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Relations Between
the Generations in
Immigrant Families
Nancy Foner1 and Joanna Dreby2
1
Department of Sociology, Hunter College and Graduate Center, CUNY, New York,
NY 10065; email: [email protected]
2
Department of Sociology, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany,
New York 12222 email: [email protected]
Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2011. 37:545–64
Keywords
First published online as a Review in Advance on
April 26, 2011
immigration, second generation, parent-child relations, transnational
families, comparative research
The Annual Review of Sociology is online at
soc.annualreviews.org
This article’s doi:
10.1146/annurev-soc-081309-150030
c 2011 by Annual Reviews.
Copyright All rights reserved
0360-0572/11/0811-0545$20.00
Abstract
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the nature of intergenerational relationships in immigrant families, especially between
immigrant parents and their children, many of whom were born and
largely raised in the United States. This review begins with an analysis of the causes of tension and conflict as well as accommodation
and cooperation between parents and children in immigrant families
in the contemporary United States. We then examine what happens
when parents and children are separated in transnational families—why
this pattern occurs today and how it affects family relationships. We
provide a historical-comparative perspective, discussing what is new
about parent-child relations in immigrant families today in contrast to
a century ago in the last great wave of immigration to the United States.
Finally, a cross-national view reveals the different emphases in the social
science literature on intergenerational relations in immigrant families
in the United States and western Europe.
545
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INTRODUCTION
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As immigration continues to transform the
United States, the sociological literature on its
impact has grown by leaps and bounds. One
of the topics that has received increasing attention is the immigrant family, a setting in
which immigrants and their children live out a
good part of their lives and often develop their
most meaningful relationships. Immigrant families are a significant, and growing, proportion
of all families in the United States, now that
the foreign-born together with the U.S.-born
second generation constitute more than a fifth
of the nation’s population. In 2007, 22% of all
children in the United States under 18 lived in
immigrant families, an increase from 13% in
1990 (Mather 2009).
Since the early years of the new (post-1960s)
immigration to the United States, sociologists
have analyzed a range of topics related to the
family. These include how family networks
stimulate and facilitate immigration, the role of
family ties and networks in helping immigrants
get jobs and housing, and how families develop
strategies for survival and assist immigrants in
the process of adjustment and advancement
(Foner 1997; see also Clark et al. 2009). In
recent years, there has been a growing interest
in the nature of intergenerational relationships
in immigrant families, especially between
immigrant parents and their children, many
of whom were born and largely raised in the
United States. This is a welcome development.
Intergenerational relationships in immigrant
families help to shape the contours and trajectories of individual lives and also affect
involvements outside the confines of the family
(Foner 2009c).
Much of what has been written on relations
between the generations in immigrant families has developed out of immigration scholars’ concerns with gender and gender relations,
the pathways of the second generation, and the
consequences of transnational ties—and is often embedded in sociological work that focuses
on these themes. Our review brings together
the diverse strands in the literature—most of it
546
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based on ethnographic or in-depth qualitative
research—to identify the factors that shape the
nature of relations between parents and children in immigrant families, both when they live
together and when they are divided by borders,
and mainly when children are minors or young
adults. The bulk of the article is concerned with
the contemporary United States. But we also
look back in time, as well as across national
borders, to begin to appreciate what is specific
to intergenerational relationships in the current era, as compared with the past, and in this
country, as compared with western Europe, and
also to better understand the complex dynamics in today’s transnational families. In our discussion, generation refers both to genealogical
rank in a kinship system (e.g., parental generation) as well as distance from the country of origin (e.g., first-generation immigrants and the
American-born second generation). The family
is a kinship grouping, including people related
by blood and marriage, that may not be tied to
a residential unit.
We begin the review with an analysis of the
causes of tension and conflict, as well as accommodation and cooperation between parents and
children in immigrant families in the contemporary United States. In doing so, we consider
how the nature of intergenerational relations
has consequences for relations outside the
family and household and how these relations
may change over time, as parents and children
move through the life course. Next, we examine
what happens when parents and children are
separated in transnational families—why this
pattern occurs today and how it affects family
relationships. We then provide a historicalcomparative perspective, offering an analysis
of what is new about parent-child relations
in immigrant families today, in contrast to a
century ago in the last great wave of immigration to the United States. Finally, we provide
a cross-national view, analyzing the different
emphases in the social science literature
on intergenerational relations in immigrant
families in the United States and western
Europe.
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INTERGENERATIONAL
RELATIONS: CONFLICT,
COOPERATION, AND
ACCOMMODATION
The common image of children of immigrants
engaged in pitched battles against traditionbound parents from the old country is a partial,
and often misleading, view. A more nuanced approach requires analyzing the sources of strife
and strain, as well as cooperation, caring, and
accommodation, and taking into account how
intergenerational relations change over time.
Research documents many sources of intergenerational conflict. The typical strains between adolescents and parents in the United
States are intensified in immigrant families owing to cultural differences between parents’
home-country values, norms, and behavioral
patterns and the mainstream American culture
to which their U.S.-born and -raised children
are exposed and drawn (Foner & Kasinitz 2007,
Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco 2001, Zhou
2001). This culture clash has been conceptualized as generational dissonance—when children’s learning of American ways and simultaneous loss of the immigrant culture outstrips
their parents’ (Portes & Rumbaut 2001). Immigrant parents may even hold up an idealized
version of traditional values and customs as a
model, even when these values and traditions
have undergone considerable change since they
left the home country (Foner 1997). Not surprisingly, intergenerational conflicts are likely
to be particularly acute in groups in which cultural patterns and practices differ most sharply
from those of mainstream American culture.
Issues of discipline and respect are one major flashpoint. Immigrant parents often expect
a level of respect, deference, and obedience
that their second-generation children view as
authoritarian and domineering. The children
have been raised in a U.S. cultural setting in
which early independence is encouraged and
childrearing norms are generally more permissive than in the parents’ home country (Foner
& Kasinitz 2007, Suarez-Orozco & SuarezOrozco 2001, Zephir 2001, Zhou 2009, Zhou
& Bankston 1998). In many countries of origin,
corporal punishment was a common and acceptable aspect of childrearing; immigrant parents feel their authority is being undermined
when they cannot discipline children the way
they think best—which, they believe, is essential to prevent behavioral problems and delinquency. They are outraged that they may even
face charges of child abuse, including reports
(or threats of reports) to state agencies by their
own children (Kibria 1993, Pessar 2003, Stepick
et al. 2001, Stepick & Stepick 2003, SuarezOrozco & Suarez-Orozco 2001, Waters 1999,
Waters & Sykes 2009, Zephir 2001).
Parental worries about the corrupting influence of mainstream American culture are
related to a second source of conflict: sexual
relations. The tensions are particularly acute
with daughters, whose sexuality and dating
choices cause much greater anxiety than sons’.
Daughters’ desires to wear clothing that parents
view as sexually provocative, to go on dates, and
to hang out with friends are frightening, indeed
appalling to many immigrants. Strict parental
control of daughters’ activities and movements
outside the home, which often begins the moment they are perceived as young adults and
sexually vulnerable, frequently leads to strain
and strife. Second-generation daughters often
rail against their parents’ surveillance, which
places greater restrictions on them than on their
brothers, who are usually allowed much more
freedom (Espiritu 2009, Gibson 1988, Lopez
2003).
Another source of conflict is parental pressure to marry within the ethnic group, which
second-generation young people may resent—
and resist (Foner & Kasinitz 2007, Kasinitz et al.
2008). In groups where arranged marriage is
practiced, young people born and raised in the
United States—with its emphasis on romantic
love and marriage choice—typically bristle at
parental pressure to accept partners they have
not chosen themselves. They may even object to
modified arrangements in which they are given
veto power over parental choices or, in a semiarranged marriage, are introduced to acceptable
partners and allowed a brief courtship before
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deciding whether or not to marry (Khandelwal
2002, Kibria 2009, Lessinger 1995).
High and often intense academic expectations for children are a point of contention,
reported most often in research on East Asian
families. Ethnographic research on Filipino
and Chinese families emphasizes the tremendous pressure young people feel from parents
to excel academically and pursue careers such as
medicine, engineering, and law (Espiritu 2009,
Wolf 1997). One study describes the Chinese
immigrant family as a pressure cooker in which
parents are demanding and unyielding about
their children’s educational achievements
(Zhou 2009).
A frequently mentioned source of strain
arises from non-English-speaking parents’ expectations of, and dependency on, their children to be cultural brokers for translating,
mediating, and interpreting (Menjivar 2000;
Orrellana 2009; Park 2005; Valenzuela 1999;
Zhou 2001, 2009; Zhou & Bankston 1998).
Ethnographic studies report parents feeling
frustrated by having to depend on their children to translate documents, fill out forms, and
conduct business transactions for them. Their
self-esteem may suffer, and they may worry that
their children are not translating correctly—
for example, saying a grade of F means “fine”
(Stepick et al. 2001, Zephir 2001). Young people may be embarrassed by their parents’ inability to deal with government bureaucracies and
handle business on their own; be annoyed by the
demands on their time; and feel uncomfortable
about learning family secrets in the process of
translating and advocating for their parents in
medical, legal, or other settings (Orellana et al.
2003, Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco 2001,
Zephir 2001).
Existing research points to the role of gender, class, and legal status in shaping intergenerational conflicts in immigrant families,
although these topics require further study
and elaboration. Daughters are more constrained by parental limitations on their freedom than sons, and some studies report that
they also face greater demands to assume translating responsibilities, especially with regard to
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home-related matters (Valenzuela 1999). Several ethnographic studies find that relations
with parents are less conflict-ridden in middleclass (as opposed to lower-class) families because middle-class parents are more likely to
accept American norms, are less strict with their
children, and are more willing to work out
strategies with their children to generate peace
and harmony (Zephir 2001, Zhou 2009); others report no class differences in parent-child
conflict, as measured by youths’ reports in a
follow-up study of a large, representative sample of children of immigrants in south Florida
and San Diego (Portes & Rumbaut 2001), or
in strict parenting practices based on in-depth
interviews with first- and second-generation
West Indians (Waters & Sykes 2009). Legal status can complicate intergenerational relations
in mixed-status families. Undocumented children, for example, may perceive—and resent—
that their parents favor their U.S.-born siblings
because the latter have greater access to governmental resources (Menjivar & Abrego 2009).
While most of the research on intergenerational relations in immigrant families focuses
on strains and conflicts, the literature indicates
that there is another side to the story that demands equal attention. To say that families are
battlefields between the generations (Lessinger
1995) is an oversimplification and an exaggeration. In many, probably most, cases, conflict is
mixed with caring and cooperation, and rejection of some parental standards and practices
is coupled with acceptance of others. In immigrant families, as in families in the wider U.S.
population, familial norms of responsibility and
feelings of closeness generally characterize intergenerational relations, which are a source
of material, practical, and emotional support
(Swartz 2009).
Families create strong emotional ties that
bond members together, and even young
people who resent parental constraints and
obligations feel, at the same time, a complex
combination of affection, loyalty, gratitude,
responsibility, and a sense of duty to their
immigrant parents (Suarez-Orozco et al. 2008).
Most children in immigrant families appreciate
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their parents’ sacrifices on their behalf and recognize the importance of family and the need
to provide financial and other kinds of instrumental assistance to family members (D’Alisera
2009, Espiritu 2009, Fuligni & Pedersen 2002,
Rumbaut & Komaie 2010, Stepick et al. 2001).
A series of questionnaire-based studies of
adolescents and young adults in immigrant
families in San Francisco, New York, and
Los Angeles found that those with a greater
sense of obligation to the family reported
more positive psychological well-being and
self-esteem (Fuligni 2006). A more nuanced
picture emerges from a recent study based on
in-depth interviews with middle-class young
adult children of Mexican immigrants in Los
Angeles; many willingly and happily gave back
through financial and social support in repayment for their parents’ struggles and sacrifices,
but many who provided support expressed
some ambivalence and even resentment at
having to do so (Vallejo & Lee 2009).
Although some children feel ashamed of
their immigrant parents and their parents’ culture and seek to distance themselves from
it (Portes & Rumbaut 2001), many secondgeneration young people have a sense of pride
in their culture of origin (or features of it)
and admiration for their parents’ struggles to
make a better life for themselves and their children in this country; this cultural pride, some
studies note, may be reinforced by involvement in ethnic institutions and organizations
(D’Alisera 2009, Zhou 2009). Rather than viewing the second generation as being torn between two worlds, a large-scale study of secondgeneration young adults in New York argues
that the second generation selectively combines
those aspects of their parents’ culture and mainstream American culture that they see most positively (Kasinitz et al. 2008). Second-generation
West Indians, to give one example, are eager to
combine the best of middle-class American and
West Indian methods of childrearing (Waters
& Sykes 2009). How this cultural innovation
process operates—and affects intergenerational
relations—in other ethnic groups is a topic that
calls for further study. Indeed, whatever young
people think of their parents’ standards, they
may simply go along with parental expectations
to keep the peace or try to conceal behavior
from parents that will lead to clashes.
For their part, immigrant parents also often
work out compromises with their children as a
way to get along. Far from being rigid traditionalists, many make accommodations and adjustments in response to their children’s demands
and changes in the U.S. context, for example,
giving their children more say in marriage
arrangements, extending curfew hours, or modifying disciplinary practices (Lessinger 1995,
Zephir 2001). Just as the second generation are
agents of cultural innovation as they combine
aspects of their parents’ and mainstream
American culture, so too, new cultural patterns
and social practices develop among immigrant
parents in the context of new hierarchies,
cultural conceptions, and social institutions
in the United States (Foner 1997). A research
challenge is to explore how, and under what
conditions, immigrant parents begin to alter
or modify their values, expectations, and childrearing practices as they learn new techniques
and norms from their children, as well as from
other sources, including coworkers, colleagues,
and the media in the United States. Portes &
Rumbaut (2001) suggest that when parents and
children acculturate at the same time—what
they call consonant acculturation—children
are less likely to feel embarrassed by their
parents and are more willing to accept parental
guidance, thereby reducing the likelihood of
intergenerational conflict.
Relations between the generations are not
fixed or static and take new twists and turns
over time as tensions rise and fall in response to changed circumstances and situations
(see Gilbertson 2009). Of particular relevance
are the shifts related to life-course change. Because most members of the second generation
today are still young children, teenagers, and
young adults, little has been written on relations with their immigrant parents as they move
through the life course and set up families and
households of their own or, in some cases, continue to live with their parents in extended
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family households (Kasinitz et al. 2008). As
the second generation (and their parents) grow
older, new conflicts may emerge or old ones
may become intensified, for example, when
mothers criticize adult daughters’ childrearing
techniques (Gilbertson 2009) or when aging
and frail parents need support and care. Yet the
literature suggests that reduction of conflict is
more likely, at least while parents are still active and healthy, owing to the physical separation of the two generations when young people
move out of the family home (Louie 2004, Park
2005) and because adult members of the second
generation often reevaluate their earlier critical approaches as they assume parental roles
(Waters & Sykes 2009) and daughters come
to rely on mothers for advice, support, and
sometimes, help with child care. In some immigrant groups, it is not uncommon for elderly
immigrants to live for a significant period of
time with their children and grandchildren in
extended family households (Min 1998, Treas
& Mazumdar 2004), and an important topic
for further research is to explore grandparents’
roles in these households and the relationships
that develop among the three coresident generations, including how—and why—these patterns vary among national-origin groups.
Another under-researched question concerns the impact intergenerational dynamics in
immigrant families have beyond the bounds of
the household and family. Of particular interest is the effect on second-generation educational and academic achievement. One study of
several hundred newly arrived immigrant children recruited in schools in Boston and San
Francisco (Suarez-Orozco et al. 2008) found
no direct link between reported acculturation
tensions with parents and academic performance; another, based on a large-scale representative sample of children of immigrants in
south Florida and southern California, found
that parent-child conflict had a negative effect
on school achievements (Portes & Rumbaut
2001).
Qualitative studies indicate that cultural
values that cause family clashes may also
promote academic success. Second-generation
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daughters may resent that they face greater restrictions than their brothers on their freedom
of movement, yet their more highly structured
and monitored lives can have positive effects
on their educational achievement because
they are kept closer to home and away from
the temptations of the street (Lopez 2003,
Smith 2006). For daughters and sons alike,
Portes & Fernández-Kelly (2008) argue that
authoritarian parental childrearing practices
can contribute to educational success by keeping the second generation away from negative
Americanizing influences and promoting a
sense of dignity by providing a strong cultural
reference point. Research on the second
generation suggests another dynamic that can
have implications for educational achievement.
Punishing children by sending them back to
the home community can heighten intergenerational conflicts, although the separation
may heal the breach (Foner 2009c) and,
in some cases, provide a second chance to
make it in the United States. The New York
second-generation study (Kasinitz et al. 2008)
suggests that a spell in the home country
can instill values and provide an educational
environment that stands young people in good
stead when they return to the United States
to enter college and the workforce, although it
is also true that spending a year or two out of
U.S. schools can derail children academically.
INTERGENERATIONAL
RELATIONS IN
TRANSNATIONAL FAMILIES
Although some immigrant families use separation as a way to deal with intergenerational
conflict, it usually happens for other reasons.
Legal restrictions related to immigration policy too often prevent parents and children from
migrating to the United States together. Visas
may not be available for all family members
at the same time, and those who come without documents may find that staggering family members’ arrivals enhances the affordability and the safe passage of women and children
across the border. Also, parents may choose to
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migrate without children when they find it difficult to meet their families’ economic needs by
living together. Some family members work or
study in the United States with the hope that
separation will enhance the resources available
to all members of the family.
The pathways leading to family separation
vary greatly, with considerable attention given
to this topic in the literature on female migration patterns. Some women who obtain
work visas or have family networks facilitating their own migration leave husbands and
children behind so that they can work in the
United States (George 2005, Parreñas 2001).
Single, divorced, or widowed mothers unable
to find adequate employment opportunities in
their countries of origin may leave to support children who remain in the home community (Chavez 1992; Dreby 2006, 2010). Many
women come to the United States in a stepor chain-migration pattern; they join husbands
in the United States, leaving children until they
can send for them or return home (HondagneuSotelo 1994, Smith et al. 2004, Suarez-Orozco
& Suarez-Orozco 2001). Although mothers appear to be migrating without their children at
higher rates than in times past, separation of
children from migrant fathers continues to be
widespread. One study of immigrant children
in the United States found that more than 80%
had been separated from parents prior to migration and that separation from fathers was most
common (Suarez-Orozco et al. 2002).
Although much less common, separation
from parents can involve school-aged or young
adult children who migrate while a parent or
parents remain in the country of origin. On one
end of the spectrum, some Asian families send
children on their own (often called parachute
children) or mothers and children alone (sometimes referred to as astronaut families) to the
United States to enhance the children’s educational opportunities (Waters 2002, Zhou 1998).
On the other end, economically disadvantaged
children occasionally migrate on their own in
the search for job opportunities. Between 2005
and 2007, more than 80,000 minors were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexican border per year;
between 7,000 and 9,000 of these unaccompanied, primarily Central American, migrant children remained in the custody of the U.S. government in each of the three years (Byrne 2008).
When mothers and fathers are separated
from children during international migration,
conflict and accommodation are again prominent themes. Separation causes strains and conflicts in families, while strong norms of intergenerational reciprocity sustain parent-child
relationships across international borders.
Discipline and parental authority are
prominent sources of conflict (Dreby 2010,
Schmalzbauer 2005a). The nature of such conflicts varies by age; younger children in the community of origin often disregard the authority
of their migrant parents and cede control to
day-to-day caregivers, whereas older children
make appeals to migrant parents when they
feel the caregivers are too restrictive (Dreby
2007). Conflicts over discipline are also likely
to be affected by children’s gender. Daughters’
activities—especially dating habits—are often
more closely monitored by their parents and
caregivers than are sons’ (Moran-Taylor 2008).
Children may resent attempts by parents to
monitor their activities and exert authority from
afar.
Dependence on remittances sent by U.S.
migrants often adds to the difficulties related
to discipline. Migrants closely monitor the use
of the money they send, and conflicts can
arise when parents believe that it is not being spent on their children or when caregivers
protest that remittances are insufficient (Dreby
2010, Moran-Taylor 2008, Olwig 1999). Children may gain some degree of social status in
the family due to their caregivers’ dependency
on remittances (Olwig 1999). They sometimes
challenge caregivers’ authority by complaining
to migrant parents that remittances are being
used improperly.
Interestingly, children describe a lack of discipline as one of the negative consequences of
family separation contributing to their feelings
of loss while parents are away (Dreby 2010; see
also Coe 2008, Parreñas 2005). Stories in the
popular press emphasize that the migration of
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unaccompanied children to the United States
partly stems from a lack of guidance because
parents are absent (see, for example, Nazario
2006), although research is needed to illuminate
the circumstances surrounding the lone migration of young people to the United States.
Another area that relates to intergenerational conflict in transnational families is children’s schooling. One of parents’ rationales for
living apart from children is that this strategy
will contribute to their children’s academic success and thus the overall upward mobility of the
family (Dreby 2010). Conflict between parents
and children can ensue over children’s educational progress; a lack of success in school can
undermine the entire family’s migration strategy. For children coming to the United States
to study for the sole purpose of gaining entry to an American college or university, failing
grades invalidate parents’ considerable investments. For parents who migrate to work in the
United States, financing their children’s education in the home country is vital; they hope that
in doing so, their children will qualify for good
jobs and not have to migrate as they have done
(Schmalzbauer 2008). Unfortunately, the success of this strategy may be limited. Although
some research shows certain educational benefits for children in the home country related
to parental migration (Kandel & Kao 2001,
Morooka & Liang 2009), several small-scale
studies also find negative impacts of parental
separation on children’s schooling outcomes
and aspirations (see Battistella & Conaco 1998,
Heymann et al. 2009, Kandel & Massey 2002).
The emotional repercussions of being separated from parents help to account for negative
educational outcomes. Nonmigrant children
in the country of origin express feelings of
loss during periods of parent-child separation,
resentment at not having been able to migrate
with their parents, and at times physical symptoms of the stresses of separation (Battistella
& Conaco 1998, Coe 2008, Parreñas 2005,
Pribilsky 2001). Feelings of estrangement
from parents often have a long-term impact
on parent-child relationships well into adulthood and even after parents and children
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are reunited. Indeed, researchers have found
that immigrant children in the United States
who were separated from parents before they
migrated had more trouble doing well in school
than children who migrated with their parents
(Grindling & Poggio 2008, Suarez-Orozco
et al. 2002).
Parents also experience feelings of loss during periods of separation that create tensions
in relationships with the children with whom
they do not live. Having left their children, migrant mothers commonly experience feelings
of guilt, which are exacerbated by the expectation of children and others that mothers be the
family caregivers and source of emotional support (Dreby 2006, Hondagneu-Sotelo & Avila
1997, Parreñas 2001). Children often judge
their mothers more harshly for leaving than
they do their fathers (Dreby 2010, Menjivar &
Abrego 2009, Parreñas 2005). Parental guilt is
somewhat tempered, however, by the belief that
remittances are providing children with a better
life. This is especially true for fathers, who are
likely to evaluate their successes as migrants by
their ability to be economic providers. When
fathers are unable to send money home, they
may be embarrassed by their lack of economic
success as migrants and subsequently avoid regular communications, further aggravating children’s sense of loss (Dreby 2006).
Another potential source of difficulty for
nonmigrant children is the addition of new family members, including stepparents and stepsiblings, in the United States. Not surprisingly, the
children in the home community often feel they
cannot successfully compete for their parents’
love, affection, and resources with the new siblings or stepsiblings (Dreby 2009, Menjivar &
Abrego 2009, Mummert 2009). The long-term
ramifications of such feelings of jealousy for relationships between siblings and stepparents are
a topic that requires additional research.
Conflicts related to discipline, children’s
academic success, and the emotional repercussions of separation vary by country of origin,
class, and legal status. Parents with greater access to economic resources are not only better able to meet children’s requests but also
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can communicate regularly with their children
via technologies such as cell phones, text messages, email, online chats, and even webcams
(Baldassar et al. 2007, Wilding 2006). Parents
with more economic resources are also better
positioned to arrange visits to children with
whom they do not live (Parreñas 2001). Frequent communication can, of course, provide
points of contact that spark or aggravate conflict, but it also can ameliorate the tensions parents and children experience while living apart.
The cost of communication is directly related to
the country of origin’s distance from the United
States and the types of technologies available
in home communities (Mahler 2001). Parents’
and children’s ability to visit each other is also
linked to migrants’ legal status. Undocumented
migrants may go years without seeing their children owing to the costs and dangers of orchestrating an undocumented border crossing
(Boehm 2008).
When children are reunited with their
parents in the United States, different sets of
problems arise. Reunions can lead to great joy
and renewed intimacy, as well as tension and
disappointment (Menjivar & Abrego 2009).
Among other things, parents and children must
become reacquainted and get used to living
together again in a situation in which both may
have unrealistic expectations of each other.
Children’s separation from grandmothers or
other close kin who cared for them in the
country of origin for much of their childhood is
often wrenching. In some cases, children have
to adjust to a new stepparent and stepsiblings,
as well as new schools and a new cultural,
social, and physical environment (Foner &
Kasinitz 2007). Parents may be disappointed
if their children are confused, resentful, or
withdrawn instead of grateful for the reunion,
which usually entailed considerable financial
sacrifice (Smith 2006, Waters 1999). Trying to
discipline children with whom they have spent
little time or whom they may not have seen
for several years poses another challenge. Over
time, however, parents and children readjust
to each other, and many, probably most, end
up building or rebuilding close relationships.
Transnational families are marked not just
by tension but also by togetherness and commitment. Parents make significant efforts to accommodate children’s needs during periods of
separation and are often hyperattentive to these
needs. In response to conflicts over authority,
for example, parents may try to relate to their
children in a less authoritarian way, recognizing
the difficulty of disciplining children from a distance (Dreby 2007). Migrant parents may also
strive to meet all of children’s material requests,
depriving themselves of daily comforts, including regular meals, in order to do so (Abrego
2009, Coe 2008, Parreñas 2001, Schmalzbauer
2005b). Parents are also usually sensitive to children’s attachments to their caregivers in the
home community. When parents see the emotional costs separation has for children, they
may redouble efforts to bring the children to
live with them in the United States, even if this
means sacrificing their original hopes for their
children’s education in the country of origin
(Dreby 2010). The study of the adaptations and
accommodations of migrant parents and their
children during periods of separation, as well as
reunion, is an area calling for future research.
What clearly emerges from the literature is
that intergenerational relationships in transnational families are characterized by flexibility
in response to change over time. Perhaps the
greatest testament to this flexibility is family
members’ accounts of enduring commitments
to each other, despite years of having lived apart
(Dreby 2010, Pribilsky 2007). For many families, separation is a short-term strategy, but even
when it is a long-term arrangement, extending
into the children’s adult years, parents and children often maintain contact and may reunite
later in life (see Parreñas 2001).
The length and duration of parent-child
separation, and consequently the types of conflicts and accommodations it engenders, are
a direct result of the conditions shaping international migration patterns. For migrants
from East Asian countries who send minor children to study abroad, the transnational arrangement is a strategy that corresponds to children’s
high school years, extending into college (Zhou
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2009). For nurses from the West Indies, the
Philippines, and India who come to the United
States on work visas, separation from children
lasts until they are able to arrange the necessary visas for family members (George 2005,
Parreñas 2001, Soto 1987). For undocumented
workers who leave children in Mexico to work
north of the border, separation is directly related to parents’ economic successes and ability
to save enough money to return to Mexico or
arrange for the undocumented crossing of minor children (Boehm 2008, Dreby 2010). For
migrant parents from Central America, who
are often caught in a legal limbo in the United
States and unable to travel or send for children
because they only have temporary protection
status or are awaiting determination of their
immigration cases, separation can extend for
years, sometimes until the child is a young adult
(Menjivar 2006).
A significant contribution of the literature
on transnational families to understanding intergenerational relationships is that it highlights how intimate ties between parents and
children are influenced by structural conditions
that shape global migration patterns. To date,
most research on relationships in transnational
families has been based on small-scale ethnographic case studies on migrants from a few
countries. There is a need for large-scale studies
that quantify how common these types of family arrangements are worldwide, as well as how
variables, such as the age of children when parents migrate and later reunite, affect intergenerational relations; comparative research can help
better understand the dynamics of and variation in parent-child relationships in transnational families in different national contexts and
historical periods.
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WHAT’S NEW ABOUT
INTERGENERATIONAL
RELATIONS
An underlying assumption in much academic
writing about immigrant family life is that
intergenerational conflict—between parents
steeped in old-country traditions and values
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and children who have grown up in the
American social and culture world—is an inevitable part of the American immigrant story.
This assumption needs to be critically examined
in order to set the record straight and to better
understand the factors shaping intergenerational relations in immigrant families. Viewing
the literature on contemporary immigrant
family relations in light of the literature on past
immigrations helps to specify what factors are
unique to the present period and what is more
general to the American immigrant experience.
Certainly, the historical literature on family
life among southern and eastern European immigrants in the last great immigration wave a
century ago shows many continuities between
past and present. Virtually every source of intergenerational tension discussed in the first
section of this review is mentioned and sometimes elaborated upon in detail in historical accounts of the earlier period (e.g., Cohen 1992,
Ewen 1985, Gabaccia 1994, Peiss 1986, Ware
1994 [1963]). The classic sociology work The
Polish Peasant in Europe and America laments
the “painful antagonism” between immigrant
parents and their American-born and -raised
children, including clashes of values and children’s rejection of parental authority (Thomas
& Znaniecki 1958 [1918]).
A hundred years ago, for example, struggles
arose between immigrant parents and their
American-born and -raised children over the
young people’s social freedoms, dating, and
marital choices. Then, as now, immigrant
parents were especially concerned with monitoring the activities of daughters, and a primary
source of intergenerational conflict had to do
with strict parental controls over the young
women (Chinn 2009, Espiritu 2009, Thomas
& Znaniecki 1958 [1918], Ware 1994 [1963]).
As one account puts it, in the early twentieth
century, “parents from eastern and southern
Europe bickered and quarreled with their adolescent children over chaperonage, curfews,
clothes, cosmetics, entertainment, and money”
(Alexander 1995, p. 23). Frictions between
immigrant parents and children over methods
of parental discipline have a long history. So
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does the role of outside authorities in these
conflicts. Research on societies for the prevention of cruelty to children, which were founded
and flourished in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, reveals cases of children of
immigrants reporting (or threatening to report)
abusive parental behavior to the authorities—
and immigrant parents then, much like today,
complaining of not being allowed to beat their
children in America the way they did in the old
country (Gordon 1988; Pleck 1983, 1987).
Yet if historical research brings out parallels
with the past, the literature on contemporary
immigrants indicates that much is new about
the dynamics of intergenerational relations today owing to different social, economic, and
political conditions and arrangements. These
include new norms in the United States about
women’s work and child abuse, changes in technology and communication, transformations in
the educational system, expanded opportunities for second-generation daughters, and a
new public discourse on ethnicity and ethnic
diversity.
A number of conflicts are either new, more
common, or have been exacerbated in the current context. Transnational motherhood—and
the attendant intergenerational tensions with
children left behind—was rare among U.S. immigrants a century ago. In 1910, only 7% of
immigrant women across ethnic groups had
left their children in the home country when
they came to the United States (Robles &
Watkins 1993). Although precise figures are
not available for the present period, they are
certainly higher, owing to, among other factors, new norms about the acceptability of married women working in the United States. At
the beginning of the twentieth century, marriage spelled the end of work outside the home
for most women, and unmarried daughters
were the main female wage-earners in immigrant families (Foner 2000). Migrant women
who came on their own were nearly always
young and unmarried women, who moved to
the United States to work in factories or as domestics in private homes and later sent for their
parents and siblings (Diner 1983, Glenn 1990,
Nolan 1989). Many men left children behind,
but they usually left wives behind as well, who
looked after the children in the home community until, as often happened, the family came to
join the working husband/father (Foner 2000,
Gabaccia 2001).
If tensions arose between immigrant parents
and their children over the regulation of daughters’ sexuality in the past, these strains have been
accentuated today in the wake of new norms
about sex and sexual relations since the 1960s
“sexual revolution” that have often widened
the gulf between old-country and mainstream
American norms and values. Something similar has happened with regard to child abuse,
given the steady decline in approval of corporal punishment in middle-class America in the
past 40 years or so, which flies in the face of
the attitudes (and behavior) of many immigrant
parents (Waters & Sykes 2009). The strains associated with demands on children to translate
for non-English-speaking parents also have become more of a problem, given the expansion of
government and private bureaucracies and services in which young people’s translating skills
are required, although at the same time, in the
context of today’s multicultural ethos, members
of the second generation are less embarrassed
by their parents’ poor English skills and sometimes proud of their ability to translate and be
fluent in two languages (Kasinitz et al. 2008).
Another change in the present period concerns tensions over education. In the early
twentieth century, a source of family tension
was daughters’ desire to continue their schooling while parents insisted that they had to go
out to work (Foner 2000). This is rarely an issue today. Indeed, now that more education is
needed to get ahead, and there is greater gender equity in education and in the professions
in the United States, a not uncommon cause
of conflict is parents’ intense and high expectations for second-generation daughters’ academic achievements.
By the same token, new developments have
also reduced certain intergenerational tensions
and conflicts. The fact that unmarried teenaged
daughters were the main contributors to the
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family income a century ago injected a dimension into intergenerational relations typically absent in the present period. In the past,
teenaged daughters, who were pressed to contribute most, sometimes all, of their wages to
the family fund, often struggled to control their
own earnings or at least some portion of them
(Berrol 1996, Gabaccia 1994). Today, teenaged
daughters are generally in school; the absence
of reported conflict over their earnings when
they do go out to work suggests that daughters
now have more power over how to spend their
income than in the past.
Modern technology and communications
have also often lessened the strains that accompany transnational family life. As the large
literature on transnationalism shows, modern
forms of communication have allowed contemporary immigrants to maintain more frequent
and intense contact with relatives in the home
country than was possible in earlier periods.
An under-researched question is what this
means for the quality of parent-child relations.
The ubiquity of cell phones and “cheap calls”
(Vertovec 2004) enables parents in the United
States to keep in close touch with children
who have remained in the home community—
giving advice and responding to day-to-day
problems—in ways that were not possible
20 years ago, and certainly not at the beginning
of the twentieth century. Weekly, or sometimes
more frequent, calls and, in some cases, email
and text messages make it possible for migrant
mothers to maintain a greater level of intimacy
with children left behind and to be more involved in the children’s academic and emotional
growth (Dreby 2010, Horst 2006, Parreñas
2005, Schmalzbauer 2008). Less happily, phone
communications permit a level of monitoring
or surveillance of children’s activities that can
also spark or aggravate conflicts (Horst 2006),
but, on balance, they appear to have positive
consequences for intergenerational relations
that must be managed from a distance.
An additional modern development that has
had positive implications for intergenerational
relations is the greater public tolerance of
cultural diversity and acceptance of cultural
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pluralism in the United States (Foner 2000).
In the early twentieth century, in the context
of aggressive Americanization efforts and campaigns, many children of European immigrants
rejected and were ashamed of their parents’
embarrassing “foreign ways.” In contrast, the
New York second-generation study (Kasinitz
et al. 2008) found that the young adult children
of immigrants rarely felt ashamed of their
parents’ language and were proud of their
bicultural abilities. They generally had positive
feelings about their ethnic roots. Nearly all
the respondents said they would try to teach
their children about their parents’ culture,
have the children visit the home country, and
help them learn the language. To what extent
these attitudes are especially pronounced in
New York, which is particularly welcoming
and accepting of ethnic diversity (Foner 2007),
and reflect the fact that the New York study
respondents were young adults—beyond the
teen years, when young people are most
likely to be embarrassed by their parents—are
questions that require further investigation.
COMPARING THE UNITED
STATES AND EUROPE
A cross-national comparison of the United
States and western Europe yields additional insights into how the national context, including
the nature of immigrant flows, immigration
policies, and public discourse about immigration, shapes the social science literature on intergenerational relations in immigrant families
in distinct ways. Like the United States, western
European countries have experienced a massive
influx of immigrants in the post–World War II
period, giving rise to an enormous literature on
the immigrant experience there and a growing
interest in recent years in family relations.
To be sure, many similarities in family dynamics emerge in the literature on both sides
of the Atlantic. Studies of migrants in western Europe point to some of the same sources
of intergenerational tension and conflict, for
example, different norms of hierarchical esteem and methods of discipline (Barot 2002,
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Chamberlain 2006, Foner 1978); parents’ separation from and subsequent reunions with children left behind in the home community (Bauer
& Thompson 2006, Bonizzoni 2009, Cheetham
1972, Erel 2002, Foner 2009b, Fresnoza-Flot
2009); and constraints on young people’s, especially daughters’, movements outside the
house (Ballard & Ballard 1977, Timera 2002,
Wessendorf 2008, Wikan 2008). Research in
Europe, as in the United States, also shows that
bonds of loyalty, obligation, and affection are
the basis for strong attachments and lead to accommodations between the generations (Song
1999), and that rebelliousness in the second
generation’s teenage years often gives way to
shared views and interests with parents in adulthood (Ballard & Ballard 1977).
Yet what stands out are the transatlantic contrasts. In western Europe, where major Muslim
groups are considered the most problematic
immigrant minorities in terms of their cultural
patterns as well as poverty, unemployment, and
education rates, intergenerational family issues
such as arranged or forced marriages (the two
not always distinguished) and honor killings
of second-generation daughters have become
important themes in social science studies in
the context of intense and often acrimonious
public debates about the cultural challenges of
Islam (Korteweg & Yurdakul 2009). In western
Europe, scholarly writings on immigrant families play out against a backdrop in which the
large Muslim minority population—by some
estimates, now more than 15 million—is often
viewed in public discourse as a threat to liberal
European values and in which heightened
fears about Muslims’ failure to integrate have
been given top priority in mainstream policy
agendas (Grillo 2008b). Academic discussions
about migrant families have become part of a
larger, and politicized, debate about how much
tolerance should be allowed in modern European societies for practices and beliefs that are
associated with and found among Muslim minorities (Ballard 2008, Grillo 2008a, Hagelund
2008), although, as is pointed out, many of
these practices, such as honor killings, are not
required by Islam (Ewing 2007, Wikan 2008).
A number of social scientists have written
accounts that decry practices in Muslim families in which immigrant parents (and brothers)
inflict force and violence on daughters. In
Germany, Kelek (2005) describes incidents of
domestic violence and honor killings in Turkish
families carried out against women who have
besmirched the family’s honor. Norwegian
anthropologist Wikan (2002, 2008) highlights
dramatic cases of forced marriages and honor
killings in Scandinavia; her most recent book,
In Honor of Fadime: Murder and Shame, focuses
on a young woman of Kurdish origin who
was killed by her father because she publicly
stood up for her right to marry a Swedish man
rather than the relative her family chose for her
in Turkey. Wikan argues that state agencies
should uphold universal rights of children
and women in the face of oppressive practices
found in Muslim communities in Europe.
In Honor of Fadime is also explicitly written
to explain the social and cultural underpinnings
of honor crimes in migrants’ home societies. In
general, a common theme in the literature on
transnational—arranged—marriages in Europe
is the desire to correct popular misrepresentations of immigrant families (Grillo 2008b).
One erroneous perception is that intergenerational conflict over arranged marriages with
spouses from the home country is inevitable,
intense, and enduring. Certainly, members of
the second generation do frequently resent and
struggle against parents’ marriage choices and
pressures, and rejection of an arranged marriage sometimes leads to a long-term break
with the natal family. Yet a number of ethnographic studies paint a more complex picture.
Young, second-generation Muslim women in
Berlin may adopt traditional customs, such as
wearing a headscarf in public, to show parents
their identification with Islam and thus justify
refusal of arranged marriages (Bendixsen 2009).
Many children of immigrants accept one of the
proposals put before them in repayment for the
care and love their parents have provided (Shaw
2000, Shaw & Charsley 2006) and because they
fear losing emotional and material benefits from
their families (Ballard 2008). Some daughters
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from Turkish and North African backgrounds,
it is reported, hope they can gain by marrying an imported husband because, at least initially, this will shift the balance of power in
the marriage in their favor, given that they
speak the receiving country’s language; they
are more familiar with its institutions, customs, and rules; and their parents-in-law are
far away (Beck-Gernsheim 2007). Young men
may be amenable to a foreign-born wife who
is more accepting of traditional (and unequal)
gender expectations than second-generation,
young women born in Europe. Also, sons can
reconcile the pressures to fulfill obligations to
parents and their own desires by having clandestine affairs while married, something not tolerated for daughters (Shaw 2000, Wikan 2008).
Views of arranged marriage may, moreover,
change over time. One study reports that young
British-born Punjabis who were strongly opposed to having an arranged marriage, later, after they settled down and married, felt that arranged marriages would be best for their own,
third-generation, children (Ballard & Ballard
1977).
Another focus of the literature—the link
between arranged marriages and migration policies—points to added complexities.
Parental demands on the second generation to
agree to an arranged marriage stem not only
from premigration cultural beliefs and customs
that continue to have force but also from migration controls in Europe. In the face of severe
restrictions on immigration from outside the
European Union, marriage has become a major route to legal settlement from many non–
European Union countries. One reason, it is
argued, that arranged marriages have become
such a contentious issue in Europe is precisely
because they have permitted continued migration from countries like Pakistan and Turkey
(Ballard 2008).
The combination of migration controls, cultural norms about arranged marriage, and migrant parents’ obligations to family in the home
country explains the remarkably high rates of
marriage between the second generation and
home-country spouses in a number of large
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minority groups. Close to 50% of British-born
Pakistanis, it was reported in 2008, contracted
marriages with spouses back home (Ballard
2008). A study of 29,000 marriages among
Turks resident in Germany in 1996 found that
more than 60% of German-born Turks married
a partner who lived in Turkey before the marriage (Beck-Gernsheim 2007). In the Netherlands in 2000, about 70% of second-generation
Turks and 60% of second-generation Moroccans who married between 1968 and 2000 had
a spouse from their parents’ country of origin
(Lucassen & Laarman 2009), although the
rates have since declined owing to stricter requirements for such marriages. Why the rates
are so much higher in some groups than others
is a fascinating question. Not surprisingly, the
evidence suggests that the rates are higher in
groups from cultures with arranged marriage
customs, such as Turks and Moroccans in the
Netherlands (Beck-Gernsheim 2007), and in
groups with cousin marriage, such as Pakistanis
in Britain, in which pressure to assist siblings in
the home country through arranged marriages
is very strong (Ballard 2008).
In the United States, arranged marriages
and honor killings have led to little public controversy and much less attention in the social
science literature—the very term forced marriage is generally absent from the American
literature—partly because these practices are
less common than in western Europe. An estimated three-quarters of immigrants to the
United States are Christian (Foner & Alba
2008) and do not practice arranged marriage;
among those immigrant groups with arranged
marriages, the most numerous, Asian Indians,
stand out for their high levels of education and
occupational achievements.
More generally, contemporary American
sociologists have pointed to the positive effects
of immigrant family values and practices for
the integration and socioeconomic progress
of the U.S. second generation. Although
second-generation daughters may resent being
closely monitored by their parents and limited
in their outside activities, these constraints,
as mentioned earlier, are thought to help
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them do well in school. When immigrant
parents keep their children bound to the ethnic
community and subject to its sanctions, this is
viewed as protecting young people from the
corrupting influences of mainstream American
culture that value socializing over academics
and inner-city neighborhood subcultures that
may involve drugs, gangs, and disruptive or
antischool behavior (Portes & Rumbaut 2001,
Zhou & Bankston 1998). Recently, Portes &
Fernández-Kelly (2008) have argued that stern
parental childrearing practices—including
physically punishing children in response
to challenges to parental authority, severely
restricting external contacts, and forbidding
back talk to parents—are among the factors
enabling the children of immigrants hampered
by low socioeconomic status backgrounds
and other disadvantages to achieve success in
school and their careers. According to Portes
& Fernández-Kelly (2008, p. 24), “While such
rearing practices will be surely frowned upon
by many educational psychologists, they have
the effect of protecting children from the perils
of street life in their immediate surroundings
and of keeping them in touch with their
cultural roots.”
Other family patterns that bear on intergenerational living patterns are also seen as a plus.
One of the second-generation advantages noted
by the New York second-generation study is
that extended family households are an acceptable, in some cases even preferable, option for
the second generation, in contrast to the children of the native born, for whom moving out
of the parental home is an important marker
of adulthood. Over three-quarters of secondgeneration respondents in the study lived with
their parents during their college-age years,
compared with only two-thirds of the nativeborn, and even in their early 30s, more than one
in five children of immigrants was still living
with a parent, compared with 17% of the native born. Because second-generation respondents leave the parental nest later than the native born, they were better able to go to college
without incurring heavy debt and to save money
to buy their own homes (Kasinitz et al. 2008).
CONCLUSION
The literature reviewed here on tensions and
accommodations in immigrant families shows
how a broad array of structural and cultural
factors affects the nature of intimate relationships between the generations, both when
they are living together and when they are
separated by borders. Culture—norms, beliefs,
and values—matters as it creates or magnifies
intergenerational family conflicts in some
immigrant groups that may be absent or less
important in others, arranged marriage being
a prime example. At the same time, structural
features, including those shaping international
migration patterns, have a profound impact
on the contours of relations in family settings.
Contemporary U.S. immigration policy, to
give perhaps the most striking illustration,
affects the dynamics of parent-child relations
by determining who can move to the United
States legally, thereby leading to the separation
of many parents and children for long periods
of time and setting the stage for a whole
series of strains and difficulties between them.
Taken together, the diverse strands of the
literature also make clear that we cannot study
relationships between parents and children in
immigrant families in isolation. The social, economic, and political context of migration, settlement, and incorporation provides the backdrop against which relationships unfold in the
immigrant family, as the comparisons across
time and space show in an especially dramatic
way. By the same token, relations that develop
between parents and children in immigrant
families have an impact well beyond the household and family. Among other things, they can
affect how the children of immigrants fare at
school and in the labor market and their experiences in a host of other institutional settings. One of the many challenges for the future is to further explore the repercussions of
intergenerational relations within the immigrant family for family members’ involvements
in social, economic, political, and cultural institutions outside it. There is also still much
to learn about interpersonal relations within
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immigrant families themselves, including how
and why conflicts rise and fall over time. In the
end, by studying intergenerational relations in
immigrant families, sociologists can enrich our
understanding of critical aspects of the first- and
second-generation experience and the dynamics of immigrant incorporation in the United
States today.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
The authors are not aware of any affiliations, memberships, funding, or financial holdings that
might be perceived as affecting the objectivity of this review.
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of Sociology
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Contents
Prefatory Chapters
Reflections on a Sociological Career that Integrates Social Science
with Social Policy
William Julius Wilson p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 1
Emotional Life on the Market Frontier
Arlie Hochschild p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p21
Theory and Methods
Foucault and Sociology
Michael Power p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p35
How to Conduct a Mixed Methods Study: Recent Trends in a Rapidly
Growing Literature
Mario Luis Small p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p57
Social Theory and Public Opinion
Andrew J. Perrin and Katherine McFarland p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p87
The Sociology of Storytelling
Francesca Polletta, Pang Ching Bobby Chen, Beth Gharrity Gardner,
and Alice Motes p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 109
Statistical Models for Social Networks
Tom A.B. Snijders p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 131
The Neo-Marxist Legacy in American Sociology
Jeff Manza and Michael A. McCarthy p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 155
Social Processes
Societal Reactions to Deviance
Ryken Grattet p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 185
v
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Formal Organizations
U.S. Health-Care Organizations: Complexity, Turbulence,
and Multilevel Change
Mary L. Fennell and Crystal M. Adams p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 205
Political and Economic Sociology
Political Economy of the Environment
Thomas K. Rudel, J. Timmons Roberts, and JoAnn Carmin p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 221
The Sociology of Finance
Bruce G. Carruthers and Jeong-Chul Kim p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 239
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Political Repression: Iron Fists, Velvet Gloves, and Diffuse Control
Jennifer Earl p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 261
Emotions and Social Movements: Twenty Years of Theory
and Research
James M. Jasper p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 285
Employment Stability in the U.S. Labor Market:
Rhetoric versus Reality
Matissa Hollister p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 305
The Contemporary American Conservative Movement
Neil Gross, Thomas Medvetz, and Rupert Russell p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 325
Differentiation and Stratification
A World of Difference: International Trends in Women’s
Economic Status
Maria Charles p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 355
The Evolution of the New Black Middle Class
Bart Landry and Kris Marsh p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 373
The Integration Imperative: The Children of Low-Status Immigrants
in the Schools of Wealthy Societies
Richard Alba, Jennifer Sloan, and Jessica Sperling p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 395
Gender in the Middle East: Islam, State, Agency
Mounira M. Charrad p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 417
Individual and Society
Research on Adolescence in the Twenty-First Century
Robert Crosnoe and Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 439
vi
Contents
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Diversity, Social Capital, and Cohesion
Alejandro Portes and Erik Vickstrom p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 461
Transition to Adulthood in Europe
Marlis C. Buchmann and Irene Kriesi p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 481
The Sociology of Suicide
Matt Wray, Cynthia Colen, and Bernice Pescosolido p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 505
Demography
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What We Know About Unauthorized Migration
Katharine M. Donato and Amada Armenta p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 529
Relations Between the Generations in Immigrant Families
Nancy Foner and Joanna Dreby p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 545
Urban and Rural Community Sociology
Rural America in an Urban Society: Changing Spatial
and Social Boundaries
Daniel T. Lichter and David L. Brown p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 565
Policy
Family Changes and Public Policies in Latin America [Translation]
Brı́gida Garcı́a and Orlandina de Oliveira p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 593
Cambios Familiares y Polı́ticas Públicas en América Latina [Original,
available online at http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/
10.1146/annurev-soc-033111-130034]
Brı́gida Garcı́a and Orlandina de Oliveira p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 613
Indexes
Cumulative Index of Contributing Authors, Volumes 28–37 p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 635
Cumulative Index of Chapter Titles, Volumes 28–37 p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p 639
Errata
An online log of corrections to Annual Review of Sociology articles may be found at
http://soc.annualreviews.org/errata.shtml
Contents
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