Alejandro Portes

The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and its Variants

Post-1965 immigration to the United States has given rise to a vigorous literature focused on adult newcomers. There is, however, a growing new second generation whose prospects of adaptation cannot be gleaned from the experience of their parents or from that of children of European immigrants arriving at the turn of the century. We present data on the contemporary second generation and review the challenges that it confronts in seeking adaptation to American society. The concept of segmented assimilation is introduced to describe the diverse possible outcomes of this process of adaptation. The concept of modes of incorporation is used for developing a typology of vulnerability and resources affecting such outcomes. Empirical case studies illustrate the theory and highlight consequences of the different contextual situations facing todays second generation.

The study of transnationalism: pitfalls and promise of an emergent research field

This introductory article defines the concept of transnationalism, provides a typology of this heterogeneous set of activities, and reviews some of the pitfalls in establishing and validating the topic as a novel research field. A set of guidelines to orient research in this field is presented and justified. Instances of immigrant political and economic transnationalism have existed in the past. We review some of the most prominent examples, but point to the distinct features that make the contemporary emergence of these activities across multiple national borders worthy of attention. The contents of this Special Issue and their bearing on the present understanding of this phenomenon and its practical implications are summarized.

Immigrant Enclaves: An Analysis of the Labor Market Experiences of Cubans in Miami'

Data from a longitudinal sample of Cuban emigres are used to test competing hypotheses about the mode of incorporation of new immigrants into the U.S. labor market. Classic theories of assimilation assumed a unified economy in which immigrants started at the bottom and gradually moved up occupationally, while they gained social acceptance. Recent dual labor market theories define new immigrants mainly as additions to the secondary labor market linked with small peripheral firms. Multivariate analyses confirm the existence of the primary/secondary dichotomy but add to it a third alternative condition. This is the enclave economy associated with immigrant-owned firms. While most immigrant enterprises are samll, competitive ones, enclave workers show distinct characteristics, including a significant return to past human capital investments. Such a return is absent among immigrant workers in the secondary labor market. Causes and implications of these findings are discussed.

The Two Meanings of Social Capital1

The popularity of the concept of social capital has been accompanied by increasing controversy about its actual meaning and effects. I consider here the alternative applications of the concept as an attribute of individuals vs. collectivities and discuss the extent to which causal propositions formulated at each level are logically sound. I present some empirical evidence illustrating the possibility that, despite the current popularity of the concept, much of its alleged benefits may be spurious after controlling for other factors. Implications of this analysis and results for theory and policy are discussed.

Assimilation and Transnationalism: Determinants of Transnational Political Action among Contemporary Migrants1

This article presents evidence of the scale, relative intensity, and social determinants of immigrants’ transnational political engagement. It demonstrates that a stable and significant transnational field of political action connecting immigrants with their polities of origin does indeed exist. The results help temper celebratory images of the extent and effects of transnational engagement provided by some scholars. The article shows that migrants’ habitual transnational political engagement is far from being as extensive, socially unbounded, “deterritorialized,” and liberatory as previously argued. Transnational political action, then, is regularly undertaken by a small minority, is socially bounded across national borders, occurs in quite specific territorial jurisdictions, and appears to reproduce preexisting power asymmetries. The potential of transnationalism for transforming such asymmetries within and across countries has yet to be determined.

TRANSNATIONAL ENTREPRENEURS: AN ALTERNATIVE FORM OF IMMIGRANT ECONOMIC ADAPTATION

The recent literature on immigrant transnationalism points to an alternative form of economic adaptation of foreign minorities in advanced societies that is based on the mobilization of their cross-country social networks. Case studies have noted the phenomenons potential significance for immigrant integration into receiving countries and for the economic development in countries of origin. Despite their suggestive character, these studies consistently sample on the dependent variable (transnationalism), failing to establish the empirical existence of these activities beyond a few descriptive examples and their possible determinants. These issues are addressed using a survey designed explicitly for this purpose and conducted among selected Latin immigrant groups in the United States. Although immigrant transnationalism has received little attention in the mainstream sociological literature so far, it has the potential of altering the character of the new ethnic communities spawned by contemporary immigration. The empirical existence of transnationalism is examined on the basis of discriminant functions of migrant characteristics, and the relative probabilities of engaging in these kinds of activities is established based on hypotheses drawn from the literature. Implications for the sociology of immigration as well as for broader sociological theories of the economy are discussed. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

Immigration theory for a new century : Some problems and opportunities

This essay examines some of the pitfalls in contemporary immigration theory and reviews some of the most promising developments in research in this field. As a data-driven field or study, immigration has not had to contend with grand generalizations for highly abstract theorizing. On the contrary, the bias has run in the opposite direction, that is toward ground-level studies of particular migrant groups or analysis of official migration policies. As the distillate of past research in the field and a source of guidance for future work, theory represents one of the most valuable products of our collective intellectual endeavor. Ways to foster it and problems presented by certain common misunderstandings about the meaning and scope of scientific theorizing are discussed.

Contemporary immigration: theoretical perspectives on its determinants and modes of incorporation.

This article reviews conventional theories about different aspects of labor migration: its origins, stability over time, and patterns of migrant settlement. For each of these aspects, we provide alternative explanatory hypotheses derived from the notions of increasing articulation of the international system and the social embeddedness of its various subprocesses, including labor flows. A typology of sources and outcomes of contemporary immigration is presented as an heuristic device to organize the diversity of such movements as described in the empirical literature.

Social Capital: Promise and Pitfalls of its Role in Development

The purpose of this commentary is threefold. First, to review the origins and definitions of the concept of social capital as it has developed in the recent literature. Second, to examine the limitations of this concept when interpreted as a causal force able to transform communities and nations. Third, to present several relevant examples from the recent empirical literature on Latin American urbanisation and migration. These examples point to the significance of social networks and community monitoring in the viability of grass-roots economic initiatives and the simultaneous difficulty of institutionalising such forces. Current interest in the concept of social capital in the field of national development stems from the limitations of an exclusively economic approach toward the achievement of the basic developmental goals: sustained growth, equity, and democracy. The record of application of neoliberal adjustment policies in less developed nations is decidedly mixed, even when evaluated by strict economic criteria. Orthodox adjustment policies have led to low inflation and sustained growth in some countries, while in others they have failed spectacularly, leading to currency crises, devaluations, and political instability. The ‘one-size-fits- all’ package of economic policies foisted by the International Monetary Fund and the US Treasury on countries at very different levels of development have led to a series of contradictory outcomes that orthodox economic theory itself is incapable of explaining.

Conclusion: Theoretical Convergencies and Empirical Evidence in the Study of Immigrant Transnationalism

Conclusions to books or journal issues commonly seek to summarize the preceding articles or chapters and offer some general guidelines about the relevant subject matter. This is a demanding but feasible task when the preceding material consists of empirical studies that lend themselves to an effort of synthesis. When the contents of the book or journal are, as in this case, themselves summaries of the literature and general reflections on the character of the field, the synthetic enterprises become far more demanding. It is difficult to agree with the conclusions and prescriptions of some authors without disagreeing with those of others. It is also unfair to take advantage of having the last word to comment critically on the arguments or recommendations advanced in the preceding articles. The editors of this issue have ably summarized in their introduction the principal arguments presented in each article. It would be an unnecessary duplication to do so here. Instead, I propose to do the opposite of what is generally expected in a conclusion. That is, instead of presenting theoretical reflections on empirical materials, I intend to supplement the abundant theoretical arguments contained in this issue with a summary presentation of actual results. The latter come from the recently completed surveys of the Comparative Immigrant Entrepreneurship Project (CIEP). Before doing so, however, it would be useful to summarize some of the empirical and conceptual points on which the until-recently contentious literature on transnationalism has reached a measure of consensus. They represent indicators of progress, insofar as the weight of evidence and subsequent reflection on it have gradually led scholars from very different perspectives to agree on the tenability of certain arguments and the weakness of others.