Getting Ahead: Social Mobility, Public Housing, and Immigrant Networks

452 Pages·2011·2.48 MB·English

by  Silvia Dominguez

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Getting Ahead
Getting Ahead
Social Mobility, Public Housing, and Immigrant
Networks
Silvia Domínguez
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
© 2011 by New York University
All rights reserved References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate
at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press
is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the
manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Domínguez, Silvia,
1961–
Getting ahead : social mobility, public housing, and
immigrant networks / Silvia Domínguez.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-81472077-6 (cl : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8147-2121-6 (e-
book)
1. Social mobility—United States. 2. Immigrants—Social networks—
United States. 3. Acculturation—United States. 4. Political refugees—
Chile. 5. Chileans—United States. I. Title.
HN59.D643 2010
305.5’130869120973—dc22 2010029342
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and
their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive
to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the
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greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Social Flow
2 The Neighborhoods
3 Social Support and Family Life
4 Leverage-Based Social Positioning
5 Family and Work Support
6 When Social Positioning Is Not Enough
7 When Intervention Is Necessary
8 Immigrant Networks
Notes
References
Index
About the Author
Acknowledgments
This book would have never been possible without all my friends
and respondents in East and South Boston. I am extremely thankful for
the hundreds of hours they allowed me to spend with them and their
families. In the interest of confidentiality, I cannot divulge their names,
but I thank them all.
I am also thankful for the guidance and constructive criticism of my
dissertation committee members, Nazli Kibria, Deborah Belle, Judith
Gonyea, William Julius Wilson, and Gwen Dordick. Nazli Kibria was
instrumental in encouraging me to study immigrants, and Deborah Belle
could not have been more instrumental in focusing me on women and
poverty. Judith Gonyea was instrumental in getting me through the
doctoral program. I am extremely grateful to Bill Wilson for having
opened the door to me and challenged my thinking around poor
neighborhoods. Gwen Dordick was a tremendous teacher of
ethnographic inquiry; I am grateful for all her clarifying questions on my
field notes. I am also extremely grateful to James Quane for always
pushing me, Diane Purvin and Steve Kalberg for encouragement and
support, and Xavier de Souza Briggs, who introduced me to social
networks and public housing.
I am extremely thankful to Ilene Kalish for believing in my project and
to Aiden Amos and the blind reviewers for New York University Press.
The Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowship could not have come at a
better time, for finding this book project to be valuable and worth
supporting and giving me the privilege of being mentored by Cecilia
Menjívar, who has been among my biggest supporters and provided me
with valuable feedback. Other people who read chapters and provided
feedback include Deborah Belle, Nazli Kibria, Pierrette Hondagneu-
Sotelo, Kathrina Zipple, Michael Brooks, James Battle, Danny Farber,
Gordana Rabrenovic, Tammi Arford, and my writing group members,
including Alisa Lincoln and Theresa Osypuk. I am particularly thankful
for the feedback I received in the development of the social flow
framework from Steve Vallas, Mario Small, Shelly Kimelberg, and Liza
Weinstein, who read the theoretical chapters and helped me to clarify
and strengthen the framework. I am indebted to Helio Leal for his
uncanny sharpness and the support he has given me since I began to put
this book together. This book would be a different book without his
input.
To Phillip Berard and José Luis Molina, who helped me to develop the
diagrams, thank you so much. I am indebted to José Luis for all the trial
and error I put him through transnationally from Boston to Barcelona
and back. I am thankful to Gabriela Ruiz for her expert editing.
Part of the research on which this book is based was conducted in
conjunction with Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three City Study. I
am thankful to the principal investigators of that study, who gave me the
opportunity to learn from them and access to these data. This book
would not have been possible without the funding I received from the
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Woodrow
Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and the American Association of
University Women. I am thankful to Patrick Simon and Marie-Hélène
Bacque, who supported me while I was analyzing data in Paris. I am also
thankful to the Journal of Social Problems and the University of California
Press; the Journal of Community Psychology and Springer; and the Journal
of Family Relations and Whiley-Blackwell for granting me permission to
reprint previously published material in my book.
Although my father, Carlos Domínguez, died early in my doctoral
education, he is always on my mind, and it is to him that I owe my
interest in sociology and inequality. My mother, Silvia Alvarez, is one of
the strongest women I have ever known; she and my sisters, Ester,
Carmen, and Rosario, provide me with strength and help me maintain
my focus, passion, and commitment to work, research, and the
development of policy that increases social justice. I am most grateful to
my son, Matias, who has had to put up with a mother who sits in front
of the computer writing almost all the time. You are the most important
person in my life, and each day that passes leaves me in wonder of how
you are growing and flourishing.