Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper empirically investigates how gatekeepers' news selection criteria at a newsroom are assimilated. The author employs a combination of content analysis of the decision-making process of gatekeepers and an in-depth interview with the metro editor. The results of this study show that news criteria are similar, not only between first-line journalists and their editors, but also between the predecessor and the successor to the position of the metro section editor. Consequently, this study, which adopts White's 1949 gatekeeping research approach, illustrates that individual forces in gatekeeping tenuously influence the selection of news items.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study tests whether classical assimilation is still a viable model in studying immigrant adaptation in contemporary American society. Some scholars contend that with the demographic, structural and political changes of the 20st century, the classical approach is no longer adequate. But perhaps what has lost its utility is the conceptualization of assimilation as a value-laden, ethnocentric process, with becoming “white Protestant” as the final goal. Rather, Alba and Nee argue that assimilation should be reformulated as a “decline” or “disappearance” of difference. We test this reformulation using the sophomore cohort of NELS to examine whether the differences in educational expectations between Hispanic and Asian, and white youth decline upon assimilation. We find that various dimensions of assimilation work in different directions for the ethnic groups in the sample. On the whole, with the exception of Cubans, the gaps between the Hispanic ethnic groups and whites are no longer statistically significant once assimilation is included. For Asians, the results are mixed: the gaps of some groups do decrease or become insignificant with the inclusion of assimilation, while for others, the estimated gaps become even larger. By and large, assimilation is taking place, albeit as concluded by Alba and Nee, “unevenly.”

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines the spatial attainment of blacks in Houston, Texas in 1970 and 2000. It examines changes in the demographic composition of neighborhoods where blacks live to assess whether blacks are assimilating spatially. It also investigates the exposure of blacks to whites and other blacks by education (a proxy for socio-economic status). The results suggest that a spatial assimilation dynamic was absent in Houston in 1970 but is clearly evident in 2000.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper tests David Laitin's competitive assimilation hypothesis with the aid of Latvian school attendance records. Aggregate data appear to confirm a moderate rise in the number of Russian-speakers sending their children to Latvian schools. Disaggregate data, however, paint a more complicated picture, one which questions a main assumption of the Laitin model. Minority parents do not send their children to Latvian schools in Latvia's economically vibrant cities and continue to opt for education in Russian, despite the apparent economic rewards for knowing Latvian in these cities. I explain this paradoxical outcome by operationalizing and measuring the three variables that Laitin cites as affecting rates of assimilation: economic rewards, in-group status, and out-group acceptance. I then propose an alternative game theoretic framework for analyzing school choice.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines the naming practices of Latino parents who gave birth to children in Los Angeles County in 1995. Specifically, we examine how the gender of a child affects whether parents give them a Spanish name, how parental “ethnicity/birthplace” affects whether parents give them a Spanish name, and how intermarriage affects whether parents give a child a Spanish name and how this dynamic interacts with the gender of the child. This analysis emphasizes a gendered perspective, which has been nearly absent in the literature on assimilation and immigration.
Using multiple logistic regression equations, we find that baby girls were significantly less likely than baby boys to receive Spanish names. Moreover, we find that as parental “ethnicity/birthplace” become more non-Hispanic, parents were less likely to give both boys and girls Spanish names. Finally, we show that the gender difference in the likelihood of receiving a Spanish name increases as parental “ethnicity/birthplace” becomes closer to U.S. culture when both parents are Hispanic, and decreases as parental “ethnicity/birthplace” becomes closer to U.S. culture when one member of a couple is non-Hispanic. The gender difference also increases when, within an intermarriage, the father’s ethnicity is further from U.S. culture than the mother’s.