Reconceptualizing Immigration as a Home-making Process: The Latinos in South Los Angeles Research Projects

Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Photo courtesy of Michael Messner

Speaker: Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Professor, Dept. of Sociology, University of Southern California, and Weatherhead Resident Scholar, SAR

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There is no grand theory of immigration, but in American sociology, three paradigms have prevailed:  assimilation, transnationalism and racialization/criminalization.  Each one has its own merit, yet misses important dynamics.  In this lecture, Dr. Hondagneu-Sotelo presents empirical findings from a study of Latinos in South Los Angeles to help build a new framework of immigration as a home-making process.  The Latinos in South LA study (LiSLA) includes 100 in-depth interviews with first and second-generation Latina/o immigrants, 19 interviews with civic leaders, and census and demographic mapping of Watts, Vermont Square and the historic South Central Avenue neighborhoods.  The presentation focuses attention on the significance of race, anti-Black racism, and generational differences among Latina/o immigrants in the immigrant-homemaking process, and suggests several concepts that highlight the significance of place and race in immigrant home-making.