A Volume in the American Sociological Association’s Rose Series in Sociology

Winner of the 2011 William T. Goode Award from the Family Section of the American Sociological Association

Winner of the North Central Sociological Association’s 2011 Scholarly Achievement Award

Winner of the Midwest Sociological Society’s 2011 Distinguished Book Award

When state voters passed the California Marriage Protection Act (Proposition 8) in 2008, it restricted the definition of marriage to a legal union between a man and a woman. The act’s passage further agitated an already roiling national debate about whether American notions of family could or should expand to include, for example, same-sex marriage, unmarried cohabitation, and gay adoption. But how do Americans really define family? The first study to explore this largely overlooked question, Counted Out examines currents in public opinion to assess their policy implications and predict how Americans’ definitions of family may change in the future.

Counted Out broadens the scope of previous studies by moving beyond efforts to understand how Americans view their own families to examine the way Americans characterize the concept of family in general. The book reports on and analyzes the results of the authors’ Constructing the Family Surveys (2003 and 2006), which asked more than 1,500 people to explain their stances on a broad range of issues, including gay marriage and adoption, single parenthood, the influence of biological and social factors in child development, religious ideology, and the legal rights of unmarried partners. Not surprisingly, the authors find that the standard bearer for public conceptions of family continues to be a married, heterosexual couple with children. More than half of Americans also consider same-sex couples with children as family, and from 2003 to 2006 the percentages of those who believe so increased significantly—up 6 percent for lesbian couples and 5 percent for gay couples. The presence of children in any living arrangement meets with a notable degree of public approval. Less than 30 percent of Americans view heterosexual cohabitating couples without children as family, while similar couples with children count as family for nearly 80 percent. Counted Out shows that for most Americans, however, the boundaries around what they define as family are becoming more malleable with time.

Counted Out demonstrates that American definitions of family are becoming more expansive. Who counts as family has far-reaching implications for policy, including health insurance coverage, end-of-life decisions, estate rights, and child custody. Public opinion matters. As lawmakers consider the future of family policy, they will want to consider the evolution in American opinion represented in this groundbreaking book.

BRIAN POWELL is Rudy Professor of Sociology at Indiana University.

CATHERINE BOLZENDAHL is assistant professor of sociology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine.

CLAUDIA GEIST is assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Utah.

LALA CARR STEELMAN is professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of South Carolina.

"New Destinations describes, situates, and analyzes the new Mexican settlement in Pennsylvania, lowa, Kentucky, Georgia, Delaware, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Carolina, and New York City. The editors' informed and scholarly chapters also provide an overview of Mexican dispersion to non-traditional localities. Rich with local detail, the contributors' chapters address the social impact of Mexican settle ment, new intergroup relations in impacted places, community formation among Mexicans, and the local economic incorporation of the Mexican immigrants. In the coming decade, as Mexican resettlement continues, their dispersion will move to the top of the research agenda in American ethnic and immigration studies. New Destinations is only the beginning of the scholarship, but this volume will mold and inform the debate and discussion that will surely follow. For these reasons, everyone seriously interested in immigration and ethnic studies should read this timely, persuasive, and readable book soon."
-Ivan Light, University of California, Los Angeles 

"New Destinations is the definitive volume that will help map out, conceptually and spatially, the new geography of Mexican immigration in the United States. The story's narrative has gone from a regional to a national one, and the research in this book reveals many lessons about the new social and economic dynamics currently unfolding in the many new points of destination. This is a must read for anyone who aspires to understand the contemporary challenges and promises of Mexican immigration, as well as the changing face of America, from the heartland to the big apple."
-Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, University of Southern California

"The hundred year history of Mexican migration to the United States has involved many twists and turns, but perhaps none quite so unexpected as the development of new migrant destinations, in virtually every part of the United States, and most notably, in communities where immigrants-whether from Mexico or elsewhere- had never been a presence before. Víctor Zúñiga and Rubén Hernández-León have pro duced a carefully-focused collection of interdisciplinary essays, one that provides the essential background for understanding this newest phase of Mexican migration."
-Roger Waldinger, University of California, Los Angeles

Mexican immigration to the United States—the oldest and largest immigration movement to this country—is in the midst of a fundamental transformation. For decades, Mexican immigration was primarily a border phenomenon, confined to Southwestern states. But legal changes in the mid-1980s paved the way for Mexican migrants to settle in parts of America that had no previous exposure to people of Mexican heritage. In New Destinations, editors Víctor Zúñiga and Rubén Hernández-León bring together an inter-disciplinary team of scholars to examine demographic, social, cultural, and political changes in areas where the incorporation of Mexican migrants has deeply changed the preexisting ethnic landscape.

New Destinations looks at several of the communities where Mexican migrants are beginning to settle, and documents how the latest arrivals are reshaping—and being reshaped by—these new areas of settlement. Contributors Jorge Durand, Douglas Massey, and Chiara Capoferro use census data to diagram the historical evolution of Mexican immigration to the United States, noting the demographic, economic, and legal factors that led recent immigrants to move to areas where few of their predecessors had settled. Looking at two towns in Southern Louisiana, contributors Katharine Donato, Melissa Stainback, and Carl Bankston III reach a surprising conclusion: that documented immigrant workers did a poorer job of integrating into the local culture than their undocumented peers. They attribute this counterintuitive finding to documentation policies, which helped intensify employer control over migrants and undercut the formation of a stable migrant community among documented workers. Brian Rich and Marta Miranda detail an ambivalent mixture of paternalism and xenophobia by local residents toward migrants in Lexington, Kentucky. The new arrivals were welcomed for their strong work ethic so long as they stayed in “invisible” spheres such as fieldwork, but were resented once they began to take part in more public activities like schools or town meetings. New Destinations also provides some hopeful examples of progress in community relations. Several chapters, including Mark Grey and Anne Woodrick’s examination of a small Iowa town, point to the importance of dialogue and mediation in establishing amicable relations between ethnic groups in newly multi-cultural settings.

New Destinations is the first scholarly assessment of Mexican migrants’ experience in the Midwest, Northeast, and deep South—the latest settlement points for America’s largest immigrant group. Enriched by perspectives from demographers, anthropologists, sociologists, folklorists, and political scientists, this volume is an essential starting point for scholarship on the new Mexican migration.

VÍCTOR ZÚÑIGA is dean of the School of Education and Humanities at the Universidad de Monterrey.

RUBÉN HERNÁNDEZ-LEÓN is assistant professor of sociology at the University of California at Los Angeles.

CONTRIBUTORS: Ana Maria Aragones, Carl L. Bankston III, Chiara Capoferro, Miguel A. Carranza, Jasney Cogua, Katharine M. Donato, Timothy J. Dunn, Jorge Durand, Lourdes Gouveia, Mark A. Grey, David C. Griffith, Douglas S. Massey, Marta Miranda, Brian L. Rich, George Shivers, Debra Lattanzi Shutika, Robert Courtney Smith, Melissa Stainback, Anne C. Woodrick.

Winner of the 1999 Thomas and Znaniecki Award from the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association

"Zhou and Bankston take on the toughest of questions-why some immigrant groups progress faster than others-providing answers informed by careful research and subtle reasoning, and yielding a new framework that will undoubtedly influence future research. This beautifully crafted, sophisticated work tells the story of today's immigrant children in a way guaranteed to attract attention and also to provoke debate."
-ROGER WALDINGER, University of California, Los Angeles

"Min Zhou and Carl Bankston have given us a jewel. The book is destined to become a standard reference for anyone interested in the sociology of immigration, refugee studies, and, more broadly, the Asian American experience. A brilliant achievement in the best tradition of sociology."
-MARCELO M. SUÁREZ-OROZCO, Harvard Immigration Projects

"A signal contribution to one of the most important issues in the debate over immigration and the American future: What may we expect from the children of the great wave of immigration that began three decades ago? Will they be assimilated into American life? If so, will it be to their benefit? And what conditions contribute to a successful integration into American society? This is one of the best studies that have been conducted of these questions."
-NATHAN GLAZER, Harvard University

Vietnamese Americans form a unique segment of the new U.S. immigrant population. Uprooted from their homeland and often thrust into poor urban neighborhoods, these newcomers have nevertheless managed to establish strong communities in a short space of time. Most remarkably, their children often perform at high academic levels despite difficult circumstances. Growing Up American tells the story of Vietnamese children and sheds light on how they are negotiating the difficult passage into American society.

Min Zhou and Carl Bankston draw on research and insights from many sources, including the U.S. census, survey data, and their own observations and in-depth interviews. Focusing on the Versailles Village enclave in New Orleans, one of many newly established Vietnamese communities in the United States, the authors examine the complex skein of family, community, and school influences that shape these children's lives. With no ties to existing ethnic communities, Vietnamese refugees had little control over where they were settled and no economic or social networks to plug into. Growing Up American describes the process of building communities that were not simply transplants but distinctive outgrowths of the environment in which the Vietnamese found themselves. Family and social organizations re-formed in new ways, blending economic necessity with cultural tradition. These reconstructed communities create a particular form of social capital that helps disadvantaged families overcome the problems associated with poverty and ghettoization.

Outside these enclaves, Vietnamese children faced a daunting school experience due to language difficulties, racial inequality, deteriorating educational services, and exposure to an often adversarial youth subculture. How have the children of Vietnamese refugees managed to overcome these challenges? Growing Up American offers important evidence that community solidarity, cultural values, and a refugee sensibility have provided them with the resources needed to get ahead in American society. Zhou and Bankston also document the price exacted by the process of adaptation, as the struggle to define a personal identity and to decide what it means to be American sometimes leads children into conflict with their tight-knit communities.

Growing Up American is the first comprehensive study of the unique experiences of Vietnamese immigrant children. It sets the agenda for future research on second generation immigrants and their entry into American society.

MIN ZHOU is associate professor of sociology and Asian American studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

CARL L. BANKSTON III is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

Presents papers which were discussed at the Arden House Conference—a conference held to establish a working relationship between sociologists at the Russell Sage Foundation and journalists of the Graduate School of Journalism of Columbia University. Both behavioral science and journalism have for a long time been concerned with some of the same major national social problems—juvenile delinquency, urban problems, race and minority group relations, international tensions, and labor relations. These papers touch on some of the barriers to communication and point to possible ways of breaking through those barriers.

FREDERICK T. C. YU is professor and director of research at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.

CONTRIBUTORS: Ben H. Bagdikian, Leo Bogart, Edgar F. Borgatta, Marvin Bressler, John Mack Carter, Wayne A. Danielson, W. Phillips Davison, Emmett Dedmon, Eli Ginzberg, Ernest Havemann, Herbert H. Hyman, Robert L. Jones, Alfred J. Kahn, Joseph T. Klapper, Melvin L. Kohn, Daniel Lerner, Ronald Lippitt, John W. Riley Jr., Earl Ubell, Richard C. Wald, Stanton Wheeler, Robin M. Williams Jr., and Frederick T. C. Yu