(2008). The Hispanic Women's Social Stressor Scale: Understanding the Multiple Social Stressors of U.S.- and Mexico-Born Hispanic Women. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, v30 n2 p200-229
Measurement of social stressors among Hispanic women is a growing and important area of study, particularly in terms of understanding explanatory mechanisms for health disparities. This study involved adaptation of the Hispanic Stress Inventory and the Latin American Stress Inventory to create a measure of social stressors specifically for both immigrant and nonimmigrant Hispanic women. The measurement development process included review of existing scales, focus groups with Hispanic women (U.S.- and Mexico-born) in New Mexico, and creation, pilot testing, and factor analysis of a 41-item scale. Results indicate that the Hispanic Women's Social Stressor Scale is a reliable and valid measure of the social stressors experienced by U.S.-born and Mexico-born Hispanic women in the Southwest. Factor analyses revealed six reliable and conceptually distinct sub-scales of social stressors: immigration, socioeconomic, racism-related, familial, parental, and employment. Convergent and criterion… [Direct]
(2012). Prevalence Estimates of Health Risk Behaviors of Immigrant Latino Men Who Have Sex with Men. Journal of Rural Health, v28 n1 p73-83 Win
Purpose: Little is known about the health status of rural immigrant Latino men who have sex with men (MSM). These MSM comprise a subpopulation that tends to remain "hidden" from both researchers and practitioners. This study was designed to estimate the prevalence of tobacco, alcohol, and drug use, and sexual risk behaviors of Latino MSM living in rural North Carolina. Methods: A community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnership used respondent-driven sampling (RDS) to identify, recruit, and enroll Latino MSM to participate in an interviewer-administered behavioral assessment. RDS-weighted prevalence of risk behaviors was estimated using the RDS Analysis Tool. Data collection occurred in 2008. Results: A total of 190 Latino MSM was reached; the average age was 25.5 years and nearly 80% reported being from Mexico. Prevalence estimates of smoking everyday and past 30-day heavy episodic drinking were 6.5% and 35.0%, respectively. Prevalence estimates of past 12-month… [Direct]
(2011). The New Hispanic Majority: How Texas Public Schools Are Foreshadowing National Trends. Online Submission, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Educational Research Association (Philadelphia, PA, Oct 6, 2011)
Texas and other states that border with Mexico have been leading indicators of public school system trends that may manifest themselves in other areas of the United States in the decade to come. Such manifestations of these trends are likely to have both policy and practice implications. Descriptive statistics and longitudinal data from the National Center for Educational Statistics, the Texas Education Agency, and the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs were used to identify trends that have impacted Texas public school systems over the last decade. Additionally, enrollment projection reports were used to highlight projections that could significantly influence both policy and practice. Such agency reports included the forecast that total national elementary and secondary public school enrollment is projected to increase by 8 percent between 2006 and 2018 (National Center for Educational Statistics [NCES], 2009). NCES… [PDF]
(2014). The Bilingual Advantage: Language, Literacy and the US Labor Market. Multilingual Matters
The Bilingual Advantage draws together researchers from education, economics, sociology, anthropology and linguistics to examine the economic and employment benefits of bilingualism in the US labor market, countering past research that shows no such benefits exist. Collectively, the authors draw on novel methodological approaches and new data to examine the economics of bilingualism for the new generation of bilinguals entering a digital-age globalized workforce. The authors also pay considerable attention to how to best capture measures of bilingualism and biliteracy, given the constraints of most existing datasets. Contents include: Section I: Bilingualism in the US Labor Market: (1) Contextualizing Bilingualism in the Labor Market: New Destinations, Established Enclaves and the Information Age (Rebecca M. Callahan and Patricia C. G√°ndara; (2) Benefits of Bilingualism: In the Eye of the Beholder? (Reynaldo F. Mac√≠as); (3) Exploring Bilingualism, Literacy, Employability and Income… [Direct]
(2017). Teachers as Allies: Transformative Practices for Teaching DREAMers and Undocumented Students. Teachers College Press
Learn how to engage and advocate for undocumented children and youth with this new resource written by and for teachers. "Teachers as Allies" provides educators with the information and tools they need to involve immigrant students and their American-born siblings and peers in inclusive and transformative classroom experiences. The authors show how immigration policies, ICE enforcement, and societal attitudes affect undocumented students and how teachers and school leaders can recognize these influences on the students' day-to-day lives and learning. Offering teaching strategies that address the needs of DREAMers and undocumented youth as they move through their K-12 and college education, this timely book offers a broad range of curriculum connections and resources. Book Features: (1) Assists educators who work with students from Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Provides teachers with information, analysis, and… [Direct]
(2006). Alcohol Use Disorders in National Samples of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans: The Mexican National Addiction Survey and the U.S. National Alcohol Survey. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, v28 n3 p425-449
The authors show associations between immigration and alcohol disorders using data from the 1995 and 2000 U.S. National Alcohol Surveys and the 1998 Mexico National Household Survey on Addictions. The prevalence of alcohol dependence was 4.8% for the Mexicans, 4.2% for the Mexico-born immigrants, and 6.6% for the U.S.-born Mexican Americans. They found a general lack of significance for the immigration variables with few consistent dose-response findings for alcohol use disorders. High acculturation was associated with higher risks for women; however, unexpectedly, high acculturation was associated with lower risks for males. Among Mexican Americans, the impact of immigration to the United States on the prevalence of alcohol use disorders differs by gender. Male and female differences and possible sources of immigrant selection are important issues for future research. (Contains 4 tables.)… [Direct]
(2010). Academic Trajectories of Newcomer Immigrant Youth. Developmental Psychology, v46 n3 p602-618 May
Immigration to the United States presents both challenges and opportunities that affect students' academic achievement. Using a 5-year longitudinal, mixed-methods approach, we identified varying academic trajectories of newcomer immigrant students from Central America, China, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico. Latent class growth curve analysis revealed that although some newcomer students performed at high or improving levels over time, others showed diminishing performance. Multinomial logistic regressions identified significant group differences in academic trajectories, particularly between the high-achieving youth and the other groups. In keeping with ecological-developmental and stage-environment fit theories, School Characteristics (school segregation rate, school poverty rate, and student perceptions of school violence), Family Characteristics (maternal education, parental employment, and household structure), and Individual Characteristics (academic English… [Direct]
(2007). Students Explore a Complex Landscape of Fear. Chronicle of Higher Education, v53 n32 pA56 Apr
National security demands that "illegals" must be kept out of the country. Terrorists may be entering alongside Mexicans jumping immigration queues. So explain members of the self-appointed Minuteman Civil Defense Corps as they and 25 Vassar College students trudge a migrant trail across a parched, cactus-punctuated desert near Douglas, Arizona. The author has joined the students, visiting points just north and south of the United States-Mexico boundary, for part of their 12-day study trip about border and migration history and politics. In this article, the author discusses what the students discovered in this exploration…. [Direct]
(2009). At the Intersection of Transnationalism, Latina/o Immigrants, and Education. High School Journal, v92 n4 p3-15 Apr-May
Except for Mexico, there are now more Latino-origin people in the U.S. than there are people in Spain, Argentina, Colombia, or any other Spanish-speaking country. In fact, the nation is experiencing the greatest demographic transformation in the last 100 years of its history. As former schoolteachers of immigrant children in Texas and California, the authors have witnessed this demographic transformation firsthand in schools where their students' backgrounds and communities included both first- and second-generation Latinas/os. Today as educational researchers and professors who prepare teacher candidates, the authors are even more intrigued by the social, cultural, political, economic, and educational issues related to this population shift. Their intrigue stems from the unique opportunities that these waves of Latina/o newcomers bring to society as well as from their concerns that many in the field of teaching do not quite understand nor appreciate the complexity of Latina/o… [Direct]
(2010). Facing Our Future: Children in the Aftermath of Immigration Enforcement. Urban Institute (NJ1)
The United States is engaged in an intense debate about immigration policy, particularly with regard to unauthorized immigrants. Debates rage about the economic contributions of immigrants to the U.S. economy, job competition, tax payments and fiscal costs, and the integration of immigrants in communities and the larger society. Largely absent from the discussion are the children of immigrants. Today there are an estimated 5.5 million children with unauthorized immigrant parents, about three-quarters of whom are U.S.-born citizens. The nation builds its own future by investing in the futures of children, spending billions of dollars annually on education and health care, preventing abuse and neglect, and supporting when necessary their basic needs for housing and food. Yet, unlike other children in this country, the children of unauthorized immigrants live with the fear that their parents might be arrested, detained, or deported. The federal government spends billions each year to… [PDF]
(2011). Uniformity and Diversity in Language Policy: Global Perspectives. Multilingual Matters
This book brings together current research by leading international scholars on the often contentious nature of language policies and their practical outcomes in North America, Australia and Europe. It presents a range of perspectives from which to engage with a variety of pressing issues raised by multilingualism, multiculturalism, immigration, exclusion, and identity. This book contains three parts. Part 1: Language Policy at the Official Level, contains: (1) Language Policy and Citizenship in Quebec: French as a Force for Unity in a Diverse Society? (Jane Warren and Leigh Oakes); (2) Do National Languages Need Support and Protection in Legislation? The Case of Swedish as the "Principal Language" of Sweden (Sally Boyd); (3) Language Policy and Smaller National Languages: The Baltic States in the New Millennium (Uldis Ozolins); (4) Language Policy in Australia: What Goes Up Must Come Down? (Paulin G. Djite); and (5) Regional Languages, the European Charter and Republican… [Direct]
(2006). Bringing It Home. Teaching Pre K-8, v37 n2 p58-59 Oct
The idea of parents coming from other countries is not unusual for the first graders in the suburban town 20 miles west of New York City. Parents hail from places as diverse as Turkey, the Philippines, Mexico, Italy, Peru and Egypt. However, the author found that the children of both immigrant and non-immigrant parents had only vague ideas about why their families had come to America. In this article, the author applied for, and received, a grant from the American Immigration Law Foundation to design a unit to introduce primary grade children to immigrants and immigration. The study was entitled \Why Did They Leave Home?\ and explored the multiple reasons people choose to immigrate to the United States and the challenges immigrants face. Through this study and some interviews with the immigrants, young students have gained personal understanding of the multifaceted American immigrant experience…. [Direct]
(2008). Illuminated by the Shadow: U.S.-Mexico Schooling and Pedagogies of Place. Multicultural Perspectives, v10 n3 p123-132 Jul
Currently, 20% of Gardston High School's K-12 students are Latino, the overwhelming majority from small "ranchitos" in rural Mexico with populations of less than 4,000-5,000 residents. In this way, the presence of Mexicans in Gardston means that there is, numerically, the equivalent to a "ranchito" living right within this traditionally white Midwestern community's periphery. In fact, many would say that Gardston's "ranchito" has a name–El Pueblo. Pueblo is the "shadow" city of Gardston, its source of hands to work the plant, of consumers to build the economy, of children to fill the schools. Yet most Gardston residents begrudge the newcomers and do not see the benefits they bring; their contributions remain hidden. What their lives were like in Pueblo and how, in living as Pueblans in Gardston, they are transforming that community into a dynamic hybrid space, remains obscured, for example, by national discourses of immigration or school… [Direct]
(2011). Teaching and Leading for Diversity and Social Justice through Narrative Inquiry in Secondary Schools. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of Idaho
Some district schools in Southwestern Idaho, particularly the Treasure Valley, have witnessed an important growth in the immigration of people from many areas of the world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, Central Europe, Mexico, and Latin America. The children of these immigrants and refugees, whose cultural backgrounds are often quite different from those of their predominantly white peers, find their way into Idaho's schools where most of their teachers and administrators are from a Caucasian, European background. This study grew out of the researcher's desire to work for social justice. As a citizen, scholar, former school principal, refugee and immigrant to the U.S., my important and rewarding goal was to help other educators gain a deeper understanding of and commitment to social justice and its constructs. The purpose of the study was to examine how educators' understanding of social justice, with particular emphasis on the constructs of diversity,… [Direct]
(2006). For Some Students, GED Test in Spanish Is Best Alternative. Education Week, v25 n39 p1, 22-23 Jun
Earning a high school diploma is one of the milestones for students who come to the United States from other countries. But for those who arrive in their middle to late teens, learning enough English to earn a diploma can seem all but impossible. Some students from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, however, are discovering an option that has received little public attention, even among educators: the Spanish-language version of the General Educational Development test. The GED certificate, which is recognized by all states as the equivalent of a high school diploma, can be earned by taking the GED test in Spanish or French, as well as English. As debate over immigration simmers in Congress and among the public, the foreign-language GED could get more scrutiny. Though the debate has centered on border security and the status of illegal immigrants, the issue of language–especially as it relates to the large proportion of newcomers who speak Spanish–is closely intertwined….