all Marcelo Suarez-Orozco stories

Mexican-American women navigate school and work more successfully than men

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:20:35 -0400

Only 19 percent of Mexican-American men in 1990 were upwardly mobile professionally, compared to 31 percent of women, and only nine percent of men worked in professional/technical jobs, compared to 17 percent of women. The study, "Gender, Ethnicity, and Race in School and Work Outcomes of Second Generation Mexican Americans," also found that Mexican-American women in New York City fare better in school than their male counterparts. The study was just one of the 21 new studies included in a new book, "Latinos: Remaking America" (University of California Press and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, 2002), edited by Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco and Mariela Páez from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The new studies present landmark research on Latino education, health, language, and politics. It is the first comprehensive book systematically examining major aspects of the Latino population of the United States, now the nation's largest minority.

Eighty-five percent of immigrant children separated from families during migration

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:12:58 -0400

An ongoing study of more than 400 children who have immigrated to the United States shows that 85 percent of them experience separation from one or both parents during the process of moving to this country. About 35 percent of these children are separated from their fathers for more than five years. Nearly half (49 percent) of these children have been separated from both parents at some time during the moving process. Carola Suárez-Orozco, Irina Todorova, and Josephine Louie, researchers from the Harvard Immigration Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, said the findings are significant for two reasons: immigrant children who are separated from their parents show more symptoms of depression than those who remain with their families, and 20 percent of children in the United States are now growing up in immigrant homes.

Immigration experts focus on attitudes of children

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:08:40 -0400

Too many immigrants in the United States are staring into what Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco call "a toxic mirror" that seriously compromises the self-image of children who will grow up to be part of American society. The husband-and-wife team, who co-direct the Harvard Immigration Project, believe it's time for society to remake the image in that social mirror. The two are working to reshape a national immigration dialogue that they feel has been focused too long on immigration levels and on economic costs and benefits. The children of today's immigrants will be our teachers, our police, and our business and political leaders, say the Suarez-Orozcos. In short, America is and will continue to be what it always has been – a country of immigrants.