Social Mobility In Mexico And The United States

Immigrating to a new country is difficult. One of the largest groups of immigrants that migrate to the United States are the Hispanics. There are approximately 11.7 million immigrants in the United States as of January 2010, and the amount continues to increase at a rapid rate (Warren, 2013). On average there are approximately 300,000 Hispanic immigrants entering the United States each year (Warren, 2013). Hispanics come from all Latin America including Mexico, the islands of the Caribbean, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, Central and South America (Warren, 2013). The United States has represented liberty and freedom to these individuals, and they often make critical decisions and take chances in the hope of a better future. Individuals often, leave their home country in hopes of a new beginning. The aim of this paper is to provide an extensive research on the current literature on immigration and acculturation among the Hispanic population.

An immigrant that is coming to the United States has the emotion and perception that draws to a country of opportunities; that will live in a country that will be friendly. However, most of the time, immigrant do not know that they are coming to live in a different culture, and because of that, they need to experience and adjustment in many ways, and an adjustment that will help them to do many things with confidence.

Labor laws in the 20th century played a major role in the lives Mexicans and caused massive deportations as well as economic concerns with congress and Anglo-Americans in the United States. Labor laws were crucial part of the immigration waves through the 20th century and made an impact to voting patterns in the U.S. Natalia Molina discuss how, “Employers

It is expected that ultimately there will be a loss of ethnic distinctiveness for immigrants in the U.S., meaning the lack of attachment to the country of origin. (Golash-Boza, 2006) It is argued that all ethnic distinctiveness will no longer exist by the seventh or eighth generations. Before exploring the influence of foreign born vs. U.S. born parents on their children’s cultural assimilation; the different theories of assimilation will be explored. The idea of Assimilation came about in the early 20th century. (Golash-Boza, 2006) Assimilation is surrounded by two theories, the first that all immigrants will assimilate sooner or later and that the generational status of the individual is one of the main factors in determining the

Immigrant groups take refuge in America in hope of starting a better life for themselves and their ongoing generations. They take on the belief that upon coming to America, they will be presented by the riches and freedom granted by the “American Dream”. However, these opportunities are not easily achieved. Many immigrant families are challenged with the initial obstacles of having to adapt to the new languages and the customs of their environment. For example, without the basic knowledge of the standard English language, immigrants will not be able to apply for a majority of the jobs available. This puts immigrant parents at disadvantages because then they will not be able to provide the sufficient funds needed for allowing their children

In the 1930s, the start of the Great Depression greatly affected the migration of Mexican to the U.S. because of the lack of jobs, discrimination, and fear of deportation.

The United States of America has the largest foreign-born population in the world. With nearly thirteen percent of the total population being foreign-born, one may find it hard to imagine an immigrant-free country (U.S. Bureau of the Census). Immigration has been an integral part of the United States’ overall success and the country’s economy since it was established and without it, would have never been founded at all. Although there are some negative issues associated with immigration and many native-born Americans believe to be more of a problem than a solution, overall it actually has a positive effect. Immigrants in America, among other things, fill jobs where native-born Americans may not want to work or cannot work, they contribute

The study states that the second generation immigrants are an essential part of the Canadian society, however they have not been studied enough. Immigration was resurging and thus it is critical that the impact of the second generation immigrants be studied at length. Many studies have been done regarding the economic impact that second generation immigrants have on Canada, however their educational attainment has been ignored. In general, it can be stated that second generation immigrants fare much better in terms of education attainment than native of Canada, this difference can be partly explained by the second generation’s mother tongue, however there is still a humongous difference that can be clearly seen. By the age of 13, it has been observed that immigrant children are at the same educational level or higher than those that are Canadian natives. This can be explained by immigrant parents’ higher expectations when it comes to their children’s education and their perspective when it comes to education. The data that was collected is from Statistics Canada and it looks at second generation immigrants from ages 25-65, and the data encompassed about 11,983 males. Second generation immigrants have a lower high school drop out rate, than natives and tend to go to post secondary institutions, such as colleges and universities, rather than going straight to work, without a degree. This study shows that the Canadian immigration system has been able to favorably select immigrants whose children fare the same or much better than their native Canadian counterparts. The study concludes that second generation immigrants are able to keep up with the native Canadians, by the age of 13 and tend to do even better than these Canadians. This can be explained by the second generation immigrants’ willingness to work hard in order to succeed

In addition, the level of immigration should also be taken into consideration. The different immigration status indicates the degrees to which an immigrant will accept his or her original culture and to which the settlement culture. The longer they stay in the settlement country, the more they behave like the native population (Rumbout, 1997b). Considering the different immigrant levels among Asian Americans is an efficient empirical method to remove the influence of original culture in order to test the effectiveness of target cultural variables.

Along with its economic classes, American is known for its freedom, its liberty, and the melting pot of ethnicity. This ethnic diversity comes form the immigrant population in the country. However this perfect country is a major falsehood. These untrue ideals of harmony, freedom, success, and equality are deceptive and do not show the struggles that immigrants face when coming to this class dominated country. The immigrants of today do not come from just Europe, but overwhelmingly from Asia and Latin America. “They are driving a demographic shift so rapid that within the lifetimes of today 's teenagers, no one ethnic group – including whites of European descent – will comprise a majority of the nation 's population’ (Colombo, Cullen, Lisle). These immigrants challenge the social myth that everyone has an equal chance in life. They

Immigration is the process of entry of individuals into a new country (23). Throughout past centuries, immigration has been a means of discovery and exploration of new lands. In today’s culture, immigration to the United States is an avenue for individuals who wish to start new lives and take advantage of the capitalistic, entrepreneurial system. People from many countries have migrated into the United States. Most recently, the migrants have come from Central and South American countries. These Latin American countries influence America’s society culturally and economically through their language, traditions, and workforce. From the 1990s to the present time, immigration from Latin American countries has more than

The world is becoming an increasingly interconnected place and this trend is continuing. As a result, countries are facing new problems that are requiring policy changes in many highly contentious fields. Of major concern are the immigration and citizenship policies of many western nations that are receiving a majority of the immigrants. This is a highly salient issue because people are concerned about the effect immigrant populations will have on voting trends and the jobs that they could take from citizens. Rarely discussed, though of vital importance, is the immense impact that immigrants have on the economy, as they take low paying jobs that the average citizen would scoff at. If these immigrants are willing to take such low paying

Cultural practices cause some problems for families because their way of living or morals may not be accepted. Some immigrants relocate to North America for employment; however immigrants want to share their beliefs with their families. Families want to continue to practice their religion, eat the same food, and discipline their children according to their culture.

This movement is called social mobility “By social mobility is understood any transition of an individual or social object or value- anything that has been created or modified by human activity- from on social position to another.”(Sorokin, 1964, p. 133) This change in class is not always related to money or economic change. In some cultures an individual may ascertain great wealth in their life time but not be accepted into a higher class status. On the other hand a person who loses economic status is still revered as elite. This inability to move from one class to another is mostly observed in the estate system and the class system. There are two fundamental ways in which a person can be mobile within society either horizontal or vertical.

Today, the United States is home to the largest immigrant population in the world. Even though immigrants assimilate faster in the United States compared to different developed nations, immigration policy has become an highly controversial topic in the Unite States, while much of the debate is around culture and religion, the effects of immigration on economy is clear. Immigration policy has become a highly pressing issue in America. While much of the debate centers on cultural issues, the economic effects of immigration are clear. Economic analysis finds little to no proof to support that influx of foreign labor have reduced jobs or American wages. Economic theoretical predictions and a bulk of academic research confirms that wages are unaffected by immigration over the long term and the economic effects immigration are mostly positive for natives and for the economy over all.