International migration presents the human face of globalization, with consequences that make headlines throughout the world. The Cross-Border Connection addresses a paradox at the core of this phenomenon: emigrants departing one society become immigrants in another, tying those two societies together in a variety of ways. In nontechnical language, Roger Waldinger explains how interconnections between place of origin and destination are built and maintained and why they eventually fall apart. "When are immigrants 'us'? When are they 'them'? Waldinger implores readers to reframe the debate from a before-after dichotomy to a new transnational approach, revealing migrants to be here, there, and in-between at all stages of their migration tenure...The book's real strength is in the elegance of the author's argument, supported by evidence that transnationalism itself is not static but an ongoing dialectic." -R. A. Harper, Choice "The Cross-Border Connection is to be commended for putting substance into the black box of transnationalism, offering scholars a dynamic model to account for the ebb and flow of transnationalism in the real world and yielding testable propositions about the circumstances under which cross-border connections can be expected to expand or contract." -Douglas S. Massey, American Journal of Sociology

Making Los Angeles Home examines the different integration strategies implemented by Mexican immigrants in the Los Angeles region. Relying on statistical data and ethnographic information, the authors analyze four different dimensions of the immigrant integration process (economic, social, cultural, and political) and show that there is no single path for its achievement, but instead an array of strategies that yield different results. However, their analysis also shows that immigrants' successful integration essentially depends upon their legal status and long residence in the region. The book shows that, despite this finding, immigrants nevertheless decide to settle in Los Angeles, the place where they have made their homes.

"In this masterpiece of field research into the social processes that structure America's economy, Waldinger and Lichter unveil the most original and powerful theory ever advanced to explain how 'unskilled' immigrants have come to work at remarkably high rates while inner city blacks continue to languish. Like Wilson's "When Work Disappears and Massey and Denton's "American Apartheid, "How the Other Half Works will set the stage for a new era of poverty research. In its focus on Los Angeles as the quintessential suburban metropolis and as an exemplar of multi-ethnic America, it may also one day be seen as the founding text in a new LA School of Urban Sociology."--Mitchell Duneier, author of "Sidewalk and "Slim's Table

""How the Other Half Works is unreservedly one of the most important works on immigration and its relation to the social nature of work in contemporary America. Addressing several of the most vexing 'race' and labor issues of our time, it offers original and persuasive answers that challenge the prevailing wisdom of economists. Grounded in the best tradition of empirical sociology, the work is richly documented, vigorously argued, and clearly presented. With this landmark study, Roger Waldinger (working in tandem with co-author Michael Lichter) confirms his stature as the nation's leading sociologist of immigration."--Orlando Patterson, author of "The Ordeal of Integration: Progress and Resentment in America's "Racial" Crisis

"Based on detailed interviews with a sample of employers of low-wage labor in six Los Angeles industries, Waldinger and Lichter provide a vivid and informative account of social dynamics at the bottom of the labor market. The book builds andextends prior theories of immigration and labor and makes a compelling case for why a sociological standpoint is indispensable for the analysis of these processes."--Alejandro Portes, co-author of "Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America

"Waldinger and Lichter offer a lucid and penetrating look at the micro-social structure of hiring, firing, and earning in the modern, post-industrial economy. This book should be required reading for people who glibly use the term 'free market.'"--Douglas S. Massey, Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania

This collection of articles by sociologically minded historians and historically minded sociologists highlights both the long-term persistence and the continuing instability of home country connections. Encompassing societies of origin and destination from around the world, A Century of Transnationalism shows that while population movements across states recurrently produce homeland ties, those connections have varied across contexts and from one historical period to another, changing in unpredictable ways. Any number of factors shape the linkages between home and destination, including conditions in the society of immigration, policies of the state of emigration, and geopolitics worldwide. Contributors: Houda Asal, Marie-Claude Blanc-Chaléard, Caroline Douki, David FitzGerald, Nancy L. Green, Madeline Y. Hsu, Thomas Lacroix, Tony Michels, Victor Pereira, Mônica Raisa Schpun, and Roger Waldinger

Making Los Angeles Home examines the different integration strategies implemented by Mexican immigrants in the Los Angeles region. Relying on statistical data and ethnographic information, the authors analyze four different dimensions of the immigrant integration process (economic, social, cultural, and political) and show that there is no single path for its achievement, but instead an array of strategies that yield different results. However, their analysis also shows that immigrants' successful integration essentially depends upon their legal status and long residence in the region. The book shows that, despite this finding, immigrants nevertheless decide to settle in Los Angeles, the place where they have made their homes.

"Stephane Dufoix has written the most exhaustive, critical, and analytically sophisticated introduction to diasporas. It resists overemphasizing the transformative power of the present era of globalization and puts the formation of diasporas in a perspective of "longue duree" that includes previous periods of global integration and diasporic dispersion. Similarly, he avoids the 'beyond the nation-state' trend in the transnationalism literature and shows convincingly that diasporas are intimately linked, in various and contradictory ways, to the politics of the contemporary nation-state."--Andreas Wimmer, University of California, Los Angeles
"A work of exemplary range, clarity, and erudition, providing both an introduction and a deft critical reformulation. Diaspora, for Dufoix, is both a complex history and a cluster of proliferating discourses and practices whose future is undetermined. A lucid introduction and an original contribution to scholarship."A --James Clifford, University of California, Santa Cruz
"By carefully tracing its origins and development, Stephane Dufoix has produced an elegant and richly rewarding guide to the concept of 'diaspora.' The word can be used both too narrowly (confining the idea to the Jewish case) and too broadly (allowing virtually all minorities to qualify). We need a sure-footed guide to the complexities and ambiguities of 'diaspora' and we have found one in Stephane Dufoix. I warmly recommend this instructive book."--Robin Cohen, University of Oxford, and author of "Global Diasporas"
"Stephane Dufoix has given us a brilliant exploration of the many meanings and boundaries of the term 'diaspora'. Its far longer and diverse history thanis commonly thought will come as a surprise to some. Dufoix's theoretical and analytical engagement with the term, and the erudition he brings to it, are an invitation to a whole new debate."--Saskia Sassen, author of "Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages"
"In "Diasporas" Stephane Dufoix gives us an excellent introduction to and overview of a fascinating and very complex topic. Considering this phenomenon from a variety of perspectives, including etymological, historical, and cultural, he shows how different populations and groups of scholars have used the idea of diaspora to conceptualize their own identities, and the strengths and weaknesses of using the concept of diaspora to do so. Dufoix's discussion of space and contemporary virtual communities is particularly fascinating. This is a very welcome addition to an ever-growing literature."--Tyler Stovall, University of California, Berkeley

Immigration is remaking the United States. In New York, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, and Chicago, the multiethnic society of tomorrow is already in place. Yet today's urban centers appear unlikely to provide newcomers with the same opportunities their predecessors found at the turn of the last century. Using the latest sources of information, this hard-hitting volume of original essays looks at the nexus between urban realities and immigrant destinies in these American cities. "Strangers at the Gates" tells the real story of immigrants' prospects for success today and delineates the conditions that will hinder or aid the newest Americans in their quest to get ahead.
This book stresses the crucial importance of understanding that immigration today is fundamentally urban and the equally important fact that immigrants are now flocking to places where low-skilled workers--regardless of ethnic background--are in particular trouble. These two themes are at the heart of this book, which also covers a range of provocative topics, often with surprising findings. Among the essayists, Nelson Lim enters the controversy over whether and how immigrants affect the employment prospects for African Americans; Mark Ellis investigates whether low immigrant wages depress other workers' salaries; William A.V. Clark contends that immigrants seem to be experiencing downward mobility; and Min Zhou asserts that trends among second-generation immigrants are decidedly more optimistic.
These well-integrated and well-organized essays sit squarely at the intersection of sociology and economics, and along the way they point out both the strengths and the weaknesses of these two disciplines in understanding immigration. Providing a theoretically and empirically comprehensive overview of the economic fate of immigrants in major American cities, this book will make a major contribution to debates over immigration and the American future.

This collection of articles by sociologically minded historians and historically minded sociologists highlights both the long-term persistence and the continuing instability of home country connections. Encompassing societies of origin and destination from around the world, A Century of Transnationalism shows that while population movements across states recurrently produce homeland ties, those connections have varied across contexts and from one historical period to another, changing in unpredictable ways. Any number of factors shape the linkages between home and destination, including conditions in the society of immigration, policies of the state of emigration, and geopolitics worldwide. Contributors: Houda Asal, Marie-Claude Blanc-Chaleard, Caroline Douki, David FitzGerald, Nancy L. Green, Madeline Y. Hsu, Thomas Lacroix, Tony Michels, Victor Pereira, Monica Raisa Schpun, and Roger Waldinger

"Still the Promised City?" addresses the question of why African-Americans have fared so poorly in securing unskilled jobs in the postwar era and why new immigrants have done so well. Does the increase in immigration bear some responsibility for the failure of more blacks to rise, for their disappearance from many occupations, and for their failure to establish a presence in business?

The two most popular explanations for the condition of blacks invoke the decline of manufacturing in New York and other major American cities: one claims that this decline has closed off job opportunities for blacks that were available for earlier immigrants who lacked skills and education; the other emphasizes "globalization"--the movement of manufacturing jobs offshore to areas with lower labor costs. But Roger Waldinger shows that these explanations do not fit the facts. Instead, he points out that a previously overlooked factor--population change--and the rapid exodus of white New Yorkers created vacancies for minority workers up and down the job ladder. Ethnic succession generated openings both in declining industries, where the outward seepage of whites outpaced the rate of job erosion, and in growth industries, where whites poured out of bottom-level positions even as demand for low-level workers increased. But this process yielded few dividends for blacks, who saw their share of the many low-skilled jobs steadily decline. Instead, advantage went to the immigrants, who exploited these opportunities by expanding their economic base.

Waldinger explains these disturbing facts by viewing employment as a queuing process, with the good jobs at the top of the job ladder and the poor ones at thebottom. As economic growth pulls the topmost ethnic group up the ladder, lower-ranking groups seize the chance to fill the niches left vacant. Immigrants, remembering conditions in the societies they just left, are eager to take up the lower-level jobs that natives will no longer do. By contrast, African-Americans, who came to the city a generation ago, have job aspirations similar to those of whites. But the niches they have carved out, primarily in the public sector, require skills that the least educated members of their community do not have. Black networks no longer provide connections to the lower-level jobs, and relative to the newcomers, employers find unskilled blacks to be much less satisfactory recruits. The result is that a certain number of well-educated blacks have good middle-class jobs, but many of the less educated have fallen back into an underclass. Grim as this analysis is, it points to a deeper understanding of America's most serious social problem and offers fresh approaches to attacking it.