Chapter 13: Demographic Dynamics: Population Trends

Discussion Questions:

1. Can you find examples of cohort effects in these articles? Period effects?
2. Do these articles provide insight into how migration is influenced by macro level social forces? If so what are they and how do they function?
3. In what ways does migration contribute to social change and/or stability?

Brian A. Hoey
From Pi to Pie: Moral Narratives of Noneconomic Migration and Starting Over in the Postindustrial Midwest
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 34, No. 5, 586-624 (2005)
http://jce.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/34/5/586?ijkey=FvXHnHFfYQLjc&keytype=ref&siteid=spjce
Abstract:
Research introduced here examines the impact of social and structural transitions during the past three decades on middle-class working families in the United States. Through the telling narrative of an especially iconic case of urban-to-rural migration and career change, this article explores the meaning of relocation away from metropolitan areas and corporate careers to growing ex-urban, small-town communities. The author interprets this life-style migration as a manner of personally negotiating tension between experience of material demands in pursuit of a livelihood within the flexible New Economy and prevailing cultural conventions for the good life that shape the moral narratives that define individual character. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research involving interview and observation of recent migrants to Northern Michigan, this article contributes to our understanding of noneconomic migration and its part in the changing moral meanings of work in postindustrial America.

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Howard Campbell & Josiah Heyman
Slantwise: Beyond Domination and Resistance on the Border
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 36, No. 1, 3-30 (2007)
http://jce.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/36/1/3?ijkey=wk0kRn91wIMcI&keytype=ref&siteid=spjce
Abstract:
Drawing on extensive participant observation and interviews concerned with barriers to census enumeration in colonias (irregular migrant settlements along the United States-Mexico border) and Mexican migration to the United States, we argue that recent ethnography has overemphasized the role of domination and resistance. While power is fundamental to cultural analysis, we also need to examine behavior we call slantwise, that is, actions that are obliquely or only indirectly related to power relations. Ethnographic fieldwork from both sides of the United States-Mexico border uncovered a range of behaviors (including unorthodox building techniques in colonies, hybrid language practices, complex and fluid household structures, nonlinear mobility patterns, and unpredictable political loyalties of migrants) that do not fit neatly into the domination-resistance axis. We argue for the relevance of the slant-wise concept for understanding such behaviors, not as a replacement for studies of naturalized domination and resistance, but as a complement to them.

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Jennifer Parker Talwar
Contradictory Assumptions in the Minimum-Wage Workplace: A Focus on Immigrants, the American-Born, and Employer Preferences in Brooklyn, New York
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 30, No. 1, 92-127 (2001)
http://jce.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/30/1/92?ijkey=APQIEuybxdJAc&keytype=ref&siteid=spjce
Abstract:
A study of fast-food restaurants in Brooklyn, New York, examines factors contributing to inner-city racial minorities' under representation in low wage consumer-service jobs. Stressing the importance of "geocultural context" and workplace social relations, it helps broaden the framework around other qualitative studies attempting to understand race and ethnic patterns in the growing service-based economy. Findings demonstrate a hiring preference for the foreign-born, shaped by factors rooted in both the neighborhood context and the workplace. In-depth assessment of workplace interactions and conflicts reveals a set of contradictory assumptions between managers and employees, contributing to a "self-fulfilling prophecy" and reduced employment rates among American-born racial minorities.

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Angel G Quintero Rivera
Migration, Ethnicity, and Interactions between the United States and Hispanic Caribbean Popular Culture
Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 34, 83 – 93 (2007)
http://lap.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/34/1/83?ijkey=fAqPYs7rIikUg&keytype=ref&siteid=splap
Abstract:
Some of the most important musical expressions of contemporary popular culture—jazz, salsa, and hip-hop, among others—developed from continuous and intense interaction between Hispanic Caribbean and U.S. Afro-American sociocultural processes, strengthened greatly by phenomena linked to urban migration. The history of these interactions calls into question the traditional bipolar interpretation of cultural relations between Latin America and the United States and demands a transnational revaluation of heterogeneity.

Ian McDonald
Migration and Sorting in the American Electorate: Evidence From the 2006 Cooperative Congressional Election Study
American Politics Research, May 2011; vol. 39, 3: pp. 512-533.
http://apr.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/39/3/512?ijkey=ycARkVB9lJemM&keytype=ref&siteid=spapr
Abstract:
Migration is a significant factor in the composition of U.S. electoral constituencies, including U.S. House districts. Does migration contribute to geographic homogeneity, and does the result contribute to political polarization in a significant way? This article considers this question using the 2006 Cooperative Congressional Election Survey. To determine individual-level migration patterns, residence information from individual survey respondents is matched to the U.S. Postal Service’s change of address database. This technique provides precise information about respondents’ migration history that follows the preferences expressed in each individual’s survey response. I find support for the claim that migrants are more likely to move into a congressional district that matches their ideological preferences even after controlling for the partisanship in the district of origin. This result emerges for both major parties in two sets of model specifications: multinomial logit models restricted to migrants and a selection model that includes all respondents.

Ackerman, Edwin F.
The Rise of the "Illegal Alien"
Contexts, Aug 2013; vol. 12: pp. 72-74
http://ctx.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/12/3/72?ijkey=6iMq4ojhQ2Lls&keytype=ref&siteid=spctx
Abstract:
As media outlets move away from the term "illegal immigrant," Edwin F. Ackerman uses media analysis to track the rise of the term-and others-since the 1920s.

Mcgee, Micki
Neurodiversity
Contexts, Aug 2012; vol. 11: pp. 12-13
http://ctx.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/11/3/12?ijkey=54xNv.JbFdAH2&keytype=ref&siteid=spctx
Abstract:
The neurodiversity movement emerged as an extension of the disability rights movement to include the those individuals with neurological differences. Micki McGee posits that neurodiversity is also a response to the neoliberalism of the past three decades that has (1) shifted responsibility for individuals with neurological and cognitive challenges back to the family, and (2) fostered a crippling speed-up in our workplaces while simultaneously requiring new levels of sociability and flexibility that render more people debilitated or disabled. The article concludes that demands for the rights of neurologically diverse populations may challenge the very framework of liberal personhood.