This dissertation examines migration behavior with a focus on male labor migrants from Mexico to the United States. I develop the concept of migration intensity, defined as the degree to which a migrant shifts his attachment, association and engagement from the place of origin to the migration destination. Using data for male Mexican migrants in the years 1950 to 2005, I find strong complementarities among remittances, migration patterns, and investment decisions, allowing me to derive an Index of Migration Intensity (IMI). The IMI shows that male Mexican migrants use a continuum of labor migration strategies. Augmenting a conventional Harris-Todaro model, I develop a simultaneous model for the initial migration, return, repeat migration, and remittance decisions of migrant workers. This model can incorporate various migration strategies, including "circular migration," "target earning," and "emigration." Modeling the effects of immigration policies, I find that stricter border enforcement has two consequences: an intended deterrence effect, and an unintended intensification effect whereby stricter border controls lead migrants to make fewer return trips, prolong total U.S. time, and reduce remittances. The impact of the latter on origin-country incomes may induce others to migrate as well. I then examine the determinants of Mexicans’ propensity to migrate illegally (extensive migration behavior) and their degree of socio-economic detachment from home (intensive migration behavior), using instrumental variables estimation with individual fixed effects. My findings support the hypotheses that stricter U.S. border enforcement leads to higher migration intensity, which in turn leads to a net increase in the volume of illegal Mexican migration. My results also indicate that reducing the U.S.—Mexican wage gap would curtail both the extent of illegal migration and migration intensity. The dissertation also investigates the significance of social networks in facilitating undocumented Mexican migration to the U.S. I argue that the importance of social network assistance arises from problems of asymmetric information. Drawing on secondary data sets as well as field research, I quantify the extent of social network assistance, disaggregated by type of assistance and helper.

Despite current research evidence connecting family involvement to students' academic learning, non-mainstream families' funds of knowledge are insufficiently valued as relevant to public schools' curricula and academic genres, a practice that limits diverse families' inclusion as equal partners in their children's education. This two-year-long ethnography (2005-2007), grounded in sociocultural and sociohistorical theories, investigated the struggles and possibilities that two elementary teachers and their students' non-mainstream families faced while trying to reach common understandings about working collaboratively to develop home-classroom partnerships at a time of a national educational reform under the politics of high stakes accountability of the NCLB Law of 2001 and a state local policy of English-only education in Western Massachusetts. Focusing on a third grade teacher and her English Language Learners (ELL) Latino students and on a regular kindergarten teacher with half of the students of Latino origin, the study explored the evolution of participants' assumptions about non-mainstream students and their families, the participants' co-construction of social and literacy practices, and the dialogical practices conducive to partnerships for fostering home-school partnerships and improving diverse students' literacy development. Findings suggest that: (1) some specific social and literacy practices co-constructed through dialogical interactions between urban school teachers and Latino families positively influenced home-classroom partnerships that worked for nonmainstream families; and (2) the participant teachers' critical reflections on their own assumptions and ideologies brought them new understandings about Latino families' funds of knowledge and child socialization practices, helping them to know the whole child and to better provide academic support for ELL students. Implications for practitioners point at the importance of gaining an in-depth understanding of building relationships with non-mainstream families in urban schools to implement home-school partnerships that work for all families. Implications for state agencies, stakeholders, and administrators are: (1) a need to redefine the field of family involvement for a comprehensive action plan for involving non-mainstream families as equal partners in their children's education; and (2) the need for serious commitment towards supporting urban teachers by allocating time and funds for professional development.

Hispanic ownership of businesses has existed in Tucson prior to the Gadsden Purchase of 1854, which allowed the United States to acquire Tucson and part of Southern Arizona. Although ranching and agriculture were main sources of income for this group of pioneer settlers, they were able to diversify their wealth into other sectors of the economy. As the Hispanic population became integrated into American society, an evolution of minority identity towards business ownership occurred. Starting in the twentieth century, Mexican Americans tended to operate mostly in the service industry, such as barber shops and grocery stores. There were a few Hispanic lawyers and doctors. However, their numbers were small in compañson to the growing Mexican American and Anglo populations. The Great Depression of the 1930s affected many of these agriculturally oriented Hispanic families. By the 1940s, more Mexican Americans and Anglos were arriving to the area in search of employment. By the 1980s, a trend was evident of a service sector economy for the Tucson labor market. Most of the twenty Hispanic entrepreneurs interviewed for this study were first or second generation Tucsonans, The pioneer Hispanic families are no longer at the forefront of business opportunities. Instead, sonic of the offspring from these pioneer families have gone into other fields or enterprises in order to develop their own entrepreneurial identity. Some of the interviewees that are descendants of these "latecomers" are undecided as to whether they want their children to enter the family business. As a consequence, some of these establishments may end in the next twenty to thirty years. A cycle of continual Hispanic "latecomers" operating businesses may develop in the Tucson area. The consequence could be the lack of a solid economic base for the Hispanic business community.

For the past 35 years, borderland industry has opened employment opportunities for women in the community of Nogales, Arizona. However, the expansion of free trade with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has aggravated economic instability by promoting the flexible use of labor, a practice that women have increasingly accommodated. Case studies of women engaged in the retail and maquiladora industries illustrate the interplay between flexible employment, reproduction, and education. These cases suggest that a strong connection between flexible employment and reproduction is sustained by ideologies that see these as mutually complimentary. At the same time, the connections between education and employment and reproduction activities are notably absent or weak. We argue that investing in the education of women, which could lead to more predictable employment, is in this way subverted by regional economic instability. The alienation of education from the other two realms of women’s activities works to the advantage of flexible employment practices and advances the underdevelopment of human capital on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Ethnic identity of Mexican American children under the current socio-political climate was studied. Mexican American children were expected to display symptoms of ethnic ambivalence and self-rejection. Using the Kenneth and Mamie Clark (1947) Brown doll/White doll experiment as a model, data were gathered using a mixed model. This approach combed features of experimental designs, survey research, and qualitative methods. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from a purposive sample of 104 children and some of their parents. They were between the ages of 3 to 15, resided in northeastern Texas, and most were White (n=70) or Hispanics (mostly Mexican American) (n=21) the remainder being Asian (n=13). Children self-identified across ethnic lines, and treated play preference, self-identification, and attractiveness separately. Children did not reflect social stereotypes and society's hierarchy. Instead, they portrayed other ethnic groups positively. Current theoretical approaches provided argue that strong ethnic identification and cultural incorporation displayed by the children may be a result of better integration and assimilation; conversely, it may be a product of the “false consciousness” driven by a global market and the culture of individualistic consumerism. An alternative theoretical perspective argues that the apparent cultural incorporation of children was a result of the social cultural evolution of race and ethnic relations in America. Children in this study were merely showing the next stage of the evolution explaining why Mexican American ethnic identity remained strong amidst the current socio-political climate. Implications and suggestions suggest that educators and policy makers should remain vigilant in promoting and facilitating multicultural programs in schools. Parents should play a role in promoting ethnic pride and appreciation of other cultures in order to ensure cultural incorporation. It is important for the social scientist to remain vigilant on the topic and not lose focus under the guise of greater assimilation between minorities and members of the dominant group.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 221-229).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-186).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2001. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 132-143). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

This dissertation uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the linked Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement transcript study to explore how self-identifying as Hispanic/Latino in school but not at home in adolescence is related to academic achievement at the end of high school and educational attainment by young adulthood. It also explores how the relationship between inconsistent Hispanic/Latino self-identification and academic performance varies by Latino family origin and what factors act to mediate this relationship. Finally, it investigates how using school versus home reports of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity in adolescence impacts the measurement of Latino educational progress. This research draws on education literature exploring racial and ethnic differences in academic performance to suggest how and why an inconsistent Hispanic/Latino self-identification might be related to academic performance. This literature is categorized into two broad lines of research, structural and socio-cultural, and suggests two competing understandings of the relationship between inconsistent Hispanic/Latino self-identification and academic performance as well as the factors that may mediate this relationship. This research finds a strong and negative relationship between Hispanic/Latino self-identification in school but not at home and academic performance and that this relationship varies by Latino family origin. It is only among adolescents who do not report Latino family origins that an inconsistent Hispanic/Latino self-identification is negatively associated with academic performance. This research also finds that factors related to socio-cultural explanations of school performance as well as prior academic experiences help to mediate the negative relationship between inconsistent Hispanic/Latino self-identification and academic performance among adolescents who do not report Latino family origins. Additional findings suggest that using home versus school reports of ethnicity may impact estimates of Latino/non-Latino white differences in educational outcomes and Latino generational decline. Results suggest that within schools, a Hispanic/Latino identity, one separated from Hispanic family and community ties, is associated with poor academic performance and resistance to schooling. In addition, this research confirms the fluid and complex nature of racial and ethnic self-identification and suggests using caution when relying on self-reports of race and ethnicity in quantitative data analysis. / text

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