Roger Waldinger
DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR
Ph. D., Harvard University
Office: 264 HAINES
Phone: 310-206-9233
Fax:
310-206-9838
E-mail:
waldinge@soc.ucla.edu
Mailing Address:
264 Haines Hall - Box 951551
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1551
Subfield
international migration; race and ethnicity
Research Interests
International migration, race and ethnicity.
My research concerns international migration to the United States: its social, political, and economic consequences; the policies and politics emerging in response to its advent; the links between immigrants in the United States and the countries and people they have left behind.
I currently have two broad, ongoing research projects. The first, on the second generation, builds on my earlier interests in exploring ethnic differences. Starting with a series of articles co-authored with Joel Perlmann (“Second Generation Decline? Immigrant Children Past and Present -- A Reconsideration” International Migration Review, Vol 31, no. 4, 1997), I have sought to understand the trajectory of the contemporary second generation of immigrant offspring, in light of the experience of the past.
The second project, on the political sociology of international migration, seeks to show how the inherently political nature of international migration shapes migrant action as well as host society responses This project has developed as a critique of both assimilation (“Foreigners Transformed: International Migration and the Making of a Divided People,” Diaspora, (2003): 12, 2: 247-72.) and transnationalism (“Transnationalism in Question,” co-authored with David Fitzgerald, American Journal of Sociology, V 109, 5 (2004): 1177-95). In a series of essays (“The Sociology of Immigration: Second Thoughts and Reconsiderations,” in Host Societies and the Reception of Immigrants, edited by Jeffrey G. Reitz. San Diego: Center for Comparative Immigration Research, 2003) and empirical papers (“The Bounded Community: Turning Foreigners into Americans in 21st Century Los Angeles,” Ethnic and Racial Studies, forthcoming) I show how the extension of migrant social and political networks and exchanges across states collide with the nation-building/maintaining responses that the arrival of immigrants elicits. Most recently, my research on migrant host-home interactions has led to an interest in the sending countries, especially El Salvador. A recent working paper, “Conflict and Contestation in the Cross-Border Community: Hometown Associations Reassessed,” (co-authored with Eric Popkin and Hector Aquiles Magana) provides an initial report on my work in this new area.
I regularly teach in our year-long graduate seminar on international migration in comparative perspective. I have taught all three quarters: the first, on theory, history, and policy; the second, on economic and social incorporation; the third, a research seminar. My recent undergraduate courses have been on transnationalism, immigration policy, and comparative assimilation. I am also co-organizer of the (“Migration Study Group,” a year-long speaker series featuring interdisciplinary talks on international migration. I am currently advising seven graduate students in sociology, working on a broad range of migration topics. Throughout my career, I have regularly co-authored with students: in 2005-6, I completed three papers, co-authored with students.
I served as Chair of our department from 1999-2004. I directed the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, UCLA School of Public Affairs from 1995-1998. Before coming to UCLA, I taught at the City College of the City University of New York.
Selected Publications
"Strangeness at the Gates: The Peculiar Politics of Immigration," (co-authored with Nazgol Ghandnoosh) International Migration Review, V. 40, 3 (2006): 719-734.
"Fiddling While the Border Festers: The Dim Prospects for Immigration Reform," New Labor Forum, V 15, 2 (2006):21-29
“The Bounded Community: Turning Foreigners into Americans in 21st Century Los Angeles,” Ethnic and Racial Studies, V 30, 7 (2007) 341-74.
“Bad jobs, good jobs, no jobs? The employment experience of the “new” second generation,” (with Nelson Lim and David Cort), Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, V. 33, 1 (2007): 1-35.
“Did Manufacturing Matter? The experience of yesterday’s second generation: a reassessment”, International Migration Review, V 41, 1 (Spring 2007): 3-39.
“Will the new second generation experience ‘downward assimilation’? Segmented assimilation re-assessed,” (with Cynthia Feliciano) Ethnic and Racial Studies, V 27, 3 (2004): 376-402.
“Transnationalism in Question,” (with David Fitzgerald) American Journal of Sociology, V 109, 5 (2004): 1177-95
“Foreigners Transformed: International Migration and the Making of a Divided People,” Diaspora, (2003): 12, 2: 247-72.
“Transforming foreigners into Americans” pp. 137-48 in Mary Waters and Reed Ueda, eds., The New Americans: A Guide to Immigration since 1965, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
“Immigrant ‘Transnationalism’ and the Presence of the Past,” in Elliott Barkan, et. al., eds. Borders, Boundaries, And Bonds: America And Its Immigrants In Eras Of Globalization, New York: New York University Press, forthcoming.
“The21st Century: An Entirely New Story,” in Tamar Jacoby, ed., Reinventing the Melting Pot: Will Today's Immigrants Become Americans?, New York: Basic, 2003.
“The Sociology of Immigration: Second Thoughts and Reconsiderations,” in Host Societies and the Reception of Immigrants, edited by Jeffrey G. Reitz. San Diego: Center for Comparative Immigration Research, 2003.
“Networks and Niches: The Continuing Significance of Ethnic Connections” in Glenn Loury, Tariq Modood and Steven Teles, Race, Ethnicity and Social Mobility in the US and UK, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003
“Second Generation Decline? Immigrant Children Past and Present -- A Reconsideration” (with Joel Perlmann), International Migration Review, Vol 31, no. 4, 1997.
How the Other Half Works: Immigration and the Social Organization of Labor (with Michael Lichter), Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
Strangers at the Gates: New Immigrants in Urban America Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
Still the Promised City? New Immigrants and African-Americans in Post-Industrial New York Harvard University Press, 1996.
Ethnic Los Angeles (co-edited with Mehdi Bozorgmehr), Russell Sage Foundation, 1996.
Ethnic Entrepreneurs: Immigrant Business in Industrial Society (with Howard Aldrich, Robin Ward, and associates; Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1990).
Through the Eye of the Needle: Immigrants and Enterprise in New York's Garment Trades (New York University Press, 1986; paper, 1989).
Awards
1998 Robert E. Park Award, Urban and Community Sociology Section, American Sociological Assocation, for Still the Promised City?
1997 Thomas and Znaniecki Award for the best book (Ethnic Los Angeles), International Migration Section, American Sociological Association
Urban Politics Best Urban Politics Book 1996 Award (for Still the Promised City?), Urban Politics Section, American Political Science Association.
Honorable mention, 1996 book awards competition, Association of American Publishers Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division (for Still the Promised City? African-Americans and New Immigrants in PostIndustrial New York)
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