"American-born Catherine knows little of her Croatian mother's early life. When Marijana dies of ovarian cancer, twenty-two-year-old Catherine finds herself cut off from the past she never really knew. As Catherine searches for clues to her mother's elusive history, she discovers that Marijana was orphaned during WWII, nearly died as a teenager, and escaped from Communist Yugoslavia to Rome, and then South America. Through travel and memory, history and imagination, Catherine resurrects the relatives she's never known. Traversing time and place, memoir and novel, this lyrical narrative explores the collective memory between mothers and daughters, and what it means to find wholeness. It is a story where a daughter gives voice to her immigrant mother's unspoken history, and in the process, heals them both."--Amazon.com.

Immigrant children and youth are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population, and so their prospects bear heavily on the well-being of the country. However, relevant public policy is shaped less by informed discussion than by politicized contention over welfare reform and immigration limits. From Generation to Generation explores what we know about the development of white, black, Hispanic, and Asian children and youth from numerous countries of origin. Describing the status of immigrant children and youth as "severely understudied," the committee both draws on and supplements existing research to characterize the current status and outlook of immigrant children. The book discusses the many factorsâ€"family size, fluency in English, parent employment, acculturation, delivery of health and social services, and public policiesâ€"that shape the outlook for the lives of these children and youth. The committee makes recommendations for improved research and data collection designed to advance knowledge about these children and, as a result, their visibility in current policy debates.

Author Yasmin Mansy makes her literary debut with an autobiographical account of her experiences growing up as the daughter of an Iraqi-Chaldean immigrant father and a Lebanese-Maronite immigrant mother working tirelessly to create a new life in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. during the 1960's and 1970's. From her personal accounts of rape, abuse and discrimination to her recollections of distant lands and emotional triumphs, Immigrant's Daughters captures the very essence of the American dream. Her story reaches through to the reader in a way that people everywhere will relate to and take interest in. It is written in simple words with powerful messages that reach out of the pages to grab and hold the reader's attention from start to finish. Her experience is a unique one; yet one that is so relative to humanity that it will undoubtedly change the lives of its readers. It is pro-American, Middle-East influenced reality that people of all cultures will find comfort in. Immigrant's Daughters appeals to the increasingly popular immigrant saga, while presenting the juxtaposition between the secure, individualistic life of American culture and the oppressive, honor-driven lifestyles of such places as the Middle East, Africa and Asia. It differs from most mainstream accounts however, in that Immigrant's Daughters presents the story of a Catholic Iraqi/Lebanese family; and gives the reader a glimpse into a culture in which the United States has been heavily engaged since 2001. It addresses the racial climate of 1960's America and the faith necessary to overcome it with Yasmin's firsthand account as an elementary school student whose nickname was "nigger." This work presents a unique look at a Middle Eastern intercultural marriage, the lives of Catholic Arabs, and their struggles and triumphs as immigrants to the United States during a time of racial tension and sexual liberation. Immigrant's Daughters is a testament to all those who long for a better life, and offers incredible words of encouragement to those who find themselves in similar situations.

More than a memoir of personal and political achievements, this volume chronicles a family's development from Mexican immigrants to American leaders. Written in an authentic and unique voice, this book describes how the author's Mexican parents instilled a love of learning, a desire to excel, and a commitment to community in their children. Relating how her heritage and upbringing allowed her to lead her community and promote social justice, the author conveys a courageous story of hope, love, faith, and a fighting spirit long committed to social and environmental justice, regardless of the personal cost.

An in-depth look at the challenges undocumented immigrants face as they raise children in the U.S. There are now nearly four million children born in the United States who have undocumented immigrant parents. In the current debates around immigration reform, policymakers often view immigrants as an economic or labor market problem to be solved, but the issue has a very real human dimension. Immigrant parents without legal status are raising their citizen children under stressful work and financial conditions, with the constant threat of discovery and deportation that may narrow social contacts and limit participation in public programs that might benefit their children. Immigrants Raising Citizens offers a compelling description of the everyday experiences of these parents, their very young children, and the consequences these experiences have on their children's development. Immigrants Raising Citizens challenges conventional wisdom about undocumented immigrants, viewing them not as lawbreakers or victims, but as the parents of citizens whose adult productivity will be essential to the nation's future. The book's findings are based on data from a three-year study of 380 infants from Dominican, Mexican, Chinese, and African American families, which included in-depth interviews, in-home child assessments, and parent surveys. The book shows that undocumented parents share three sets of experiences that distinguish them from legal-status parents and may adversely influence their children's development: avoidance of programs and authorities, isolated social networks, and poor work conditions. Fearing deportation, undocumented parents often avoid accessing valuable resources that could help their children's development—such as access to public programs and agencies providing child care and food subsidies. At the same time, many of these parents are forced to interact with illegal entities such as smugglers or loan sharks out of financial necessity. Undocumented immigrants also tend to have fewer reliable social ties to assist with child care or share information on child-rearing. Compared to legal-status parents, undocumented parents experience significantly more exploitive work conditions, including long hours, inadequate pay and raises, few job benefits, and limited autonomy in job duties. These conditions can result in ongoing parental stress, economic hardship, and avoidance of center-based child care—which is directly correlated with early skill development in children. The result is poorly developed cognitive skills, recognizable in children as young as two years old, which can negatively impact their future school performance and, eventually, their job prospects. Immigrants Raising Citizens has important implications for immigration policy, labor law enforcement, and the structure of community services for immigrant families. In addition to low income and educational levels, undocumented parents experience hardships due to their status that have potentially lifelong consequences for their children. With nothing less than the future contributions of these children at stake, the book presents a rigorous and sobering argument that the price for ignoring this reality may be too high to pay.

This collection brings together established and emerging scholars from the humanities and the social sciences whose work considers the daughters of immigrants. By showcasing these varied perspectives, the collection draws meaningful connections across national and ethnic lines while attending to the particularities of specific histories, locations, and migration journeys. The multidisciplinary nature of this project highlights the relevance and usefulness of varied methodological and theoretical approaches for understanding the diverse lived experiences of the daughters of immigrants, as well as how those experiences are theorized and represented. While each chapter contains its own argument, assumes its own conceptual and disciplinary viewpoint, and tends to specific national and ethnic origins and sites of immigration, each offers meaningful insight into the gendered positionality of the daughters of immigrants as mediated by the complexities of migration, kinship, and culture. Taken together, these contributions point to the nuanced ways national, ethnic, and gendered identity function, and how those not always well served by how these identities are constituted understand and navigate forces beyond their control.

Immigrant children and youth are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, and so their prospects bear heavily on the well-being of the country. Children of Immigrants represents some of the very best and most extensive research efforts to date on the circumstances, health, and development of children in immigrant families and the delivery of health and social services to these children and their families. This book presents new, detailed analyses of more than a dozen existing datasets that constitute a large share of the national system for monitoring the health and well-being of the U.S. population. Prior to these new analyses, few of these datasets had been used to assess the circumstances of children in immigrant families. The analyses enormously expand the available knowledge about the physical and mental health status and risk behaviors, educational experiences and outcomes, and socioeconomic and demographic circumstances of first- and second-generation immigrant children, compared with children with U.S.-born parents.