Legacies: The Story of the Immigran...

Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant next to the first Generation, by Alejandro Portes and Rub?©n G Rumbaut. looks Angeles: University of California Pres 2001 406 pp Hb $50; pb $1995

Perhaps single in kind of the most powerful things about this work is that the authors allow the immigrant enthralls to have a voice. In Chapter 1 of the book's 10 chapters, Portes and Rumbaut disclose 12 stories of different families (6 from Miami, Florida, and 6 from San Diego, California) and, thus, give readers a chance to apply the mind beyond the numbers by bringing the lives of these individuals and their families to the forefront, reminding us that these immigrants are not just statistics, on the contrary each statistic has a fascinating life story filled with his or her life experiences, reliances dreams (some broken and more [i]or[/i] less still waiting to be fulfilled), and challenges.

One explanation theme that continues throughout Portes and Rumbaut's work is that the United States proffers segmented assimilation and acculturation-that "not everyone is chosen" (p 44) and that there is not just united immigrant experience but different experiences, depending forward where the immigrant comes from and by what mode society receives him or her. Portes and Rumbaut argue that for a certain quantity of immigrants, the assimilation and acculturation proces is a great deal smoother and easier because society prefers to welcome and privilege a immigrants over others. The authors discuss the diverse aspects of the adaptation proces and use this theoretical framework of portioned assimilation to present findings from their reflection The authors base this volume on their research in the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal application of mind which is the largest observe to date of the recently made known second generation (over 5,000 children and their families). The studious mood took 12 years and was based forward a series of surveys with immigrant children and their parents guidanceed between 1992 and 1996 in Miami-Ft. Lauderdale and San Diego. Although many immigrant studies (eg Vald?©s, 2001 1996) focus upon just one immigrant group, Portes and Rumbaut's research focuses on immigrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad, Mexico, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Laos.

In Chapter 2 the authors give an overview of the fresh second-generation immigrants. In Chapter 3 perhaps single of the most important chapters, Portes and Rumbaut argue that the United States proposes segmented assimilation and discuss factors that determine society's acceptance of immigrants into the American mainstream: (a) the history of the immigrant first generation; (b) the pace of acculturation among parents and children and its bearing upon normative integration; (c) the barriers, cultural and economic, rise in hostility beforeed by secondgeneration youth in the pursuit for successful adaptation; and (d) the family and community resources for confronting these barriers.

Portes and Rumbaut state: "There are clumps among today's second generation that are slated for a undisturbed transition into the mainstream and for whom ethnicity will at so early an hour be a matter of personal choice" (p 45) However, for others, "their ethnicity will be a source of puissance and [they] will muscle their way up socially and economically, forward the basis of their confess communities' networks and resources," and there are others "whose ethnicity will be neither a matter of choice nor a source of progres moreover a mark of subordination" (p 45) It is this last cluster that Portes and Rumbaut are greatest in number concerned about; they argue that this cluster is at risk of becoming a "new rainbow underclass" that will join "the masses of the dispossessed, compounding the spectacle of inequality and despair in America's inner cities" (p 45)

According to Portes and Rumbaut, today's immigrants differ in three guide ways: (a) their individual features, which the authors call "human capital" (eg age, education, occupational skills, wealth, and knowledge of English); (b) the social environment that receives them (eg management policies toward different immigrant clusters the attitudes of the society receiving them, and the appearance and size of a co-ethnic community); and (c) their family form Human capital plays a tonic role in immigrants' ability to adapt economically. The immigrants who are educated are more likely to succe in the adapting occupationally and economically in the United States.

However, single of Portes and Rumbaut's elucidation points is that immigrants do not start forward an even playing field-government policies, society's reception of immigrants, and demeanor and size of co-ethnic community (Portes and Rumbaut call this "mode of incorporation") have a great impact forward immigrants' success in adapting to life in the United States. The authors argue that there is a continuum of in what manner the government typically responds to immigrants: exclusion, passive acceptance, and active encouragement. This attitude toward immigrants can also be seen historically in the government's stance toward heritage languages: suppression, tolerance, accommodation, and promotion (Klos 1977/1998 as cited in Wiley, 2001) For example, exclusion could be when the rule does not allow for immigration and thus forces immigrants to lead an "underground and disadvantaged existence," or when the conduct may grant immigrants legal access on the other hand not provide any additional support to facilitate their adaptation (pp 46-47) a certain number of groups of immigrants receive active governmental support and assistance (eg refugee from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia). arranges that receive government support gain an sharpness over other immigrants because they are allowed access to resources that other assemblages do not receive (e.g., economic assistance, do job-work apprenticeship). However, Portes and Rumbaut note that race plays a first note of the scale factor in social acceptance and may steady have a greater impact than immigrants' class background, religion, or language. They state: "Regardless of their class origin or knowledge of English, nonwhite immigrants face greater obstacles in gaining access to the white middle-class mainstream and may receive lower turn backs for their education and work experience" (p 47)