Rosa Aparicio

Moving Ahead in Madrid: Aspirations and Expectations in the Spanish Second Generation

This paper examines determinants of aspirations and expectations among children of immigrants based on a statistically representative sample of 3,375 second generation youths interviewed in 101 public and private secondary schools in metropolitan Madrid. We review the past literature on status attainment in general and aspirations and expectations, in particular, and draw from it a set of six hypotheses to guide the analysis. Most theoretical statements in this field have been developed on the basis of U.S. data; studies in other immigrant-receiving countries, especially outside the Anglophone world, have been scarce. The study thus provides an opportunity to test and refine existing hypotheses in a different national context. We present breakdowns of educational and occupational aspirations and expectations by gender, parental education and type of school attended. This is followed by multivariate regressions of all four dependent variables on these three plus other predictors suggested by the research literature. This analysis ends with structural equation models – recursive and non-recursive – that provide an integrated theoretical statement of the causal structure of ambition in the Spanish context. Implications of our findings for theory and policy are examined. Suggestions for future research in this field are discussed.

Coming of Age in Spain: The Self-identification, Beliefs and Self-Esteem of the Second Generation

We review the literature on determinants of ethnic/national self-identities and self-esteem as a prelude to examining these outcomes among a large, statistically representative sample of second generation adolescents in Madrid and Barcelona. While these psycho-social outcomes are malleable, they still represent important dimensions of immigrant adaptation and can have significant consequences both for individual mobility and collective mobilizations. Current theories are largely based on data from the USA and other Anglophone countries. The availability of a new large Spanish survey allows us to test those theories in an entirely different socio-cultural context. The analysis concludes with a structural equations model that summarizes key determinants of national identities and self-esteem among children of immigrants in Spain. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

General trends and exceptions in the incorporation of immigrant youths to host societies

The six previous commentaries on Spanish Legacies by prominent scholars, five European and one American, aptly summarize the goals of the study presented in this book. The comments by Shahamak Rezaei and Johan Sandberg do a particularly good job in providing detailed summaries. Hence, there will be no point for us to repeat this information. We are grateful to each of our commentators for the careful reading of the book and their thoughtful remarks on it. In this rejoinder, we will only respond to the most salient points raised by these reviews that point to additional reflection. As we pen these lines, the tragic attacks that took place in Barcelona a few weeks ago, largely carried out by firstand second-generation Moroccans are very much in our minds. The comments of Frank Kalter, bringing into play results of the CILS4EV study in four northern European countries, are particularly welcome. In a few pages, he summarizes results of that major study setting them side by side with those of Investigacion Longitudinal de la Segunda Generación (ILSEG). The conclusion that, despite different research methodologies and national contexts reception, the process of second-generation adaptation in all five countries bears many characteristics in common is worth highlighting. Indeed, identification with the host society rises significantly among the second generation born in it and among those brought to it at an early age. Similarly, learning and preference for host society languages rise almost monotonically with the time of residence. These and other similarities exist despite wide differences in the national origins of the principal immigrant groups in the five countries. It would be a stretch, however, to affirm that the exclusive role in accounting for the observed differences correspond to individual characteristics of the immigrants themselves without taking into account their mode of incorporation in receiving countries. The concept of “mode of incorporation” was developed to account for differences in the adaptation process of immigrants