A Sociology of Immigration: (Re)Making Multifaceted America

by E. Morawska

Overview

This book proposes a new encompassing theoretical framework for the study of immigration. Ewa Morawska provides a systematic comparative examination of the experience of turn-of-the-twentieth-century and present-day immigrants, and of eight contemporary immigrant groups in the United States. Within this interpretative framework, Morawska examines four major issue informing current sociological studies of immigration: mechanisms and effects of international migration, processes of immigrants' assimilation and transnational engagements, and the adaptation patterns of the second generation.

This study focuses on the interactive framework in which immigrants, responding to circumstances not of their choosing, nonetheless make history. Though the book is shaped by an underlying theoretical framework, the key theoretical issues are explored through a comparison of eight different groups, providing rich, empirical, grounded material. As the groups range widely in origins and immigrant experiences, they shed light on one of the salient aspects of the contemporary immigrant phenomenon, namely its diversity. The concluding chapter offers a thoughtful review of the main agendas of immigration research in different regions of the world followed by the author's suggestions regarding better-informed cross-national/regional studies in this field.

Ewa Morawska is professor of Sociology at the University of Essex, UK. Her scholarly research focuses on comparative-historical sociology of international migration, ethnicity, and citizenship (past and present, North America and Europe). Recent publications include [Im]migration and Ethnic Research Agendas in Europe and the United States: AComparison; International Migration Research: Constructions, Omissions, and Promises of Interdisciplinarity; Sociology and History of (Im) Migration: Reflections of the Practitioner; Exploring Diversity in Immigrant Assimilation and Transnationalism; Toward Assimilation and Citizenship in Liberal Nation-States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349308828
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	08/27/2009
Edition description:	1st ed. 2009
Pages:	293
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

EWA MORAWSKA is Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex, UK. Her scholarly research focuses on comparative-historical sociology of international migration, ethnicity, and citizenship (past and present, North America and Europe). Recent publications include [Im]migration and Ethnic Research Agendas in Europe and the United States: A Comparison; International Migration Research: Constructions, Omissions, and Promises of Interdisciplinarity; Sociology and History of (Im)Migration: Reflections of a Practitioner; Exploring Diversity in Immigrant Assimilation and Transnationalism; Toward Assimilation and Citizenship in Liberal Nation-States.

Table of Contents

List of Tables viii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 The Experience of Old and New Immigrants: A Comparison 11

2 Mechanisms and Effects of International Migration 42

3 Residential Settlement, Economic Incorporation, and Civic Reception of Immigrants 69

4 Immigrants' Sociocultural and Civic-Political Assimilation: Different Groups, Different Contexts, and Different Trajectories 113

5 Looking Beyond the Host Country: Immigrants' Transnational Engagements 152

6 Immigrants' American-Born Children: Their Modes of Assimilation and Transnational Engagements 184

In Lieu of Conclusion: Some Lessons from the Analysis of American Immigrants' Experience, Research Agendas of (Im)Migration Studies Elsewhere in the World, and What We Can Learn from Each Other 223

Notes 246

Bibliography 254

Index 279

Editorial Reviews

'This is a deeply informed, insightful, interesting book, one that moves seamlessly between past and present, bringing great scholarship to bear, but somehow always wearing that scholarship lightly. Presenting a distinctive theoretical approach, grounded in concrete, empirical studies, Morawska's Sociology of Immigration is an essential work, and one that is highly recommended.' -Roger Waldinger, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

'Every book by Ewa Morawska is an event, and so is this one. Like no other book that I know it gives a sense for the complexity and context-dependence, from local to national to global, of the American immigration experience.' - Christian Joppke, The American University of Paris, France

'Morawska is to immigration and sociology what Antony Beevor is to history.' David Marx, Book Review

'Eclectic in scope, learned in formulation, and rich in description, this is a useful, and indeed even essential book for every immigration scholar's bookshelf. It can also be assigned with benefit as an overview volume in graduate or advanced undergraduate classes on immigration or assimilation. Perhaps most important, it inserts additional pieces in the jigsaw puzzle whose solution reveals how immigration id helping to create mre diverse, multifaceted, resiliant, dynamic, and creative U.S. society.'

- American Journal of Sociology

From the Publisher