Legacies - by Alejandro Portes & Rubén G Rumbaut (Paperback)

About the Book

One out of five Americans--more than 55 million people--are first or second-generation immigrants. This landmark study probes all aspects of the new immigrant second generation's lives, exploring their immense potential to transform American society for better or worse. 23 photos. 32 line figures. Tables.

Book Synopsis

One out of five Americans, more than 55 million people, are first-or second-generation immigrants. This landmark study, the most comprehensive to date, probes all aspects of the new immigrant second generation's lives, exploring their immense potential to transform American society for better or worse. Whether this new generation reinvigorates the nation or deepens its social problems depends on the social and economic trajectories of this still young population. In Legacies, Alejandro Portes and Rubén G. Rumbaut-two of the leading figures in the field-provide a close look at this rising second generation, including their patterns of acculturation, family and school life, language, identity, experiences of discrimination, self-esteem, ambition, and achievement.

Based on the largest research study of its kind, Legacies combines vivid vignettes with a wealth of survey and school data. Accessible, engaging, and indispensable for any consideration of the changing face of American society, this book presents a wide range of real-life stories of immigrant families-from Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad, the Philippines, China, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam-now living in Miami and San Diego, two of the areas most heavily affected by the new immigration. The authors explore the world of second-generation youth, looking at patterns of parent-child conflict and cohesion within immigrant families, the role of peer groups and school subcultures, the factors that affect the children's academic achievement, and much more.

A companion volume to Legacies, entitled Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America, was published by California in Fall 2001. Edited by the authors of Legacies, this book will bring together some of the country's leading scholars of immigration and ethnicity to provide a close look at this rising second generation.

A Copublication with the Russell Sage Foundation

From the Back Cover

"If Marx, Weber, and Durkheim were alive at the dawn of the 21st Century Legacies is the first book they would have to read to understand just what is at stake in the new immigration. This elegant book--theoretically precise, empirically robust, and analytically savvy--will become the standard by which all subsequent scholarship on the sociology of immigration will be measured. I am buying an extra copy today to send to the new President of the United States."--Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, Professor and Co-Director, The Harvard Immigration Projects, Harvard University

"Legacies is an indispensable guide to understanding how the children of today's immigrants will become the Americans of the 21st Century. For both scholars and the public, it should be essential reading, for it explains why today's approaches to ethnic incorporation will not only fail, but will backfire, yielding a second generation that is less assimilated than it might otherwise be."--Doug Massey, co-author of Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium

"Using a unique storehouse of information, and telling a story with analytic precision and grace, Portes and Rumbaut provide a glimpse into the future that is now. Legacies is an important book, one that should be widely and carefully read."--Roger Waldinger, author of Still the Promised City? African Americans and New Immigrants in PostIndustrial New York

"Legacies demonstrates that there is more than one immigrant experience, and more than one second generation. It is a path-setting study, because the diversity among the most recent newcomers, and the varied ties and discontinuities between them and their children, will be the key to understanding race and ethnic relations in this country in the 21st Century."--John Logan, co-author of Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place

"Portes and Rumbaut allow the diverse voices of the new second-generation immigrants to speak, both in vignettes of their life stories and in clear analytical accounts of their schooling, attitudes, and identities. The authors provide a compelling analysis that is both inspiring and troubling."--Charles Hirschman, co-editor of The Handbook of International Migration

"Legacies is itself a legacy--of one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken to study the integration of the children of immigrants in a nation that styles itself as the nation of immigrants. Portes and Rumbaut have now donated the wealth of insights gained from this project to our common weal, and no one who cares about the American future can afford to ignore what they have to say. It deserves to be read and discussed not only by scholars but also by policymakers and the general public."--Richard Alba, author of Ethnic Identity: The Transformation of White America

"An extraordinary analysis of a contemporary condition that has not yet been fully recognized by our policymakers and commentators: The millions of second generation immigrants who will be a major part of our future. Portes and Rumbaut show the importance of developing intelligent policy."--Saskia Sassen, author of Guests and Aliens

Review Quotes

"The book's most valuable contribution is to show why so many immigrants are ambivalent about Americanization and why we should share this ambivalence."--"New York Review of Books

About the Author

Alejandro Portes is Professor of Sociology at Princeton University and Director of the Center for Migration and Development, Woodrow Wilson School for Public Affairs. He is the coauthor of City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami (California, 1993) and Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States (California, 1985). Portes is the 2010 recipient of the W.E.B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award from the American Sociological Association. Rubén G. Rumbaut is Professor of Sociology at Michigan State University. He is coauthor, with Alejandro Portes, of Immigrant America: A Portrait (California, 1996), and the coeditor of Immigration Research for a New Century: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (2000) and Origins and Destinies: Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in America(1996).