Jacqueline Hagan

Social Networks, Gender, and Immigrant Incorporation: Resources and Constraints

I present a dynamic and variable portrayal of networks to demonstrate how they gradually assume different forms and functions for women and for men [immigrants] that differentially affect settlement outcomes particularly opportunities to become legal. The gendered social relations of neighborhood work and voluntary associations interact to produce this outcome. The conclusions suggest that social networks can both strengthen and weaken over time can change differentially for different segments of the immigrant community and therefore can have disparate effects on incorporation.... This research is based on a three-year ethnographic study focusing on the settlement of a Maya community in Houston [Texas]. (EXCERPT)

Acculturative Stress Among Documented and Undocumented Latino Immigrants in the United States

The purpose of the study was to examine differences between documented and undocumented Latino immigrants in the prevalence of three immigration-related challenges (separation from family, traditionality, and language difficulties), which were made more severe after the passage of restrictive immigration legislation in 1996. Specifically, the study sought to determine the combined and unique associations of legal status, the three immigration-related challenges listed above, and fear of deportation to acculturative stress related to family and other social contexts. Participants in the study consisted of 416 documented and undocumented Mexican and Central American immigrants living in two major cities in Texas. The Hispanic Stress Inventory—Immigrant form was used to assess acculturative stress in the sample. Results indicated that although undocumented immigrants reported higher levels of the immigration challenges of separation from family, traditionality, and language difficulties than documented immigrants, both groups reported similar levels of fear of deportation. Results also indicated that the immigration challenges and undocumented status were uniquely associated with extrafamilial acculturative stress but not with intrafamilial acculturative stress. Only fear of deportation emerged as a unique predictor of both extrafamililal and intrafamilial acculturative stress.

Social effects of mass deportations by the United States government, 2000–10

Abstract Interviews with deportees in El Salvador and Mexico and with immigrants in the United States indicate that expanded US enforcement policies are straining transnational families and imposing fear on immigrant communities. Expanded enforcement is removing long-term settlers with strong kinship ties to the United States. Through various strategies, some immigrants attempt to cope with new enforcement operations, while others involuntarily return to their home communities. The findings suggest that (1) conceptualizations of immigration policy enactment of the ‘liberal state’ need to be reassessed, and (2) migration policies of the United States, Mexico and El Salvador need to be revisited in light of their human costs.

The Effects of Recent Welfare and Immigration Reforms on Immigrants' Access to Health Care

This study investigates the impact of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, both passed in 1996, on the use of health-care services in immigrant communities in five Texas counties. The study presents findings of interviews with public agency officials, directors of community-based organizations, and members of 500 households during two research phases, 1997–1998 and 1998–1999. In the household sample, 20 percent of U.S. citizens and 30 percent of legal permanent residents who reported having received Medicaid during the five years before they were interviewed also reported losing the coverage during the past year. Some lost coverage because of welfare reform restrictions on noncitizen eligibility or because of changes in income or household size, but many eligible immigrants also withdrew from Medicaid “voluntarily.”

Brutal Borders? Examining the Treatment of Deportees During Arrest and Detention

Recent legislation has produced a dramatic rise in the detention and removal of immigrants from the United States. Drawing on interviews with a random sample of Salvadoran deportees, we examine treatment during arrest and detention. Our findings indicate: (1) deportees are often subject to verbal harassment, procedural failings and use of force; (2) force tends to be excessive; (3) force is more common against deportees than citizens; (4) situational contingencies and organizational actors influence force, but ecological settings do not.

Skills on the Move: Rethinking the Relationship Between Human Capital and Immigrant Economic Mobility.

Studies of immigrant labor market incorporation in the unregulated sector of the U.S. economy either assume that immigrant workers are trapped in low-wage jobs because of low human capital, or paint a picture of blocked mobility because of exploitation and discrimination. In this article, we offer a third sociological alternative to understand processes of occupational mobility and skill learning. Drawing on work histories of 111 immigrant construction workers, we find that many immigrants are skilled; having come to their jobs with technical skill sets acquired in their home communities and their previous U.S. jobs. We further find that these less-educated immigrants, who rank low on traditional human capital attributes but high on work experience may circumvent exploitation and build mobility pathways through skill transference, on-the-job reskilling, and brincando (job jumping).

Implementing the U.S. legalization program: the influence of immigrant communities and local agencies on immigration policy reform

The legalization program of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act was influenced by the behaviors of three local actors in the implementation process: immigrant communities, community-based o...

Brutality at the border? Use of force in the arrest of immigrants in the United States

Abstract Researchers have examined police use of force against United States citizens for almost 50 years (for reviews see Sherman, 1980; Riksheim and Chermak, 1993). But researchers have not considered police and INS use of force in the arrest of immigrants. The need to understand the treatment of immigrants is more urgent than ever because of the dramatic rise in the number of immigrants arrested and deported from the United States since the passage of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). To address this gap in the literature, we conducted 211 face-to-face interviews with Salvadoran deportees and deportees’ family members in El Salvador during the Fall of 1999 and Spring of 2000. Our results suggest that immigrants arrested in the United States are subject to force more often than citizens. Further, the causal mechanisms that produce force for both groups are similar (age, sex, the location of an arrest, and the seriousness of the offense), suggesting that immigrants are subject to force more often because of heightened exposure to common risk factors. Based on the results, we call for an investigation of whether more force also means more excessive force. If the event that it does, we offer policy suggestions for reducing excessive force.

Deporting Fathers: Involuntary Transnational Families and Intent to Remigrate among Salvadoran Deportees

One-fourth of deportees from the United States are parents of US-citizen children. We do not know how separation from families affects remigration among deportees, who face high penalties given unlawful reentry. We examined how family separation affects intent to remigrate among Salvadoran deportees. The majority of deportees with children in the United States were also separated from their spouse, and the vast majority had US-citizen children. Family separation was the single most important factor affecting intent to remigrate. We interpret these findings in light of immigration policy debates.

Making theological sense of the migration journey from Latin America: Catholic, protestant, and interfaith perspectives

This article focuses on the ways in which religious workers in Central America, Mexico, and U.S. border areas respond to the increasing dangers that confront undocumented migrants as a consequence of the militarization of international borders in the region. Drawing on interviews with religious leaders who work with departing and journeying migrants, this article examines the theological bases for pastoral care and social justice actions for migrants in the context of current immigration law and policy. Findings suggest that the Catholic church embraces a communitarian social theology that translates into social justice activities when it comes to migration matters. Protestant churches remain divided when it comes to immigration matters, with mainline Protestant workers aligning themselves with Catholic workers. In contrast, Pentecostal and Evangelical workers, who maintain an individualistic orientation, shy away from immigration politics, focusing instead on the needs and salvation of individual members of their ministries.