Browsing by Subject "Immigration and emigration"

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Determinants of fertility across context : a comparison of Mexican and Turkish immigrant women
(2011-05) White, Kari Lyn; Potter, Joseph E.; Buckley, Cynthia J.; Raley, R Kelly; Hummer, Robert A.; Stolp, Chandler
Immigrant women are frequently found to have higher fertility relative to women in the majority population. This is often attributed to their socioeconomic characteristics, cultural preferences and patterns of childbearing, and adaptation to the destination context. However, several limitations in the research to date may mask the associations and processes which shape women’s fertility: 1) frequently used indicators are not sensitive to the way in which fertility is shaped by the migration process 2) key proximate determinants of fertility are often not integrated into analyses and 3) non‐migrant women in sending countries are often excluded as a reference for immigrant women’s childbearing behavior. In order to assess how women’s migratory moves and social context affect fertility, I compare the risk of first birth and patterns of contraceptive use at higher‐order parities for non‐migrant, immigrant and native‐born women. For these analyses, I use data from nationally‐representative surveys of reproductive health and family formation from Mexico, the United States, Turkey and Germany. The results from these analyses demonstrate that both foreign‐born Mexican‐ and Turkish‐origin immigrant women experience first birth earlier than non-migrants, second generation immigrants, and native-born women at destination. However the underlying determinants of earlier birth are different for these two groups. There are also differences for second generation women; US-born Mexicans experience first birth at significantly younger ages than whites, whereas age at first birth is very similar for German-born Turkish women and ethnic Germans. Furthermore, patterns of contraceptive use among immigrant women who have at least one child are notably different than patterns observed for non-migrants. US-born women have similar contraceptive use compared to whites, but Mexican-born women are less likely to use permanent and highly effective methods, even after controlling for fertility intentions. Turkish-origin women in Germany exhibit large differences in contraceptive use relative to non-migrant women, particularly the very low reported use of withdrawal. These findings indicate that fertility determinants vary across origin and destination context. The observed differences between Mexican- and Turkish-origin women suggest that distinct processes of migration, socialization, and access to contraception lead to variation in the fertility outcomes for these two groups.
Identity, belonging, and the transmigrant experiences of adult ESL learners enrolled in an intensive English program
(2011-05) Giroir, Shannon Marie; Schallert, Diane L.; Horwitz, Elaine K.; Palmer, Deborah; Plakans, Lia; Urrieta, Luis
This dissertation reports on the narrated experiences of nine adult ESL learners enrolled in an Intensive English Program (IEP) as they negotiated a sense of belonging to new linguistic communities of practice outside of their home countries. In this qualitative multiple-case study, I analyzed first-person accounts of the language socialization process by which the learners’ participation in new social communities resulted in shifts in their social positionings and changes in their self-concept. In my analysis, I drew upon theoretical frameworks that view learning as a situated social practice in which individuals form new identities as a result of their (non)participation in communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). In order to investigate the research problem, I conducted ethnographic forms of data collection over a six-month period. I became a participant observer in an advanced level Listening and Speaking course during one semester and conducted regular formal classroom observations. In addition to observations, I conducted individual in-depth interviews with the learners, and they participated in a photo-narrative assignment in which they documented their experiences through photography. This camera project culminated in a formal, narrative presentation to the class, which was recorded and used for analysis. The five women and four men who became the focal participants of the study were diverse in age, academic and professional ambitions, and cultural and linguistic background. The findings of the study presented in this dissertation represent my interpretive analysis of the participants’ narratives of departing their home countries and negotiating a meaningful sense of self vis-à-vis the host community as well as the various transmigrant communities that were important to them. The findings show that, through the process of L2 learning and transmigration, the participants constructed migrant identities (Block, 2007), and these identities could be both expansive and restrictive. Additionally, the findings show the ways in which these language learners were agentic in accessing L2 communities and forging attachments within them, and how these moves were designed as “answers” to how they were discursively positioned within the worlds that were important to them.