2015 Volume 20 Issue 2

Co-Editor of Special Issue: Olena Nesteruk, Ph.D and Rebecca Adams, Ph.D., CLFE

Introduction: This Special Issue is dedicated to examining immigrant families’ dynamics across generations and over time, in the context of global migration and transnationalism. The manuscripts included in the issue explore the multidimensional experience of immigration from the perspective of family science. Reflecting the diversity of contemporary immigrants, the manuscripts selected for the issue spotlight immigrant families that represent different countries of origin, migration experiences, socioeconomic characteristics, length of residency in the host country, and varied resources and vulnerabilities. Research-based manuscripts explore changing intergenerational relationships, parenting practices, parent-child conflicts, acculturation and family adaptation, transnational migration, and immigrants’ views of home later in life.

Martha I. Zapata Roblyer, Mayra Y. Bámaca–Colbert, Sasha M. Rojas and Richard C. Cervantes

ABSTRACT: The literature on Latino families in the United States rarely has identified specific topics of parent–child conflict among families headed by parents who are immigrants or the children of immigrants. We used 16 focus groups and thematic analysis to identify seven salient topics of parent–child conflict in these families: activities of daily life, materialism, apparel, dating and sexuality, friendships, education, and use of the Spanish language. Most conflicts had normative characteristics stemming from youth’s expanding autonomy; however, parents mostly framed them in terms of cultural discrepancies. Results suggest that in some Latino families, parent–child conflict might be best understood in terms of parallel dual frames of reference, that is, the contrasting cultural frames of reference parents and children use to evaluate one another. Results suggest that family life education programs that foster knowledge of youth development among Latino parents of immigrant background, as well as interventions that help parents and children identify and bridge their dual frames of reference could benefit Latino families experiencing significant parent–child conflict.

Chinwe Onwujuba, Loren Marks and Olena Nesteruk

ABSTRACT: This study contributes to the limited literature on African immigrants in the United States, by examining the experiences of Nigerian immigrant parents. A qualitative, phenomenological approach was used to extract the meanings underlying parenting practices and attitudes related to raising children in a new environment. Based on in-depth personal interviews with 30 Nigerian immigrant parents, three themes emerged: 1) parents’ socio cultural adaptation, 2) issues of parent-child interaction, and 3) limited community support for child-rearing. This study provides a knowledge base for relevant human and social service providers to understand the motivations behind Nigerian immigrants’ parenting behaviors, so that there is neither a pathology-focused approach to this group’s practices, nor the assumption of complete assimilation into American parenting ideology and practices.

Vappu Tyyskä

ABSTRACT: Family composition and relationships may undergo significant changes upon immigration and settlement. This article approaches teen-parent relationships through the intergenerational solidarity framework, which addresses three areas of conflict and/or consensus related to (a) functional solidarity, (b) consensual solidarity, and (3) normative solidarity. Interviews took place in the Sri Lankan Tamil community in Toronto, Canada with 20 teens who talked about relationships with their parents. The study found that teens describe their intergenerational relations in positive terms, despite reported areas of conflict, which lends support to the resiliency framework. Noteworthy areas of intergenerational negotiation are (a) education, (b) cultural core values, and (c) degrees of freedom. Gender differences with regard to (b) and (c) are of interest, with daughters seen as culture bearers to whom parents allow fewer freedoms than sons receive. Cohort differences also appear because there is a relationship between one’s age at immigration and alignment of values and expectations with parents: the older the person immigrating, the more likely he or she is to have common values and expectations with parents.

Joanna Wu and Christy L. Lleras

ABSTRACT: Within the U.S., nearly all growth in the young adult population over the next forty years will come from immigrants and their U. S.-born children. Immigrant youth vary substantially in their access to family resources, which affects their ability to make a successful transition to adulthood. Utilizing data from the adolescent (2002/2004), young adult follow-up (2006) and later adult follow-up (2012) surveys of the Educational Longitudinal Study, we examined the degree to which second generation immigrant youth were rooted in family relationships and whether these relationships influenced early education and work patterns and later educational attainment. We discovered that second generation immigrant youth varied in the quality of family relationships during adolescence by gender, family and neighborhood characteristics and these relationships significantly influenced their transition to adulthood. The more embedded immigrant youth were in their families, the higher their educational achievement and attainment in early and later adulthood compared to youth with lower levels of embeddedness.

Juyoung Jang,Veronica Deenanath and Catherine A. Solheim

ABSTRACT: This study examines the influence of having family members in the U.S. on Mexican family members’ psychological distress, taking family and community contexts into consideration. Using multilevel modeling analyses of the first wave of the Mexican Family Life Survey (MxFLS-1), we examined psychological distress of Mexiccan adolescents and married adults regarding the influence of having family members in the U.S. Although having children in the U.S. increased psychological distress for married adults, having spouses in the U.S. did not show significant association with psychological distress. For Mexican adolescents, having parents or siblings in the U.S. did not affect psychological distress significantly. Living in communities with high prevalence of transnational migration was associated with increased psychological distress for married adults and for adolescents. For married adults, multilevel modeling revealed that effects of having spouses and children in the U.S. varied across communities. The same was true for Mexican adolescents who have siblings in the U.S.

Olena Nesteruk and Christine A. Price, Montclair State University

ABSTRACT: Experiences of long-term immigrants aging in their adoptive country have received limited attention from researchers. The purpose of this exploratory study was to expand our understanding of immigration over the life course, with focus on long-term immigrants in middle and later life residing in the United States. Through personal in- depth interviews with middle-aged and older women and men, we explored attachments to their native and adoptive countries, their changing views of home, and their last wishes. Participants’ views of “home” evolved from a nostalgic place of birth to a location where significant life events occurred over the life course. Immigrants in this study are “aging in place” with strong familial and social ties established over the years in the U.S. Practitioners and researchers should avoid making generalizations about isolation and marginalization of this segment of the aging immigrant population; instead, they should recognize resiliency developed as a result of coping with discontinuity and challenges of immigration.