Killing at the hands of an illegal alien spurs furious debate about closing borders and deporting the undocumented. It is the year before a presidential election and candidates denounce undocumented immigrants as the conveyors of Mexican violence into our country. When Robert J. Sampson, Harvard sociologist and criminologist, wrote about this news, he was not … Continue reading »
immigrants
Obama: Do the Right Thing
Providing administrative relief for at least six million of the unauthorized immigrants currently in the United States is the right thing for President Obama to do for the country and, most importantly, for the hard-working human beings who have been used as pawns in the immigration debate for far too long. U.S. history is replete … Continue reading »
American-made ethnic-Americans
As we approach the 4th of July with all its patriotic celebrations, it is worth adding to the list of American accomplishments the creation of hyphenated ethnics: the Italian-, Irish-, Jewish-, Mexican-, Chinese-, etc.- American. The immigrant experience in the United States has entailed making both sides of the hyphen. Of course, we understand how … Continue reading »
Immigrants and historical amnesia
In the debates over social policies, one often hears historical claims roughly along these lines: “Minorities these days want it easy. When my ancestors came they got no help and just did it on their own.” Arguments like this have been raised against programs designed to help African Americans. In his classic 1981 study, A … Continue reading »
Three insights from research about immigrant families
Everything you think you know about immigrant families is probably wrong. That’s one of the conclusions I took away from the annual meeting of the Council on Contemporary Families, which convenes scholars and writers from around North America to discuss new scientific findings about the family. This year’s conference at the University of Miami focused … Continue reading »