Assimilation Goes Both Ways: Two Different Views

These two articles underline, in very different ways, an important point usually overlooked in discussions of immigration: that while immigrants assimilate to the society they settle in, that society also assimilates to them.—TPOI editor

Stanford sociologist flips assimilation formula in new book

In his new book, sociologist Tomás Jiménez turns the conventional analysis of assimilation on its head and dissects the phenomenon from the perspective of Silicon Valley’s established population.

By Milenko Martinovich, Stanford News

July 31, 2017

The conventional way of studying assimilation is to document the changes immigrants and their children experience when adapting to a new culture.

Stanford sociologist Tomás Jiménez flips the equation in his new book, The Other Side of Assimilation: How Immigrants Are Changing American Life. Focusing on the unique composition and atmosphere of three distinct areas of Silicon Valley, Jiménez analyzes assimilation from the perspectives of the region’s established inhabitants by exploring how their lives have changed due to the presence of immigrants and interactions with them.[…]

Read the full article:

http://news.stanford.edu/2017/07/31/sociologist-flips-assimilation-formula/

The Meaning of ‘Despacito’ in the Age of Trump

By Moises Velasquez-Manoff, New York Times

August 4, 2017

On Friday, “Despacito,” the hit song by the Puerto Rican artists Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, became the most watched video on YouTube ever, with nearly three billion views. And it got there faster than any music video in history. Just over two weeks ago Universal Music announced it was also the most streamed song in history, if you combine the number of times people played the original song or video with a remixed version featuring vocals from the Canadian singer Justin Bieber.

The ascendance of “Despacito” is remarkable for a number reasons: Except for Mr. Bieber’s intro, the song is almost entirely in Spanish. (Despacito means “slowly,” and depending on how you interpret the lyrics, the song is about what you’d do slowly to someone you really like.) The rhythmic backbone of the song is reggaeton, a style with roots in Jamaica that developed in Puerto Rico and has long been popular in Latin America but has only occasionally broken through to the English-speaking world. The video is set in a storied Puerto Rican slum called La Perla and features a joyously multiracial cast.[…]

Read the full article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/opinion/the-meaning-of-despacito-in-the-age-of-trump.html

Key takeaways on U.S. immigration: Past, present and future

By Anna Browns, Pew Research Center
September 28, 2015

It has been a half-century since the enactment of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which dramatically changed patterns of immigration to the U.S. by replacing long-standing national origin quotas that favored Northern and Western Europe with a new system allocating more visas to people from other countries around the world. A new Pew Research Center study explores how much the face of immigration has changed – and changed the country – and how much more it will do so by 2065.

Here are some of the key findings:

1. Nearly 59 million immigrants have arrived in the U.S. since 1965, and accounting for deaths or those who have left, 43 million of them live here now. When their children and grandchildren are included, these immigrants added 72 million people to the nation’s population, accounting for 55% of population growth from 1965 to 2015. Immigrants and their descendants are projected to account for 88% of the population increase over the next 50 years.

2. A near-record 13.9% of the U.S. population today is foreign born, with 45 million immigrants residing here. This compares with 5% in 1965, when the immigration law was changed. The current share of the population that is foreign born is only slightly below the record 14.8% that was seen during the waves of European-dominated immigration in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This foreign-born share is projected to rise to 17.7% in 2065 as immigration continues to drive U.S. population growth.[...]

Read the full report:
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/09/28/key-takeaways-on-u-s-immigration-past-present-and-future/

Two Reports on Child Migrants from the US Congressional Research Research

Unaccompanied Alien Children—Legal Issues: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
June 27, 2014
http://fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R43623.pdf

Unaccompanied Alien Children: Potential Factors Contributing to Recent Immigration
July 3, 2014
http://fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R43628.pdf

Biometric Database of All Adult Americans Hidden in Immigration Reform

By David Kravetso, Wired
May 10, 2013

The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a ubiquitous national identification system.

Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation (.pdf) is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named “photo tool,” a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID.

Employers would be obliged to look up every new hire in the database to verify that they match their photo. [...]

Read the full article:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/05/immigration-reform-dossiers/

How to Close the Distance Between Washington and the Reality of Immigration

By Pablo Alvarado, Huffington Post
May 2, 2013

Last week, an exchange between Jeff Flake, Janet Napolitano, and Chuck Schumer exemplified all that is wrong with the way in which immigration gets discussed within Washington and how far removed the beltway is from the daily reality and aspirations of people who are marching for immigrant rights this week.

When the topic of immigration enters the beltway, it gets reduced to an issue and divorced from the people whose lives hang in the balance. The dehumanizing view of migrants promoted by people like Sheriff Arpaio and Jan Brewer in Arizona finds a home inside the Capitol. At the Senate Judiciary Committee witness table, nativist "experts" share tables with self-identified undocumented Americans and continue to call them 'alien.' But it isn't just the xenophobes intent to block reform who attempt to deny migrants' humanity.

Recalling the so-called "Gang of 8" visit to the Arizona border, Sen. Jeff Flake openly mocked a woman who was apprehended by Border Patrol. [...]

Read the full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pablo-alvarado/how-to-close-the-distance_b_3201551.html

Immigration Reform May Be Big Winner in US Elections

by Carey L. Biron, Common Dreams
November 10, 2012

WASHINGTON - In the aftermath of a surprisingly lopsided victory for President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party and for progressive causes more broadly, one of the key discussions taking place here is over the suddenly increased prospects for comprehensive immigration reform, long an issue so divisive that few politicians have been willing to tackle it.

“Coming out of this election, there is now increased debate in political circles on how to create a pragmatic immigration system, with Republicans and conservatives engaging in this debate to a degree our country has never seen,” Ali Noorani, the executive director of the National Immigration Forum, the largest such group in the country, said while speaking with journalists on Thursday. [...]

Read the full article:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/11/10-0

Spanish Appears to Be on Trial in Ariz. Case

By Terry Greene Sterling, National Journal
August 2, 2012

Four years ago, a Minnesota retiree who had resettled in the Phoenix area was upset when she visited a McDonald’s and observed workers speaking Spanish to each other.

Known only as “Gail” in court records, the retiree penned a letter to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who’d become popular among the county’s aging majority white population for his crackdowns on illegal immigration in heavily Latino neighborhoods and workplaces.

“I am a fan of yours and what you are doing to rid the area of illegal immigrants,” Gail wrote Arpaio. Her letter is frequently mentioned in an ongoing trial in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, where Arpaio has denied allegations that he and his department engaged in widespread racial profiling of Hispanics during traffic stops, detentions, and arrests in the nation’s fourth-most populous county. [...]

Read the full article:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/thenextamerica/immigration/spanish-appears-to-be-on-trial-in-ariz-case-20120802

Mexican Migration Patterns Signal a New Immigratio​n Reality

Press release from Immigration Policy Center
August 1, 2011

For Immediate Release

Mexican Migration Patterns Signal a New Immigration Reality: Fewer Coming, Fewer Leaving, and 3/5 of Unauthorized Have Been Here for a Decade or Longer

August 1, 2011, Washington D.C. - Today, the Immigration Policy Center releases a summary of recent data on Mexican migration to and from the United States. This data provides an important reminder that as migration patterns change over time, so too must U.S. immigration policies. Fewer Mexicans are migrating to the United States, fewer Mexican immigrants in the United States are returning home, and immigrants from Mexico are parents to a new generation of Mexican Americans who are U.S. citizens.

New reports from the Pew Hispanic Center and the RAND Corporation provide useful information about the state of immigration today. Although this data deals with Mexican immigrants as a whole and not just the unauthorized, it is a useful indicator of what is taking place in the unauthorized population. More than half (55 percent) of Mexican immigrants in the United States are unauthorized, and roughly three-fifths (59 percent) of all unauthorized immigrants are from Mexico.The data reveals an emerging new reality: fewer immigrants are coming, fewer are leaving, and a majority of the unauthorized population has been here for a decade or longer. These trends suggest that our immigration policies must transition away from the current efforts to drive out unauthorized immigrants with deep roots in this country. We need a more nuanced set of policies that help immigrants who are already living here and contributing to the U.S. economy to more fully integrate into U.S. society.

To view the fact sheet in its entirety, see:
Mexican Migration Patterns Signal a New Immigration Reality (IPC Fact Check, August 1, 2011)

### For more information contact Wendy Sefsaf at wsefsaf@immcouncil.org  or 202-507-7524

Europe's Homegrown Terrorists

[In the U.S. the anti-immigrant fanatics rail against Latino immigrants for their supposed refusal to assimilate and claim that Mexicans are planning a "reconquest" of the Southwest. In Europe the rightwingers rail against Muslim immigrants for their supposed refusal to assimilate and claim that Muslims are planning to conquer "Christian Europe." In both cases the claims have no basis in the facts. In Europe these ideas inspired the Oslo terrorist.--Blog editor]

Gary Younge, The Nation
July 25, 2011

...The general framing goes like this. Europe is being overrun by Muslims and other non-white immigrants, who are outbreeding non-Muslims at a terrifying rate. Unwilling to integrate culturally and unable to compete intellectually, Muslim populations have become hotbeds of terrorist sympathy and activity. Their presence threatens not only security but the liberal consensus regarding women’s rights and gay rights that Western Europe has so painstakingly established; and overall, this state of affairs represents a fracturing of society that is losing its common values. This has been allowed to happen in the name of not offending specific ethnic groups, otherwise known as multiculturalism.

One could spend all day ripping these arguments to shreds, but for now let’s just deal with the facts. [...]

Read the full article:
http://www.thenation.com/article/162270/europes-homegrown-terrorists

May Day Rallies Reveal America’s True Self—Its Promise and Its Fear

By Rinku Sen, ColorLines
April 28 2011

I have two abiding memories from third grade. The first is of reciting the pledge of allegiance: rows of white, black and Latino kids (and me, the lone South Asian) taking a deep breath before the climactic words “with liberty and justice for all.” My other memory is of us kids diving under our desks when the air raid alarm went off, a practice induced by Cold War paranoia. Each year as May 1 rolls around, these two memories stand side by side as I watch corporate media’s response to the day’s vibrant marches for immigrant and labor rights. The inspiring scene of several hundred thousand very diverse people asserting their Americanness is followed by the paranoid fantasies of people who see foreign invasions coming to their home towns. [...]

Read the full article:
http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/04/may_day_rallies_reveal_americas_true_self.html

Good News from Nashville: Diversity Not Uniformity

Linguist Geoffrey Pullum wrote that "making English the official language of the United States of America is about as urgently called for as making hotdogs the official food at baseball games."

Tom Barry, TransBorder Project
January 23, 2009

"Nashville listened to its leaders—the governor, the mayor, and a vast coalition of churches, businesses, and universities—and defeated an English-only measure by nearly 10,000 votes in Thursday's special election." That's the report from the Tennesseanthe day after the city referendum on an amendment that would have made Nashville the largest city in the nation with an "official English" law.

With financial and logistical support from the Arlington, VA-based ProEnglish, Nashville councilman Eric Crafton founded Nashville English First to spearhead a charter amendment that would have obligated the city government to conduct all government business in English. While the main case for the English-only measure was that it would save the city in translation costs, the issue of identity set the tone of the debate. [...]

Read the full article:
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5812

Taking a bite out of immigration policy

Rinku Sen, East Valley Tribune (Phoenix)
July 1, 2008

On this July 4, I will be eating hot dogs. While I was trying to fit in as an Indian immigrant child throughout the 1970s, they represented the quintessential American food. I begged my mother to let me have them for dinner every night instead of chicken curry and rice. She nixed the hot dogs but sometimes allowed spaghetti and meatballs — straight from a can.

Hot dogs were “invented” by German immigrants, serving their traditional sausages in the hustling streets of the new world, and spaghetti, everyone knows, came from Italy. If I had been celebrating Independence Day 150 years ago, however, neither would have been on the menu. In those days, Germans and Italians weren’t considered Americans, or even white. When they fought over the most lucrative street corner for food vendors in the 1880s, the press called the incidents “race riots.” [...]

Read the full article:
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/119832

Study Says Foreigners In U.S. Adapt Quickly

"A major reason for...disparities in assimilation levels may be the high percentage of Mexican immigrants who are in the country illegally, Vigdor said. When only cultural factors are considered, Mexicans score almost as high as Vietnamese and higher than immigrants from countries such as India and China... 'If you're in the country illegally, a lot of the avenues of assimilation are cut off to you,' he said. "There are lot of jobs you can't get, and you can't become a citizen."

By N.C. Aizenman, Washington Post
May 13, 2008

Immigrants of the past quarter-century have been assimilating in the United States at a notably faster rate than did previous generations, according to a study released today.

Modern-day immigrants arrive with substantially lower levels of English ability and earning power than those who entered during the last great immigration wave at the turn of the 20th century. The gap between today's foreign-born and native populations remains far wider than it was in the early 1900s and is particularly large in the case of Mexican immigrants, the report said. [...]

Read the full article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/12/AR2008051202575.html