Nestor Rodriguez

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.

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.

US Polices to Restrict Immigration

The history of US immigration has included both restrictive and expansive phases, and this chapter focuses on the former. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, fear of racial and ethnic demographic change motivated restrictive immigration legislation ranging from the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) to the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act (1924). During the Great Depression, the US Government repatriated almost half a million Mexicans through deportations and less formal pressure. Beginning in the late 1940s, the Border Patrol undertook campaigns in the Southwest against undocumented Mexican migrants, culminating in Operation Wetback in 1954, which removed over a million migrants to Mexico. The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 extended amnesty to almost three million undocumented migrants while also creating penalties for employers of the unauthorized. In 1996, legislation such as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) dramatically expanded the grounds for deportation. Nevertheless, many scholars maintain that restrictive immigration measures often fail to deter unauthorized immigrants, and instead of curtailing circular migration the measures encourage informal, extralegal flows.

Unaccompanied minors from the Northern Central American countries in the migrant stream: social differentials and institutional contexts

ABSTRACT The migration of minors unaccompanied by adults from the northern countries of Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) to the United States has risen sharply in recent years, surpassing the numbers that migrated during the political conflicts in the region in the 1980s and early 1990s. While the migration of minors from the northern region of Central America may appear as a homogeneous flow, significant sociodemographic and regional differentials exist in their migration. A conceptual model of institutional conditions is presented to conceptualise how changing institutional conditions in communities of origin can produce ‘push’ effects for the unaccompanied migration of minors in the northern countries of Central America. The goal of the model is to conceptually advance the analysis of migration by the unaccompanied minors to the root level of structural change. US response to the migration of unaccompanied minors in the future is uncertain given that a new administration has taken charge of the Executive Branch, promising to further restrict unauthorised immigration at the southwest border.

Introduction: The New Era of Restriction

We live in a paradoxical “Age of Migration” (Castles and Miller 2009) that is characterized by both unprecedented levels of migration and (perhaps not coincidentally) considerable public and political skepticism about migration and migrants. Globally, the number of people on the move is large and growing. According to the United Nations, the total number of international migrants in 2013 was 232 million. This constitutes 3.2 % of the world’s population, and if migrants constituted their own nation, it would be the fifth largest. At the same time, public and political reactions against immigrants have grown across the global north.

Immigration Enforcement, Older Latino Immigrants, and Implications for Health

The passage of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) and other subsequent restrictive immigration policies have escalated deportations and created stress and fear among Latino immigrants. In this article, we conceptualize migration as a process that can negatively affect the physical or mental health of immigrants during their journeys and long after they settle in a foreign land. Using Pew Research Center data and regression analyses, we find that the predicted probabilities of fearing immigration enforcement among foreign-born individuals aged 50 and over without citizenship or permanent residence are not negligible. Moreover, we find evidence of a direct association between the disapproval of enforcement measures and fear of immigration enforcement. We discuss the implications of fear of immigration enforcement for the wellbeing of older immigrants.

Voluntary and Involuntary Return Migration

Mexican migration to the United States long exhibited a strong circular pattern, as Mexican migrants returned annually to Mexico after working in US agriculture or other industries. With increased enforcement, undocumented migration from Mexico increasingly took on a permanent character. In addition, Central American migrants could not return to the areas of conflict they fled, and the long distances from their nations of origin made seasonal migration impractical. In recent years, return migration for Mexicans and Central Americans has changed, both in nature and in composition. The renewed significance of return migration is not due to its becoming once again a normal part of the migration process, but to its increasingly involuntary nature as a growing proportion of return migration is taking place in the context of U.S. enforcement practices. Voluntary return involves planning and preparation, but deportation or quasi-involuntary return gives migrants little opportunity to arrange their affairs. The potential difficulties of adjustment that this implies for returnees have become, as we show in this volume, challenging issues not only for returnees, but for their communities and for public policy. The chapters in this book place return migration experiences within the context of the economic, social, and political forces that have determined international migration, return to countries of destination, and settlement in countries of origin. Although there are important differences in the nature of Mexican return migration as compared to Central America, the contributions to this volume demonstrate significant similarities, including poverty in those countries and lack of employment opportunities and of government or institutional policies to receive the returnees.

Fear of Immigration Enforcement Among Older Latino Immigrants in the United States

Objective: The passage of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) and other subsequent restrictive immigration policies have created fear among Latino immigrants. This study examines whether fear of immigration enforcement is socially significant among older (50+ years) foreign-born Latino individuals in the United States without citizenship or permanent residence, and whether disapproval of immigrant enforcement policies is directly associated with fear of immigration enforcement among this older population. Method: Data used in the analysis come from 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2013 national Latino surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center. Cross-sectional regression models are used to estimate the probabilities of fearing immigration enforcement in the Latino samples, as well as to examine the association between disapproval and fear of immigration enforcement. Results: The study finds that the predicted probabilities of fearing immigration enforcement among foreign-born individuals aged 50 and over without citizenship or permanent residence are not negligible. Moreover, the study finds evidence of a direct association between the disapproval of enforcement measures and fear of immigration enforcement. Discussion: Restrictive immigration measures have implications for conditions of fear and other stressors affecting the well-being of older immigrants.

Introduction: A Framework for Understanding the Race and Ethnic Transition

This introductory chapter provides a framework for understanding the diverse set of chapters that comprise this handbook.The chapter highlights an important demographic trend that is taking place all over the world, namely the disproportionate growth of marginalized groups compared to dominant groups. While demographers and other social scientists recognize the ensuing transitions that stem from the demographic transition, relatively little attention has been paid to the race/ethnic transition.The chapter argues for the need to incorporate theoretical perspectives from the race and ethnic literature to more fully understand the race/ethnic transition and the intersection between demography, race/ethnicity, and stratification.Subsequently, the chapter provides an overview of the chapters that form the handbook.The chapter concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the race/ethnic transition.