Spanish Legacies. Alejandro Portes

Spanish Legacies - Alejandro Portes

Much like the United States, the countries of Western Europe have experienced massive immigration in the last three decades. Spain, in particular, has been transformed from an immigrant-exporting country to one receiving hundreds of thousands of new immigrants. Today, almost 13 percent of the country&rsquo;s population is foreign-born.<I> Spanish Legacies</I>, written by internationally known experts on immigration, explores how the children of immigrants&mdash;the second generation&mdash;are coping with the challenges of adaptation to Spanish society, comparing their experiences with those of their peers in the United States.<BR /><BR /> Using a rich data set based on both survey and ethnographic material, <I>Spanish Legacies</I> describes the experiences of growing up by the large population of second-generation youths in Spain and the principal outcomes of the process&mdash;from national self-identification and experiences of discrimination to educational attainment and labor-market entry. The study is based on a sample of almost 7,000 second-generation students who were interviewed in Madrid and Barcelona in 2008 and then followed and re-interviewed four years later. A survey of immigrant parents, a replacement sample for lost respondents in the second survey, and a survey of native-parentage students complement this rich data set. Outcomes of the adaptation process in Spain are systematically presented in five chapters, introduced by real-life histories of selected respondents drawn by the study&rsquo;s ethnographic module. Systematic comparisons with results from the United States show a number of surprising similarities in the adaptation of children of immigrants in both countries, as well as differences marked by contrasting experiences of discrimination, self-identities, and ambition.<BR /><BR /><BR /><BR />&#160;