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ImmigrationProf Blog
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Mexican Immigration: Costs and Benefits

By immigrationprof

WEIGHING THE COSTS AND BENEFITS OF MEXICAN IMMIGRATION:  The Mexican American Perspective

TOMAS JIMENEZ
Assistant Professor of Sociology, UCSD, Visiting Research Fellow, CCIS

Tuesday, February 27, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Eleanor Roosevelt College Administration Building
Conference Room 115, First Floor
Reception to follow

Survey research posits that Mexican Americans’ perceptions of the costs and benefits of immigration drive their opinions about immigration, but this research does not provide a clear picture of how Mexican Americans calculate these costs and benefits. This talk will explain how Mexican Americans calculate the costs and benefits of Mexican immigration using 123 in-depth interviews and observations with later-generation Mexican Americans in Garden City, Kansas, and Santa Maria, California. Mexican Americans’ perceptions of the costs and benefits of Mexican immigration are based not only on economic considerations, but on social and cultural consideration structured by prevailing and often paradoxical ideologies. Their structural position increases concerns about status degradation resulting from immigration, but also shapes how they are positioned to benefit from the boost in prominence that immigration provides to the entire Mexican-origin population.

Tomás Jiménez is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego.  His research focuses on immigration, assimilation, and ethnic identity. He is particularly interested in these topics as they relate to the Mexican-origin population.

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These seminars are open to all members of the UCSD community, as well as faculty and students from other universities and the general public.  For directions to CCIS, visit our website   Parking permits can be purchased at the information booth on North Point Drive (north end of campus).  Visitors may also use metered parking spaces (max. 2 hours) in the North side parking lot.  Papers previously presented at CCIS seminars can also be downloaded from our website under “Working Papers.”  For further information, please contact Tatis Cervantes (E-mail: ttcervantes@ucsd.edu, Tel#: 858-822-4447).

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