Readings on immigration
mannybolone
Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
I figure one of you might have a line on some good readings involving the CULTURAL debates over immigration? I've generally been able to find a lot of solid material on the economic aspects but the only people who seem to tackle the cultural side are right-wing loonies like Pat Buchanan, who makes it seem like every Brown person is here to rape your women and then shoot you in the head. Surprisingly, the vast majority of the books out there on "social problems" do NOT include much on immigration, at all, and those that do usually frame it within the economic context of the debate, not the underlying racial tensions. Any recommendations? I need articles rather than book-length but I can probably excerpt out of the latter if there's something that's particularly salient.
Comments
http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/display.cfm?id=894664
Yeah, I already have this one but it's really mostly about political and economic dimensions. Only one or two of the sub-articles deals with the cultural angle and not in a very substantive way, IMO.
i recall this from a few months back. i guess not as in depth as you are looking for
http://www.economist.com/research/articl...tory_id=9587776
My bad - I thought you had originally posted to that 14 page pull-out the Economist did on immigration from the other week. I hadn't bothered to keep scrolling down; yeah, this has definite potential the more I look through it. Good lookin' out.
Something interesting/scary going on right now, mostly in Quebec, is the debate around what is 'reasonable accommodation'?
Just to give you a quick idea:
http://mostlywater.org/quebec_the_racist_debate_about_reasonable_accommodation
http://www.slaw.ca/2007/08/15/quebec-hearings-on-reasonable-accommodation-of-minorities/
http://www.accommodements.qc.ca/document...qa-siddiqui.pdf
http://www.clintonfoundation.org/legacy/...ommencement.htm
I pick this magazine up when I can - Canadian Immigrant - it gives some insight into how Canadian immigrants see their place in the country and the tips, little questionnaires and advice columns give an idea of the cultural exchange and challenges.
Cool, looks useful but I got sidetracked:
Can Speak
Proverbs, Idioms, Slang, Clich??s
???Love handles???
If someone says you???re growing ???love handles,??? it???s not a term of endearment; it means excess fat around the waist, usually on men.
???Face off???
In the hockey arena, a ???face off??? occurs when the referee drops the puck between two opposing players. In real life, it simply means competing with someone.
???Chesterfield???
Not many people use this Canadianism for couch or sofa anymore. These days, the word is usually saved for more ornate and formal couches.
awwww, but it can be a term of endearment!
lol...
There's actually another magazine, the name escapes me, which is way more practical than that. Where to get neccessities cheap, articles on social services and how to access them, how to write resumes, that kind of thing. Also free at libraries.
I read this more than ten years ago, so I don't know how it would hold up for me today, but a lot of the the author's arguments have stuck with me over the years, particularly with regard to immigration/cultural assimilation.
Description from Amazon:
"In this classic work, sociologist Stephen Steinberg rejects the prevailing view that cultural values and ethnic traits are the primary determinants of the economic destiny of racial and ethnic groups in America. He argues that locality, class conflict, selective migration, and other historical and economic factors play a far larger role not only in producing inequalities but in maintaining them as well, thus providing an insightful explanation into why some groups are successful in their pursuit of the American dream and others are not."