Making Los Angeles Home

Making Los Angeles Home examines the different integration strategies implemented by Mexican immigrants in the Los Angeles region. Relying on statistical data and ethnographic information, the authors analyze four different dimensions of the immigrant integration process (economic, social, cultural, and political) and show that there is no single path for its achievement, but instead an array of strategies that yield different results. However, their analysis also shows that immigrants' successful integration essentially depends upon their legal status and long residence in the region. The book shows that, despite this finding, immigrants nevertheless decide to settle in Los Angeles, the place where they have made their homes.

Rafael Alarcón has a PhD in city and regional planning from UC Berkeley and is a professor and researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte. Luis Escala has a PhD in sociology from UCLA and is a professor and researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte. Olga Odgers has a PhD in sociology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales-Paris and is a professor and researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte. Dick Cluster is a writer and translator in Oakland, California, and the former Associate Director of the Honors Program at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

 

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction

PART ONE. Theoretical, Historical, and Statistical Aspects of Mexican Immigrant Integration in Metropolitan Los Angeles

1. Theoretical Perspectives on Immigrant Integration
2. Mexican Immigration and the Development of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area
3. Statistical Analysis of Mexican Immigrants’ Integration in the Metropolitan Los Angeles Area

PART TWO. Dimensions of Integration among Immigrants from Zacatecas, Oaxaca, and Veracruz

4. Economic Integration: Mobility, Labor Niches, and Low-End Jobs
5. Social Integration: Building a Family, a Community, and a Life
6. Cultural Integration: Redefining Identities in a Diverse Metropolis
7. Political Integration: From Life in the Margins to the Pursuit of Recognition

PART THREE. Government Intervention and the Immigrant Population

8. Public Policies and Mexican Immigrant Integration in the City and County of Los Angeles

Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index