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"Today, over 75 percent of high school seniors aspire to graduate from college. However, only one-third of Americans hold a bachelor's degree, and college graduation rates vary significantly by race/ethnicity and parental socioeconomic status. If most young adults aspire to obtain a college degree, why are these disparities so great? In From High School to College, Charles Hirschman analyzes the period between leaving high school and completing college for nearly 10,000 public and private school students across the Pacific Northwest. Hirschman finds that although there are few gender, racial, or immigration-related disparities in students' aspirations to attend and complete college, certain groups succeed at the highest rates. For example, he finds that women achieve better high school grades and report receiving more support and encouragement from family, peers, and educators. They tend to outperform men in terms of preparing for college, enrolling in college within a year of finishing high school, and completing a degree. Similarly, second-generation immigrants are better prepared for college than first-generation immigrants, in part because they do not have to face language barriers or learn how to navigate the American educational system. Hirschman also documents that racial disparities in college graduation rates remain stark. In his sample, 35 percent of white students graduated from college within seven years of completing high school, compared to only 19 percent of black students and 18 percent of Hispanic students. Students' socioeconomic origins--including parental education and employment, home ownership, and family structure--account for most of the college graduation gap between disadvantaged minorities and white students. Further, while a few Asian ethnic groups have achieved college completion rates on par with whites, such as Chinese and Koreans, others, whose socioeconomic origins more resemble those of black and Hispanic students, such as Filipinos and Cambodians, also lag behind in preparedness, enrollment, and graduation from college. With a growing number of young adults seeking college degrees, understanding the barriers that different students encounter provides vital information for social scientists and educators. From High School to College illuminates how gender, immigration, and ethnicity influence the path to college graduation"--Publisher

Mit der Globalisierung und der massiven industriellen Restrukturierung in vielen traditionellen Beschäftigungszweigen (sowohl von Arbeitern wie von Angestellten) fürchten viele der im Land geborenen Amerikaner um ihre Zukunft und die ihrer Kinder. Die Medien berichten ständig (wie auch in Europa) von Industrien, die zu Niedriglöhnen eingesessene Arbeiter durch Immigranten ersetzen. In Zweigen wie der Gemüse- und Obsternte werden Immigranten aber auchanderswo überproportional beschäftigt, darunter in der Fleischverarbeitung, der Bauwirtschaft, in Krankenhäusern und sogar in vielen Bereichen der Universitätsforschung - ein willkommener Anlass für konservative Politiker, um verbreitete Ängste für ihre eigenen Interessen zu nutzen. Der vorliegende Beitrag konstatiert zunächst, dass sich nicht vorhersagen lässt, welche Rolle die Einwanderung in Amerika in Zukunft spielen wird, doch ein Blick in die Vergangenheit lohnt sich. Für die gegenwärtigen Debatten und die Feindseligkeit gegenüber Immigranten werden Entsprechungen quer durch die amerikanische Geschichte beschrieben. Die Ausführungen zeigen insgesamt, dass fast alle populären Ängste vor Einwanderung und sogar die Urteile von "Experten" über deren negative Auswirkungen von der Geschichte widerlegt worden sind. Nicht nur haben sich fast alle Immigranten (oder ihre Nachkommen) mit der Zeit assimiliert, sie haben die amerikanische Gesellschaft auch in vielfältiger Weise bereichert. (ICA2)

Physical and cultural diversity have been salient features of human societies throughout history, but "race" as a scientific concept to account for human diversity is a modern phenomenon created in nineteenth‐century Europe as Darwinian thought was (mis)applied to account for differences in human societies. Although modern science has discredited race as a meaningful biological concept, race has remained as an important social category because of historical patterns of interpersonal and institutional discrimination. However, the impossibility of consistent and reliable reporting of race, either as an identity or as an observed trait, means that the notion of race as a set of mutually exclusive categories is no longer tenable. As a social science term, race is being gradually abandoned. Physical differences in appearance among people remain a salient marker in everyday life, but this reality can be better framed within the concept of ethnicity.

The classical model of the role of religion in the lives of immigrants to the United States, formulated in the writings of Will Herberg and Oscar Handlin, emphasized cultural continuity and the psychological benefits of religious faith following the trauma of immigration. Although this perspective captures an important reason for the centrality of religion in most immigrant communities (but not for all immigrants), the classical model does not address the equally important socioeconomic role of churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques in American society. The creation of an immigrant church or temple often provided ethnic communities with refuge from the hostility and discrimination from the broader society as well as opportunities for economic mobility and social recognition. In turn, the successive waves of immigrants have probably shaped the character as well as the content of American religious institutions.