Abstract
Within public schools, nearly ¼ of all students come from immigrant households, raising important questions about how these individuals fare in the classroom and beyond. This case study explores how a sample of 15 1.5- and 2nd-generation women who graduated from an elite, predominantly white public high school in the Northeastern USA explain their school experiences through the lens of immigration, supplementing our knowledge of large-scale statistical trends to interrogate the roots of 1.5- and 2nd-generation advantage and disadvantage and how they influence paths of incorporation. Women explicitly and implicitly discuss the factors of co-ethnic resources, racial reception, and the implementation of local policies, discussing ways in which these factors both encourage and discourage incorporation. The findings thus provide qualified support from lived experiences for the segmented assimilation model (Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 530:74–96, 1993).
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Notes
It is somewhat surprising that there is not a larger representation from the Dominican Republic, given the immigration trends to this area of the country. Although there are no known Puerto Rican participants in the larger sample, they would have been excluded from this particular analysis, given their distinct legal status as American citizens.
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Bueker, C.S. “It’s Because You Don’t See Yourself as Unequal to Anybody”: Exploring the Segmented Assimilation Model in the Experiences of 1.5- and 2nd-Generation Women in an Elite Public High School. Int. Migration & Integration 22, 791–807 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-020-00768-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-020-00768-z