Reviews for Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation

The average rating for Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-04-03 00:00:00 John Andujar I finally finished reading this book, which was required reading for a grad teaching-of-ESL course. The topic is fascinating because the whole book deals with second generation immigrants -- and I'm one of them! It mostly focuses on Hispanic and Asian immigrants and shys away from talking about European immigrants since they are coming in relatively small numbers and generally have an easier time assimilating, at least racially. The book tackles all kinds of interesting topics that all go back to education and academic success of these second generation immigrants. I liked that the book opens with a chapter that tells you 12 different stories that really sort of illustrate the various reasons for why people come to the U.S. and then talks about how vastly different life can be once they are here. Some people are successful academically, others are not. Some people work hard and move to good neighborhoods, others are stuck living in dangerous, crime-ridden ghettos with little opportunity. It's fascinating because I think the book really transcends stereotypes to try to use data to figure out why the outcomes and motivations of immigrants from different cultures are so very different. What will make a child care about getting good grades and what will drive a child from the same culture to give up on education and join a gang? The book addresses some frightening realities, too. For example, the research shows that Haitian immigrants and Mexican immigrants both feel that even if they earn a college degree, they will still be discriminated against. This is a scary but interesting thing that we, as educators, need to think about. I learned a lot from this research and what it means to me as a teacher in an urban public school system. I can't say the book is always a riveting page-turner and there were sections that I skimmed but generally I was pretty interested in what I was reading. I thought the study was well done and the conclusion were very relevant, even now, 10 years later.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-02-03 00:00:00 Brandie Spoon Legacies tackles a notoriously slippery and difficult subject, and it does so admirably. As a social researcher looking at social identity, Legacies was repeatedly recommend to me (always with high praise, and often accompanied by an and exclamation mark). I lost track of the number of times I heard, "Oh have you read Legacies yet? You really have to." I am familiar with the work of both Portes and Rumbolt, and they maintained their high standards throughout this text. Legacies is not always easy to read, mind you. It can be dry at times, as any book covering quantitative data tends to be. But the character profiles in the early chapters helps to soften the tendency significantly. While not wholly without criticism, the research methods are sound and the sample size significant. I too would recommend it to readers interested in the changing dynamic of the American population. It challenges some firmly held dogmas, and sadly highlights some of the social ills we all wish would be found to be untrue.