Co-funded with the JPB Foundation

The "immigrant health paradox" reflects the fact that recent immigrants often have better health outcomes and lower mortality than the native-born, especially soon after arrival, once socioeconomic differences are taken into account. However, findings on other health outcomes are mixed and are contingent on specific health measures, age, race/ethnicity, country of origin and number of years since migration. What individual, social and environmental factors explain immigrants’ health outcomes.

The transition to adulthood between the ages of 18 and 25 is a critical stage for acquiring human capital and setting one’s economic trajectory. Reaching the milestones for a successful transition to adulthood—obtaining stable employment, completing education, and establishing financial independence—has been more elusive for recent birth cohorts, particularly for young adults of color. Public policy expert Christina Gibson-Davis notes that racial and ethnic disparities in parental wealth are an understudied source of inequality in young adulthood outcomes.

• December 2019: Additional funding of $36,000 awarded

Through original survey data and in-depth interviews, sociologists Cristina Mora and Tianna Paschel will examine how the political attitudes of Asians, blacks, Latinos, and whites in California are shaped by place. They will study the extent to which racial and political attitudes vary across groups and regions across California and explore how local attributes (demographic, political, economic, cultural) are associated with political identities and ideas about race and class.

As mainstream advertising firms have sought to capture the growing racial and ethnic consumer market, the demand for black representation in the industry has increased. Sociologist Corey Fields will examine the context and salience of black identity among advertising industry professionals, examining both firms with a minority focus and mainstream firms. He will investigate the extent to which turning “blackness” into an economic good strengthens or inhibits African American advertising professionals' sense of racial identity.