Spanish Legacies

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's population is foreign-born. Spanish Legacies, written by internationally known experts on immigration, explores how the children of immigrants-the second generation-are coping with the challenges of adaptation to Spanish society, comparing their experiences with those of their peers in the United States.
Using a rich data set based on both survey and ethnographic material, Spanish Legacies describes the experiences of growing up by the large population of second-generation youths in Spain and the principal outcomes of the process-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'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.

Preface Acknowledgments List of Figures List of Tables 1 Twelve Lives 2 Theories of Second-Generation Adaptation 3 The Recent History of Spain-Bound Immigration 4 The Longitudinal Study of the Second Generation 5 Immigrant Parents: Spain and the United States 6 The Psychosocial Adaptation of the Second Generation: Self-Identities, Self-Esteem, and Related Variables 7 The Educational Goals and Achievements of the Second Generation 8 The Entry into the Real World: Labor Market Participation and Downward Assimilation 9 Conclusion: Integration Policies and Their Results Notes References Index Plate gallery located between pages 84 and 85