Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age - Softcover

Kasinitz, Philip; Mollenkopf, John H.; Waters, Mary C.; Holdaway, Jennifer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0871544784 ISBN 13: 9780871544780

Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation, 2009

Synopsis

The United States is an immigrant nation―nowhere is the truth of this statement more evident than in its major cities. Immigrants and their children comprise nearly three-fifths of New York City's population and even more of Miami and Los Angeles. But the United States is also a nation with entrenched racial divisions that are being complicated by the arrival of newcomers. While immigrant parents may often fear that their children will "disappear" into American mainstream society, leaving behind their ethnic ties, many experts fear that they won't―evolving instead into a permanent unassimilated and underemployed underclass. Inheriting the City confronts these fears with evidence, reporting the results of a major study examining the social, cultural, political, and economic lives of today's second generation in metropolitan New York, and showing how they fare relative to their first-generation parents and native-stock counterparts. Focused on New York but providing lessons for metropolitan areas across the country, Inheriting the City is a comprehensive analysis of how mass immigration is transforming life in America's largest metropolitan area. The authors studied the young adult offspring of West Indian, Chinese, Dominican, South American, and Russian Jewish immigrants and compared them to blacks, whites, and Puerto Ricans with native-born parents. They find that today's second generation is generally faring better than their parents, with Chinese and Russian Jewish young adults achieving the greatest education and economic advancement, beyond their first-generation parents and even beyond their native-white peers. Every second-generation group is doing at least marginally―and, in many cases, significantly―better than natives of the same racial group across several domains of life. Economically, each second-generation group earns as much or more than its native-born comparison group, especially African Americans and Puerto Ricans, who experience the most persistent disadvantage. Inheriting the City shows the children of immigrants can often take advantage of policies and programs that were designed for native-born minorities in the wake of the civil rights era. Indeed, the ability to choose elements from both immigrant and native-born cultures has produced, the authors argue, a second-generation advantage that catalyzes both upward mobility and an evolution of mainstream American culture. Inheriting the City leads the chorus of recent research indicating that we need not fear an immigrant underclass. Although racial discrimination and economic exclusion persist to varying degrees across all the groups studied, this absorbing book shows that the new generation is also beginning to ease the intransigence of U.S. racial categories. Adapting elements from their parents' cultures as well as from their native-born peers, the children of immigrants are not only transforming the American city but also what it means to be American.

About this title

About the Author:

PHILIP KASINITZ is professor of sociology at the City University of New York Graduate Center and Hunter College.  JOHN H. MOLLENKOPF is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the City University of New York Graduate Center.  MARY C. WATERS is M. E. Zukerman Professor of Sociology at Harvard University.  JENNIFER HOLDAWAY is a program director at the Social Science Research Council.

Review:

Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age is an eagerly-anticipated volume that will set the standard, and become the point of comparison, for future studies of the children of immigrants and second-generation incorporation. (Richard Alba, State University of New York at Albany)

What a timely and surprising book! The second generation lens brings into focus so many aspects of American life, from the shifting color line to the effects of social policy, the plight of the native born, and the contribution of immigration. Original, relevant, and nuanced, this is a must-read for anyone interested in America today and tomorrow... A wonderful and worthwhile book. (Gish Jen, author of The Love Wife)

As recent headlines have made clear, the challenge of massive immigration is a defining issue for the twenty-first century. Debate on this volatile and controversial issue will be more enlightened if we get the facts straight. This powerfully documented book is a major contribution toward that end. The authors lay out the complicated, sometimes unexpected, but fundamentally encouraging facts about how the children of today's immigrants are assimilating into American life. If America's leaders can read only one book on this topic, this should be it. (Robert D. Putnam, author of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community)

How America absorbs immigrants is among the most important yet least understood dimensions of our national experience. The authors offer a nuanced analysis of the sometimes counter-intuitive processes by which this happens. The result provides resonant insights that will shape policies, improve services, and most importantly teach us how and why immigration works. (Henry Cisneros, Chairman, CityView, and former Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)

Inheriting the City is chock-full of compelling stories of the generation now coming of age in New York. Explaining the divergent fates of young adults of Chinese, Dominican, Russian Jewish, West Indian, and South American origins--compared with their native white, black, and Puerto Rican counterparts--this brilliant study is essential for anyone hoping to grasp the manifold legacies of today's new immigration. (Rubén G. Rumbaut, co-author of Immigrant America: A Portrait and Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation)

The authors bring us no simplistic message. The 'melting pot' (if it ever existed) is gone forever. Diversity will persist. But, contrary to the rants of high- and low-brow prophets of doom, it is manageable. Indeed, the diversity resulting from immigration will continue to revitalize New York City and thereby the country as a whole. (Aristide R. Zolberg, author of A Nation By Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America)

This major study of the children of the great wave of immigration to New York City that has been sustained since the 1960's tells us as much about the fate of the second generation--in education, in occupation and income, in acculturation--as we can presently know. (Nathan Glazer, co-author of Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City)

As assimilation continues, studies show that whatever the language spoken at home, the children of recent immigrants nearly all come to use English as their first language, and they are as American in their attitudes and behavior as their native counterparts. Indeed, the definitive, 10-year investigation by Philip Kasinitz, John H. Mollenkopf, Mary C. Waters and Jennifer Holdaway, entitled Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age, reports a "second-generation advantage." Immigrants' children are caught between highly motivated, hard-working parents and the challenges of the American environment, and this actually contributes to their success. (Orlando Patterson New York Times 2009-08-16)

This study demonstrates how children of immigrants combine U.S. and parental cultural beliefs and practices in achieving their educational and occupational aspirations, and the variations and differences across immigrant and native-born groups. The research explodes many myths about immigrants as represented by the mass media and public opinion, resulting in a valuable study that makes a significant contribution to the growing literature on immigration. (D. A. Chekki Choice 2008-12-01)

About this edition

• Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0871544784
• ISBN 13: 9780871544780
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 432