One of the oldest American foundations, the Russell Sage Foundation, was established by Mrs. Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” In its early years, the foundation undertook major projects in low-income housing, urban planning, social work, and labor reform. The foundation now dedicates itself to strengthening the methods, data, and theories of the social sciences to diagnose social problems and improve social policies.
The Russell Sage Foundation (RSF) is committed to publishing high quality social science research in its core program areas and to supporting intellectual discourse by authors regardless of their race, gender identity, sexuality, age, nationality, and discipline. We actively encourage scholars who are underrepresented in the social sciences or who teach at under-resourced institutions to publish with RSF. The director of publications can provide more information about the types of support available.
Download a PDF version of RSF Manuscript Proposal Guidelines
Although priority is given to books that are based on projects funded by the foundation and on the work of visiting scholars, RSF welcomes proposals that are related to our core programs. For more information, please see www.russellsage.org.
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal of original empirical research articles by both established and emerging scholars. It is designed to promote cross-disciplinary collaborations on timely issues of interest to academics, policymakers, and the public at large. Each issue is thematic in nature and focuses on a specific research question or area of interest.
RSF publishes books on a wide variety of timely issues, with particular focus on topics related to our primary research programs: Behavioral Science and Decision Making in Context; Future of Work; Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration; and Social, Political, and Economic Inequality. Below is a selection of our most recent books. Find our entire list of books here.
Books
Dreams Achieved and Denied
Mexican Intergenerational Mobility
Publication Date
6 in. × 9 in.
306 pages
ISBN
978-0-87154-941-9
About This Book
“In this sequel to Mexican New York, Robert C. Smith solidifies his reputation as an intimate interpreter of social change over the life course. Dreams Achieved and Denied tells a subtle story about the upward mobility of children of Mexican immigrants striving to keep their side of the immigrant family bargain. This is a must-read to understand the experiences of the largest immigrant group in the United States.”
—David FitzGerald, Gildred Chair in U.S.-Mexican Relations and professor of sociology, University of California, San Diego
“The culmination of a two-decade study of immigrant youngsters, Dreams Achieved and Denied exemplifies the power of research that truly matters. With rigor and passion, Robert C. Smith captures experiences deeply significant to policymakers and to all who care about the multifaceted American journey.”
—Patricia Fernández-Kelly, professor of sociology, Princeton University
“A valuable contribution to contemporary debates of social mobility in the United States, Dreams Achieved and Denied shows in great detail the mechanisms that promote upward mobility and those that tragically curtail it. Based on an impressive longitudinal study, this remarkable book offers a worm’s-eye view into the experiences of adult children of Mexican immigrants pursuing their dreams in New York City. Persuasively argued and rigorously researched, this book is a timely and socially important work that deserves a wide readership.”
—Roberto G. Gonzales, Richard Perry University Professor of Sociology and Education, University of Pennsylvania
U.S.-born Mexicans in New York City have achieved perhaps the biggest single jump in mobility in American immigration history. In 2020, 42 percent of second-generation U.S.-born Mexican men and 49 percent of U.S.-born Mexican women in the city had graduated from college–versus a 13-14-percent second-generation college graduation rate for most other places in recent decades. How did this happen? In Dreams Achieved and Denied, sociologist Robert Courtney Smith (Graduate Center, City University of New York) examines the laws, policies, and individual and family practices that promoted–and inhibited–their social mobility.
For over twenty years, Smith followed the lives and mobility of nearly one hundred children of Mexican immigrants in New York City. Immigrant-inclusive and mobility-promoting measures here include enabling undocumented people to attend public colleges at in-state tuition rates and the city’s subway and school choice systems, which enabled students to attend better schools or take opportunities outside their neighborhoods.
Smith finds that keeping the immigrant bargain – whereby children of immigrants redeem their parents’ sacrifice by doing well in school, helping their parents and siblings, and becoming “good” people (in their parents’ words) – helped them achieve better adult outcomes and lives. Having mentors, picking academically strong schools and friends, and using second chance mechanisms also promoted mobility. However, lacking legal status blocked mobility, by preventing others from benefiting from these same mobility-promoting policies.
Dreams Achieved and Denied deeply analyzes the historic upward mobility of U.S.-born Mexicans in New York City.
ROBERT COURTNEY SMITH is a professor of sociology, immigration studies and public affairs at the CUNY Graduate Center