Pamela Oliver Sociology 220 Lecture NotesIMMIGRATION: OVERVIEW OF IDENTITIES AND POLITICS* Everyone except AfAms, NatAms, and small proportion of MexAms are descendents ofvoluntary immigrants.* All were mixture of soujourners and settlers. Soujourners = come here temporarily to makemoney, go home. Typically men leaving families behind, but sometimes single women,sometimes who families. Settlers = come here planning to make new life, often whole families,but sometimes one member first who earns enough to bring others.* Soujourner/settler always fluid. Many Europeans, many Mexicans, many Asians go homeeven when they planned to come permanently. Many stay even though they always expected togo home. * All face pushes of political instability or economic deprivation at home, pulls of economicopportunity or political freedom here. For most, life here has significant difficulties, there is asense of grief or uprootedness at being away from home, being culturally alien.* Note: Asians usually number the generations differently, counting zero as the immigrantgeneration, and one as the generation born here. * First generation (the immigrants) always feel pulls between home and here. Language,identity, culture. Some in former English or US colonies (Canada, India, Pakistan, Ireland, HongKong, Philippines, some African nations) are educated in English, but English is a problem formost, at least tell-tale accent. Pre WWII, European immigrants after 5 years could becomecitizens; non-Europeans could not. Now all can, and they have to decide whether to do so. Typically have a large interest in the politics “back home” and less interest in US politics. Discrimination in the US does not bother them very much, they know they are foreign. Andtheir core identity is rooted in the society they came from, where they were typically part of themajority.* Second generation. US-born children of immigrants. (people who immigrate as small childrenare halfway between, called 1 ½ generation by some Asians.). Grow up speaking English, goingto US schools. (Exception: the German-speaking communities of 19th century). Torn betweenparental ideas and larger society, often a lot of distancing, conflict over norms and values. Parents often more conservative, expect tighter control over their children. Many children refuseto learn parents' language, others are bilingual. Typically marry within their own group. Awareness of being “different” from the mainstream, awareness of discrimination in some cases,concerns about fitting in.* Third generation. Grandchildren of immigrants, children of the torn generation. Typically anostalgic re-engagement with ethnic identity coupled with the reality of almost full culturalassimilation. Think of selves as "American." Everybody is not all the same, but it becomes anethnic identity within American. Third generation has extremely high intermarriage rates. Europeans including European-ancestry Jews (who are today more likely to marry out than in),Mexicans, other Latin Americans (if not "black") are no more likely to marry within their groupthan outside it by 3rd generation. 3rd generation Asians also have high intermarriage rates withEuropean-ancestry people, but visible racial markers do also get them treated differently byEuropeans. Racism a clear factor, but there are still processes of mixing.* The ethnic politics of the generations differ. Immigrants aren't sure they care about beingAmericans (this varies). Tend to form self-protective societies, fraternal groups to help eachother. Later generations identify as Americans, are oriented toward resisting second-classcitizenship within US. Because children and grandchildren of Europeans "blend in" if they donot have accented English, they mostly do not have ethnic politics, except in some cities wherestructure of local politics is around ethnic cleavages. Children and grandchildren of immigrantsfrom Latin America or Asia, who retain distinctive physical appearance, encounter racism anddiscrimination, and have politics around resisting discrimination. Of course, because of whiteracist ideology, descendants of Africans never blend in, unless they have so much Europeanancestry as to not "look black" and choose to "live
View Full Document
Unlocking...