Immigration and California

Assesses the impact immigrants have made on California's economy.

Once the prime destination for westward-moving young Americans, California has become a magnet for a new wave of migration in recent years. Changes in immigration law and the ebbs and flows of the increasingly global economy have led to an unprecedented influx of newcomers from every continent and every cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic group. How has the demographic structure of California changed in the past 15 years? What are the social and spatial consequences of this transformation? Where are the new immigrants living, and how successfully are they realizing their versions of the American dream? Examining the impact of large-scale immigration on local communities, this book presents an in-depth geographical case study of the most active "melting pot" in the United States today.

Situating migration in its social and economic contexts, Clark traces changes in United States immigration policy over the course of the twentieth century and considers implications for how we think about assimilation, pluralism, and American identity. The book then provides an overview of why contemporary immigrants come to California and who these individuals are. Examining the aggregate consequences of immigration upon California neighborhoods, cities, and counties, Clark traces the impact of migration on levels of fertility, poverty, and educational goals and attainment in different localities. Detailed findings are presented on patterns of skills, earnings, and public assistance, both for recent immigrants as a whole and for Mexican and Central American, Asian, and Middle Eastern immigrants as discrete groups. Additional topics covered include pathways to home ownership, challenges facingCalifornia's educational system, and political issues and trends.

A reasoned assessment of the costs and benefits of contemporary migration to California, Clark's analysis also has far-reaching implications for immigration debates c

"Hayes-Bautista has long argued that Latinos in the United States, generally, and Mexican Americans, specifically, are members of a civil society--and not some dysfunctional minority group, as commonly imagined. As Americans lately have discovered America within the Americas, Hayes-Bautista now gives us an excellent guide to the nation's future, by describing the new possibility of California--the largest Hispanic state in the union."--Richard Rodriguez, author of "Brown: The Last Discovery of America

"For more than two decades, Hayes-Bautista has been on the forefront of social scientists researching the developing Latino identity of California. The cumulative result is "La Nueva California, a tour de force of social science, enlivened by convincing detail, historical imagination, prophetic power, and--above all else--great hope."--Kevin Starr, author of "Americans and the California Dream series

"For more than a decade, David Hayes-Bautista has accurately charted the trajectory of the New California. He is the best qualified scholar to explain the pattern of Latino growth in California and its importance for California as a whole. His analysis is persuasive and sets forth constructive initiatives to allow the Latino presence in California to be a positive force for sustaining California as a state of opportunity and achievement."--Henry Cisneros, Chairman and CEO, American CityVista

Twentieth-century Los Angeles has been the locus of one of the most profound and complex interactions between variant cultures in American history. Yet this study is among the first to examine the relationship between ethnicity and identity among the largest immigrant group to that city. By focusing on Mexican immigrants to Los Angeles from 1900 to 1945, George J. Sanchez explores the process by which temporary sojourners altered their orientation to that of permanent residents, thereby laying the foundation for a new Mexican-American culture. Analyzing not only formal programs aimed at these newcomers by the United States and Mexico, but also the world created by these immigrants through family networks, religious practice, musical entertainment, and work and consumption patterns, Sanchez uncovers the creative ways Mexicans adapted their culture to life in the United States. When a formal repatriation campaign pushed thousands to return to Mexico, those remaining in Los Angeles launched new campaigns to gain civil rights as ethnic Americans through labor unions and New Deal politics. The immigrant generation, therefore, laid the groundwork for the emerging Mexican-American identity of their children.

People of Mexican descent and Anglo Americans have lived together in the U.S. Southwest for over a hundred years, yet relations between them remain strained, as shown by recent controversies over social services for undocumented aliens in California. In this study, covering the Spanish colonial period to the present day, Martha Menchaca delves deeply into interethnic relations in Santa Paula, California, to document how the residential, social, and school segregation of Mexican-origin people became institutionalized in a representative California town. Menchaca lived in Santa Paula during the 1980s, and interviews with residents add a vivid human dimension to her book. She argues that social segregation in Santa Paula has evolved into a system of social apartness—that is, a cultural system controlled by Anglo Americans that designates the proper times and places where Mexican-origin people can socially interact with Anglos. This first historical ethnographic case study of a Mexican-origin community will be important reading across a spectrum of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, race and ethnicity, Latino studies, and American culture.

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred nearly all Chinese from US shores for ten years. Gyory traces the origins of the Act, contending that rather than confronting divisive problems, politicians sought a safe solution to the nation's crisis.

No one will soon forget the image, blazed across the airwaves, of armed Korean Americans taking to the rooftops as their businesses went up in flames during the Los Angeles riots. Why Korean Americans? What stoked the wrath the riots unleashed against them? "Blue Dreams is the first book to make sense of these questions, to show how Korean Americans, variously depicted as immigrant seekers after the American dream or as racist merchants exploiting African Americans, emerged at the crossroads of conflicting social reflections in the aftermath of the 1992 riots.

The situation of Los Angeles's Korean Americans touches on some of the most vexing issues facing American society today: ethnic conflict, urban poverty, immigration, multiculturalism, and ideological polarization. Combining interviews and deft socio-historical analysis, "Blue Dreams gives these problems a human face and at the same time clarifies the historical, political, and economic factors that render them so complex. In the lives and voices of,Korean Americans, the authors locate a profound challenge to cherished assumptions about the United States and its minorities.

Why did Koreans come to the United States? Why did they set up shop in poor inner-city neighborhoods? Are they in conflict with African Americans? These are among the many difficult questions the authors answer as they probe the transnational roots and diversity of Los Angeles's Korean Americans. Their work finally shows us in sharp relief and moving detail a community that, despite the blinding media focus brought to bear during the riots, has nonetheless remained largely silent and effectively invisible. An important corrective to the formulaic accountsthat have pitted Korean Americans against African Americans, "Blue Dreams places the Korean American story squarely at the center of national debates over race, class, culture, and community.

Chronicling the rise of Los Angeles through shifting ideas of race and ethnicity, William Deverell offers a unique perspective on how the city grew and changed. "Whitewashed Adobe "considers six different developments in the history of the city--including the cementing of the Los Angeles River, the outbreak of bubonic plague in 1924, and the evolution of America's largest brickyard in the 1920s. In an absorbing narrative supported by a number of previously unpublished period photographs, Deverell shows how a city that was once part of Mexico itself came of age through appropriating--and even obliterating--the region's connections to Mexican places and people.

Deverell portrays Los Angeles during the 1850s as a city seething with racial enmity due to the recent war with Mexico. He explains how, within a generation, the city's business interests, looking for a commercially viable way to establish urban identity, borrowed Mexican cultural traditions and put on a carnival called La Fiesta de Los Angeles. He analyzes the subtle ways in which ethnicity came to bear on efforts to corral the unpredictable Los Angeles River and shows how the resident Mexican population was put to work fashioning the modern metropolis. He discusses how Los Angeles responded to the nation's last major outbreak of bubonic plague and concludes by considering the Mission Play, a famed drama tied to regional assumptions about history, progress, and ethnicity. Taking all of these elements