Category Archives: Reading Responses

I thought an interesting concept raised in the readings for this week was the impact education has on the assimilation process of second-generation immigrants as well the influence it has on immigrants forming an identity for themselves. In the Butterfield … Continue reading →

I found one particular line that Sherri-Ann P. Butterfield said very interesting.  “In many ways New York City is more Caribbean than the Caribbean itself.”  In many ways this is true, as the 1999 “Current Population” survey puts West Indians … Continue reading →

While reading these two sources, I could not help but think of my own recent contemplations regarding the authenticity of ethnicity and the differing perspectives of individuals within modern, urban New York society.  For some reason, even though my parents … Continue reading →

“The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and Its Variants” by Portes and Zhou was an enjoyable read because a lot of the conclusions the authors reached through observation of specific communities were some of the same I had reached in … Continue reading →

While I myself do not fit the category or transmigrant or recent immigrant trying to cope with the advantages and disadvantages found in New York schools and culture, I can definitely relate today’s subject to many of my relatives’ and … Continue reading →

In this week’s readings of Nancy Foner’s From Ellis Island to JFK, the focus is on the development of education and transnationalism, whose changes mirror the changed nature of American society. Both the system of education and it’s value have … Continue reading →

In Nancy Foner’s From Ellis Island to JFK, she devotes an entire chapter to describing the education of immigrants and how it has changed since the turn of the twentieth century. She debunks the myth that the immigrants of today … Continue reading →

In Nancy Foner’s “From Ellis Island to JFK,” she discusses transnationalism and compares the transnational migrants of 100 years ago to the ones of today.  Many aspects of immigration are different from back then, mainly technology and education. Though I … Continue reading →

Second generation immigrants are an interesting group of individuals who have tremendous opportunities in front of them.   In, The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and Its Variants by Alejandro Portes and Min Zhou, the authors detail the second generation as … Continue reading →

This week I’m going to focus on the Nancy Foner reading on transnationalism. Foner compares transmigrants during the turn-of-the century to the transmigrants today, with respect to the extent of their relations back home, political ties, economic ties, cultural ties, … Continue reading →