NEW PERSPECTIVES ON SALVADORAN IMMIGRATION
Legalizing Moves: Salvadoran Immigrants' Struggle for U.S.
Residency. By Susan Bibler Coutin. Ann Arbor: University
of Michigan Press, 2000. $44.50. Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran Immigrant
Networks in America. By Cecilia Menjívar. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University
of California Press, 2000. $19.95.
Nora Hamilton
University of Southern California
The political violence and related economic instability that characterized
much of Central America during the 1980s led to a surge in Central American
immigration to the United States, and particularly to California. The
growth and significance of the Central American population is now being
recognized in the immigration literature, as evident in two excellent
studies, Cecilia Menjívar's Fragmented Ties and Susan Coutin's Legalizing
Moves. Both authors use an ethnographic approach, and their analyses are
based on years of working and interacting with Salvadoran immigrants—Menjívar
in community organizations in San Francisco, Coutin with immigration agencies
in Southern California. In addition, both conducted in-depth interviews
with community leaders, agency officials, and Salvadoran immigrants and
participated in meetings and other community events. Both studies combine
sophisticated theoretical analysis with richly textured empirical data
on the lives, experiences, expectations and frustrations of Salvadoran
immigrants, often expressed in their own words.
|
|
