Immigrant Heritage Month

As U.S. President Joe Biden wrote on June 1, 2021, “America is, always has been, and always will be a Nation of immigrants.  It was the premise of our founding; it is reflected in our Constitution; it is etched upon the Statue of Liberty — that “from her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome.” 

This National Immigrant Heritage Month, we continue the celebration of immigrant communities and identities across America. We also offer resources to continue the discussion on policy, refugee and immigrant integration, and themes such as postcolonialism, migration, border politics and economics surrounding immigrant experiences in America. This page offers a compilation of  resources from SAGE and beyond, including podcast episodes, journal articles, resources from across Social Science Space, and more. 

From Social Science Space

How Immigration Ban Affects Universities – And US Soft Power | Jason Lane

Discrimination through Ambiguity: Reducing Workplace Bias Against Minority Immigrants | Jennifer Anderson

Discourse and the Politics of Fear | Interview with Ruth Wodak 

Can Undocumented Immigrants be Protected from Wage Theft?  |Pew Hispanic Center on Business and Management INK

‘Reasonable Suspicion’ that Race Matters in the Immigration Debate |Michael Todd in Pacific-Standard Magazine

Impact in Action: Home in the Remaking |Maria Kreuzer, Hans Mühlbacher and Sylvia Von Wallpach

Making Sense of Society: Vanessa Hughes | Essay from 2017 ESRC Writing Competition 

Integrating Newcomers: The Socialization of Skilled Migrants |Phyllis Tharenau in Business and Management INK

Selected Articles on Europe and Immigration

Social Science Bites Podcast Episodes

Mirca Madianou on Technology and Everyday Life – Madianou details several foundational shifts “transnational families,” those families where breadwinners — and prospective breadwinners — head far away to help support their family members back home. Madianou charts an intensification of global migration and also the feminization of migration — women are as likely to migrate as men. She elaborates on how communication allows those women to “mother at a distance,” a very signal change from the days when the only contact a family member might be able to muster at will was a fraying photograph.

Gurminder K. Bhambra on Postcolonial Social Science – “People constructed their Britishness in opposition to me, as opposed to inclusive of me” – encapsulates Bhambra’s academic field: postcolonial and decolonial studies. Bhambra discusses with interviewer David Edmonds why we should speak about the Haitian revolution in the same breath as the contemporaneous American and French revolutions, how former empires conveniently forget the contributions of their colonies now that those empires have downgraded to mere ‘nations,’ and what lessons we should draw from the current iconoclastic impulse toward imperial statuary.

Les Back on Migrants – Back discusses the decade he spent with Shamser Sinha following 30 migrants in London, the study that forms the narrative of their book Migrant City. In this episode, Back discusses the experience of migration and London as a space and place that is made through migration. “…it’s the story of London but told through the eyes, ears, and attentiveness of 30 adult migrants from all corners of the world”. 

Mary Bosworth on Border Criminology – Bosworth discusses the shifts happening within the criminal justice system, including the creation of a new subfield of criminology evolved to understand immigration control and criminal justice. She also talks with Edmonds about a field which she calls ‘border criminology’. 

Jonathan Portes on the Economics of Migration – Portes explains to Edmonds how the “lump of labor fallacy” – that there’s only a certain number of jobs to go around when in fact the number of jobs in an economy is not fixed – often plays out in the popular debate on immigration. “The key here,” Portes adds, “is that immigration leads to demand as well as supply.”

Journal articles

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science – Refugee and Immigrant Integration: Unpacking the Research, Translating it into Policy 

Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences – “All Americans are not Perceived as “True” Americans – Implications for Policy” 

Health, Education & Behavior – “Structural Racism and Immigrant Health in the United States” – Supriya Misra, Simona C. Kwon, and Ana F. Abraido-Lanza

More from Social Science Space

Image: City buildings.

Consumer Acculturation within Cities as Sites of Consumption and Intercultural Interactions

The author and his team’s findings showed that in a context in which the domination of anti-immigration and xenophobic discourses sharply divides the notions of the home (e.g. Iran) and the host (e.g. Germany) countries, the city can function as a bridge for immigrants to develop a sense of belonging to the hosting society.

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Heaven Crawley

Heaven Crawley on International Migration

Heaven Crawley, who heads equitable development and migration at United Nations University Centre for Policy Research, discusses how the current Western picture of migration is incomplete and lacks nuance, both of which harm efforts to address the issue.

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Richard Alba

Questioning the Narrative of the Majority-Minority Society

“The argument of this book,” writes Richard Alba, “is not that whites will retain a numerical majority status, although I do not rule out such a possibility, but rather that mainstream expansion, which brings about a melding involving many whites, non-whites, and Hispanics, holds out the prospect of a new kind of societal majority.”

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Why Social Science? Understanding How We Talk about Asian Americans

Just over two months ago, a white male entered three Asian-owned spas in the Atlanta area, and in the ensuing carnage, took […]

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Events: Hauser Policy Fund Spring Webinar Series

The National Academies of Sciences’ Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, or DBASSE, has announced the 2021 Spring Webinar Series […]

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H1B visa

Integrating Newcomers: Studying the Socialization of Skilled Migrants

Quite often discussions about skilled migrants center on the receiving country’s reaction to the migrants, rather than the experiences of the migrants themselves. In this article from the Journal of Management, Phyllis Tharenou, vice president and executive dean of the College of Business, Government and Law of Flinders University, and Carol T. Kulik, a research professor of human resource management at the University of South Australia Business School, address this absence specifically in the academic management literature.

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Impact banner - immigrant belonging

Impact in Action: Home in the Remaking

Being at the intersection of two or more cultures and confronting new cultural codes such as values, symbols, lifestyles or products, immigrants may feel comfort and estrangement concurrently and this can result in a conflict of their individual and social identities.

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Immigration Court’s Active Backlog Surpasses One Million

In the first post from a series of bulletins on public data that social and behavioral scientists might be interested in, Gary Price links to an analysis from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

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Alejandro Portes

‘Ethnic Enclave’ Sociologist Wins 2019 Princess of Asturias Award

Alejandro Portes will be recognized for his award in October. He is the Princeton/University of Miami sociologist behind concepts such as the ethnic enclave and segmented immigration.

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Jonathan Portes on the Economics of Immigration

Britain’s former chief economist knows a thing or two about the impact of immigration on native Britons. In this Social Science Bites podcast, he reviews what data can tell us about the UK’s current heavy inflow — such as that new arrivals create both supply AND demand.

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Social Science news bulletin

Washington and Social Science: NSF Allocation Above FY18

The final agreement ending the most recent U.S. government shutdown provides $8.1 billion for the National Science Foundation, a $301 million increase over the amount appropriated in fiscal year 2018.

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The Trump Administration’s Last Best Chance to Slash Legal Migration

The Center for Migration Studies, has analyzed changes in the immigration rules for ‘lawful permanent residents’ and found the potential effect on “intending immigrants” would deny admission and adjustment to large numbers of working class persons who contribute substantially to the US economy, who have US citizen and lawful permanent resident family members

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Les Back on Migrants

Reflecting on his new book Migrant City, Goldsmiths sociologist Les Back tells interviewer David Edmonds in this Social Science Bites podcast, co-author and co-researcher Shamser Sinha and Back learned their work was “not really just a migrants’ story; it’s the story of London but told through and eyes, ears and attentiveness of 30 adult migrants from all corners of the world.”

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What Census Data Miss about American Diversity

In the current volume of ‘The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,’ the editors ask: is the current census ethno-racial classification system doing a good job? Does it accurately reflect who we are, enabling us to track important social phenomena? Does it provide statistics helpful to understanding demographic dynamics and who we are likely to become in the years ahead?

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Immigration interview

Why Has Brexit Britain Not Had an Immigration Debate?

The post-referendum public debates in the United Kingdom have been about the future of Britain and British citizens, and questions about the lives and futures of EU citizens in Britain have faded into the background, argues our Daniel Nehring. This absence of an open-ended public conversation about immigration speaks to the ways in which power organizes truth.

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Immigrant support

Making Sense of Society: Vanessa Hughes

Concepts of mobility, citizenship and belonging are morphing in a time of widespread immigration. In this essay, Vanessa Hughes uses the case of a specific London resident to explore these themes.

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In Post-Brexit Britain, is Migration a Crime?

With the increasing indications that Britain is growing colder to migrants in the wake of Brexit, Daniel Nehring asks what that means specifically for academics from the European Union in the UK.

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How Do Europeans Really Feel About Migrants?

Given the angry images cascading off TV screens, it’s pretty clear that migrants aren’t welcome in Europe. Or are they? Three papers in a themed edition of the ‘International Journal of Comparative Sociology’ suggest a more nuanced answer.

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Soft Skills

Discrimination through Ambiguity: Reducing Workplace Bias Against Minority Immigrants

Discrimination becomes easier when its wrapped in the amorphous blanket of an applicant lacking certain ‘soft skills,’ suggests a news paper in the journal Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

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Immigration interview

The Border Does Not Pass Through the Classroom

Whether it’s the DREAM Act in the United States or the crackdown sought by the UK Visas and Immigration in Britain, universities are becoming a flashpoint of immigration policy.

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‘Reasonable Suspicion’ That Race Matters in the Immigration Debate

In the furor over immigration reform in the U.S., many taking a tougher line cite the law, not the evident ethnicity of the immigrants, for their stance. But that ethnicity matters, new research suggests.

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Why Social Science Education is as Important as STEM…

A recent Ipsos-Mori survey reveals the crucial role that social science has to play in modern democracy, a role which is frequently sabotaged.

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