ethnic core, the importance of which has been overlooked in previous assimilation theories.

Negotiations of Selves in a Bilingual Japanese-English Elementary School Program: A Duoethnographic-Narrative Study

10.47908/12/1 ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 2-20
Author(s):  
Jennifer Yphantides
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Imagined Communities ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
School Program ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Narrative Study ◽  
Parent Experiences ◽  
The Future ◽  
Recommendations For Practice ◽  
Japanese English

This duoethnographic-narrative study reports on child, parent, teacher, and administrator experiences and visions in a bilingual Japanese-English elementary school program. Drawing on liminality and imagined communities as theoretical frameworks, the researcher collected data from a variety of participants and shaped it into a narrative. Findings indicate that while Japan does have a growing number of multilinguals from varied backgrounds, child-parent experiences and visions of the future are not always congruent, nor are parent-teacher or parent-administrator experiences and visions aligned. Rather than making recommendations for practice, the paper concludes with a review of the literature, connecting the researcher’s findings with the extant body of scholarship.

El Sueño Americano? The Generational Progress of Mexican Americans Prior to World War II

2020 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 961-995
Author(s):  
Edward Kosack ◽  
Zachary Ward
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
World War ◽  
Slow Convergence ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
Over Time

We present new estimates of the outcomes of first-generation Mexicans and their descendants between 1880 and 1940. We find zero convergence of the economic gap between Mexicans and non-Mexican whites across three generations. The great-grandchildren of immigrants also had fewer years of education. Slow convergence is not simply due to an inheritance of poverty; rather, Mexican Americans had worse outcomes conditional on the father’s economic status. However, the gap between third-generation Mexican Americans and non-Mexican whites is about half the size today as it was in 1940, suggesting that barriers to Mexican American progress have significantly decreased over time.

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