<p> The 1965 Immigration Act allowed a huge influx of new immigrants from Latin America, Asia, and the Caribbean, which extremely increased the levels of racial/ethnic composition of the U.S. society. Despite the fact that immigration from Europe to the U.S. has not stopped in this new era, the majority of research has focused on the labor market experiences of these nonwhite immigrants. New immigrant groups are also added to the white racial category as the U.S. Census Bureau started to refer "white&rdquo; to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. However, there is a shortage of academic research on the labor market experiences of these foreign-born non-Hispanic white immigrants, who differ in size, ethnic composition, socioeconomic background and geographic dispersion in the U.S. society. This research aims to fill this gap by examining whether or not earnings disparity exists between these immigrants and non-Hispanic US-born white Americans, and how much of this disparity is determined by the intersection of ethnicity and gender along with individual- and structural-level characteristics. </p><p> Applying multilevel regression models to the combined waves of data from the IPUMS and U.S. Census Bureau (1980&ndash;2010), the results show that earnings vary by ethnicity/gender, and there is significant earnings inequality between US-born white men and foreign-born white immigrants. Even more pronounced is significant gender earnings inequality within and between ethnic groups. Earnings gaps significantly vary across local labor markets, but much of the difference is determined by ethnicity/gender and individual-level predictors. Compared to temporal and regional context, local labor market context is not a major determinant of earnings achievement in the U.S. However, while the direct effects of local labor markets are trivial, they do have indirect effects on earnings through individual factors.</p>

<p> This study uses data from 16 semi-structured interviews to assess the stressors facing immigrants from Mexico and Central America&rsquo;s Northern Triangle. Specifically, I examine the experience of unauthorized migration and the stress associated with the process of migration and life in the US. I rely on theories of Stress Proliferation, the Mestiza Double Consciousness, and the notion of <i>Familismo</i> to provide explanations for why immigrants have stressful lived experiences, starting with their experiences in their home countries and ending with difficult experiences in the US. The goal of this study is to offer insight into the Hispanic Paradox in mental health&mdash;the lower rates of illness for Hispanic Americans despite the hardships they face. My data show that immigrants face stressors before, during and after migration, and often describe living in a state of distress, but they do not necessarily conceptualize their distress the same way as the American medical model or even their children (who are American citizens) do. Being undocumented or having an undocumented parent causes a proliferation of stress that, which suggests a need for future research on whether Hispanics truly have lower rates of distress, or whether cultural differences in terms of how particularly first-generation immigrants define and describe distress are affecting the ways mental illness is perceived. </p><p>

<p> The intent of this research is to reveal and understand the symbolic meanings of cultural and ethnic identity that cultural creators and receivers perceive through their involvement in mariachi. This study&rsquo;s shows the way those involved in mariachi perceive their cultural and ethnic identity while living in a city that infuses Mexican and Texan cultural sensibilities. A mixed-method approach was taken between in-depth qualitative interviews and participant observation. Participant observation was utilized as a means to build a stratified snowball sample of the various cultural producers and receivers of mariachi. The cultivation of this sample was guided by Griswold&rsquo;s cultural diamond framework. Reliance on semi-structured in-depth interviews as the primary research method of inquiry illuminated the various horizons of meaning that mariachi performers, instructors, gatekeepers, and aficionados held in regards to their efforts to preserve a long standing cultural musical art form in San Antonio, Texas. Some findings include various stories and perspectives on cultural and ethnic identity in mariachi, varying strategies undertaken to preserve mariachi music in the twenty-first century through technology, its institutionalization into a public-education setting, the varying gender dynamics among mariachi performers, the question of authenticity and hybridization in mariachi music, and cultural politics in the mariachi music scene.</p>