Mathew J. Creighton

Durational and generational differences in Mexican immigrant obesity: Is acculturation the explanation?

Using the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS-2; n = 1610), we explore the link between Mexican immigrant acculturation, diet, exercise and obesity. We distinguish Mexican immigrants and 2nd generation Mexicans from 3rd+ generation whites, blacks and Mexicans. First, we examine variation in social and linguistic measures by race/ethnicity, duration of residence and immigrant generation. Second, we consider the association between acculturation, diet and exercise. Third, we evaluate the degree to which acculturation, diet, exercise, and socioeconomic status explain the association between race/ethnicity, immigrant exposure to the US (duration since immigration/generation), and adult obesity. Among immigrants, we find a clear relationship between acculturation measures, exposure to the US, and obesity-related behaviors (diet and exercise). However, the acculturation measures do not clearly account for the link between adult obesity, immigrant duration and generation, and race/ethnicity.

Migrant networks and pathways to child obesity in Mexico.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: 1) to assess the link between migrant networks and becoming overweight or obese and 2) to explore the pathways by which migrant networks may contribute to the increasing overweight and obese population of children in Mexico. Using two waves of the Mexican Family Life Survey (MxFLS), we find that children and adolescents (ages 3 to 15) living in households with migrant networks are at an increased risk of becoming overweight or obese over the period of observation, relative to their peers with no migrant networks. Sedentary behavior and household-level measures of economic wellbeing explain some of the association between networks and changes in weight status, but the role of extended networks remains significant. Community-level characteristics related to migration do not account for any of the observed relationship between household-level networks and becoming overweight or obese.

The Consequences of Migration to the United States for Short-Term Changes in the Health of Mexican Immigrants

Although many studies have attempted to examine the consequences of Mexico-U.S. migration for Mexican immigrants’ health, few have had adequate data to generate the appropriate comparisons. In this article, we use data from two waves of the Mexican Family Life Survey (MxFLS) to compare the health of current migrants from Mexico with those of earlier migrants and nonmigrants. Because the longitudinal data permit us to examine short-term changes in health status subsequent to the baseline survey for current migrants and for Mexican residents, as well as to control for the potential health selectivity of migrants, the results provide a clearer picture of the consequences of immigration for Mexican migrant health than have previous studies. Our findings demonstrate that current migrants are more likely to experience recent changes in health status—both improvements and declines—than either earlier migrants or nonmigrants. The net effect, however, is a decline in health for current migrants: compared with never migrants, the health of current migrants is much more likely to have declined in the year or two since migration and not significantly more likely to have improved. Thus, it appears that the migration process itself and/or the experiences of the immediate post-migration period detrimentally affect Mexican immigrants’ health.

The role of aspirations in domestic and international migration

Abstract Do aspirations to migrate predict subsequent behavior? Although research considers a migration orientation as indicative of future migration, no work establishes an empirical link in Mexico, which is the origin of a large number of migrants to the United States. Building upon the general model of migration decision-making proposed by De Jong (2000), this research uses two waves of the Mexican Family Life Survey to longitudinally assess two stages in the migration process. The first stage focuses on the moment at which an individual aspires to intermunicipal, interstate, and international migration but a move has yet to occur. The second stage longitudinally assesses the link between these three types of migration aspirations and subsequent behavior. Results show that aspiring to migrate to the US predicts subsequent migration to the US. Similarly, aspirations to intermunicipal and interstate migration are predictive of subsequent intermunicipal and interstate migration.

IMMIGRATION AND THE NEW METROPOLITAN GEOGRAPHY

ABSTRACT: In this article, we argue for understanding immigrant suburbanization as one outcome of the mass migrations associated with economic globalization, a process that has coincided with and shaped the decentralization and reconfiguration of the American metropolis. We contend, as well, that economic differentiation among the foreign-born translates into distinctive residential patterns that reflect the diversity of new metropolitan geographies. Using individual and tract-level data from metropolitan Philadelphia since 1970, we describe the intersection of spatial differentiation (suburban variety) with both demographic diversity (ethnic and racial differentiation) and linked patterns of ethnic and racial population growth and decline. We highlight the importance of immigration to population and economic growth, the diversity among immigrants, the inability of “suburb” to capture the region’s residential ecology, and the surprising links between the growth of immigrant and African-American populations in the same places. We clearly show how the residential experience of African Americans differs from that of both immigrants and native-born whites.

Closing the Gender Gap: Six Decades of Reform in Mexican Education

Gender parity in education is a goal for national governments and international organizations (UN General Assembly 2000). Achieving gender equality in educational opportunities by 2015 is one of the six key educational goals for 164 governments and various international organizations under the “Education for All” initiative (UNESCO 2007a). However, by 2005, according to a recent report to monitor global progress toward the goals of Education for All, only one-third of 181 countries with available data had achieved gender parity in both primary and secondary gross enrollment ratios, leading UNESCO (2007b, 79) to the conclusion that “the gender parity goal has been missed and gender equality remains elusive.” Despite the considerable progress toward gender parity at a global level, regional gender disparities in access to education, especially secondary and higher education, persist in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia (Knodel and Jones 1996; UNESCO 2007b). The case of Mexico, along with some of its neighboring countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, is particularly interesting given its current gender parity in terms of entrance into primary school (gross intake rate) and female advantage in enrollment in secondary school (gross enrollment ratio; UNESCO 2008). In fact, the gender gap in Latin America has been narrow to nonexistent for decades (Knodel and Jones 1996). By 1998, almost all children at primary school ages were enrolled in primary schools regardless of gender (UNESCO Institute for Statistics 2001). Although only slightly more than half of children of secondary school age were enrolled in secondary schools, there was no gender difference in school enrollment at the secondary level (UNESCO Institute for Statistics 2001). Gender differences in postsecondary enrollment were also negligible (UNESCO Institute for Statistics 2001). In 2004, the percentage of Mexican women who had at least upper-secondary education was 11 percent for the older group of ages 55–64 but 27 percent for the younger

Does Islam play a role in anti-immigrant sentiment? An experimental approach

Are Muslim immigrants subjected to targeted opposition (i.e., Islamophobia) on their pathway to US citizenship? Using a list experiment and a representative sample of the US population, we compare explicit and implicit opposition to Muslim and Christian immigrants. We find that Muslim immigrants, relative to Christian immigrants, experience greater explicit resistance. However, when social desirability bias is taken into account via the list experiment, we find that opposition to Christian and Muslim immigrants is the same. The explanation is that respondents conceal a significant amount of opposition to Christian immigrants. Muslim immigrants, on the other hand, are afforded no such protection. We find that religiosity or denomination do not play a significant role in determining implicit or explicit opposition. We conclude that Islamophobia, which is only explicitly expressed, is best understood as reflective of social desirability bias from which Muslim immigrants do not benefit.

Has Opposition to Immigration Increased in the United States after the Economic Crisis? An Experimental Approach

We employ two population-level experiments to accurately measure opposition to immigration before and after the economic crisis of 2008. Our design explicitly addresses social desirability bias, which is the tendency to give responses that are seen favorably by others and can lead to substantial underreporting of opposition to immigration. We find that overt opposition to immigration, expressed as support for a closed border, increases slightly after the crisis. However, once we account for social desirability bias, no significant increase remains. We conclude that the observed increase in anti-immigration sentiment in the post-crisis United States is attributable to greater expression of opposition rather than any underlying change in attitudes.

Prospects for the comparative study of international migration using quasi-longitudinal micro-data

BACKGROUND Longitudinal micro-level data about international migration behavior are notoriously difficult to collect, but data collection efforts have become more frequent in recent years. Comparative research of the patterns and processes of international migration, however, remains quite rare, especially that which compares across regions. OBJECTIVE We highlight the promises and difficulties of comparative international migration research, by offering a detailed comparison of two prominent data collection efforts. METHODS We systematically review existing sources of longitudinal and quasi-longitudinal individual-level and household-level data of international migration. We then compare two widely-used data sources: the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) and the Migration between Africa and Europe project (MAFE). RESULTS Data collection efforts are increasingly diverse, yet public accessibility of data remains limited. Also, comparability of data collected across settings can be complicated. In our MMP-MAFE analysis, we show some ways in which comparability can be achieved. CONCLUSIONS A primary roadblock to international comparative research is that, with some exceptions, the public accessibility of data remains low. Even when data is public and surveys are modeled after one another, comparability is not easy due to necessary trade-offs in adapting surveys to local settings and to developments in the field. CONTRIBUTION We demonstrate that, despite great strides in collecting quasi-longitudinal data of international migration, data accessibility still hinders the study of migration. With regards to comparability, our article provides important lessons for future data collection and analysis efforts that could improve comparability and thus advance understanding of the complex dynamics of international migration.

Migrants and the Diffusion of Low Marital Fertility in Belgium

Although the diffusion of fertility behavior between different social strata in historical communities has received considerable attention in recent studies, the relationship between the diffusion of fertility behavior and the diffusion of people (migration) during the nineteenth century remains largely underexplored. Evidence from population registers compiled in the Historical Database of the Liège Region, covering the period of 1812 to 1900, reveals that migrant couples in Sart, Belgium, from 1850 to 1874 and from 1875 to 1899 had a reduced risk of conception. The incorporation of geographical mobility, as well as the migrant status of both husbands and wives, into this fertility research sheds light not only on the spread of ideas and behaviors but also on the possible reasons why the ideas and behaviors of immigrants might have been similar to, or different from, those of a native-born population.