Three recent demographic developments have generated concerns about the likelihood of continued historic immigrant socioeconomic integration, and more generally, of future ethno-racial relations in the United States.¹ First, approximately 30 million new foreign-born residents (immigrants) settled in the United States during the past three decades—a flow figure that is almost identical to the number who arrived during the last great wave of immigration between 1880 and 1930.² In terms of the total stock of immigrants residing in the country, however, the 31.1 million immigrants enumerated in the 2000 U.S. Census represented a smaller proportion (11.1 percent) of the total...

The movement of people—and their adaptation and integration to a new society—remains a topic as timely and as fascinating as the first time that historians and sociologists began to document it. In the case of Massachusetts, long an area of concentration for new immigrants, newcomers have historically been a major contributor to economic and social development.¹ In the last decades, immigration has been a particularly salient aspect of the state’s population growth, adding significantly to the expansion of its workforce. The 2000 census reported a growth of 35 percent in the immigrant population of the state;² without the...

Latinos experience the greatest incidence of housing affordability problems of any of the 4 largest racial/ethnic groups in Massachusetts.¹ Over three out of five Latino renters and nearly one out of three Latino home owners are “shelter poor”—experiencing so great a squeeze between their incomes and housing costs that they are unable to meet their nonshelter needs at even a minimal level of adequacy. Between 1990 and 2000 the number of shelter-poor Latino households in Massachusetts increased by more than 60 percent.²

There were about 121,000 Latino-headed households in Massachusetts in 2000, an increase of over 54 percent from...

Connecticut is experiencing a cultural reconfiguration, and Waterbury is literally and figuratively in its middle.¹ The state with the highest proportion of Puerto Ricans among its Latinos, the highest per capita Puerto Rican city in the United States (Hartford), the first capital city with a Puerto Rican mayor (also Hartford) is becoming more nuanced, as newcomers from a variety of Spanish-speaking countries arrive daily to make their homes here.²

Dominicans are the most prominent group of newcomers reshaping Waterbury’s social, cultural, and economic landscape: Dominican-owned grocery stores abound. Dominican children form the core of a group dancing Colombiancumbiain...

Although present in the state since the 1960s, Rhode Island Latinos erupted into the consciousness of the region in the late 1990s with two critical facts. The first is that the growth of the Latino population in the state had been explosive.¹ Since 1990, Latinos quadrupled their share of the population, and today, with 90,820 persons, they account for 8.7 percent of the total population and for 48 percent of the racial/ethnic minority population of the state. Without the influx of Latinos, Rhode Island would have experienced negative population growth in the 1990s.² In Providence and Central Falls, Latinos account...

While the foundational work characterizing the earliest stages of the field of Latino studies focused on particular ethnic groups—primarily Mexican Americans/Chicanos and Puerto Ricans, the newer subfield of comparative Latino studies has focused instead on places—mostly cities with large Latino populations such as New York, Los Angeles, and Miami but more recently in newer receiving areas such as New England—where multiple ethnic groups, Latinos and non-Latinos alike, share space and influence each other’s development.¹ This approach has encouraged viewing Latino communities in relation to other ethnic groups inhabiting these spaces—other Latino ethnic groups and non-Latinos alike....

The U.S. Bureau of the Census reports that New Hampshire had 20,489 Latinos at the start of this decade: 1.7 percent of a state with a 95 percent non-Latino White population.¹ Massachusetts next door had 430,000 Latinos. Why is this comparatively small Latino group in New Hampshire noteworthy?

Part of the answer lies in the almost total absence of Latinos in the state twenty years ago. New Hampshire was not a state of traditional Latino settlement. In 1980 New Hampshire was surpassed as the state with the fewest Latinos only by Maine, the Dakotas, and Vermont. By the year 2000,...

Brazilian emigration to the United States and Massachusetts grew vigorously between the mid-eighties and the late nineties and continues today. Brazilians have settled in many different cities and towns in the state throughout the last two decades, from the Metrowest area, especially Framingham, to the south and north of Boston. Although one can meet many new Brazilians daily in this state—a hint about the magnitude and geographic dispersion of this immigrant population—there is a scarcity of reliable information and data about the immigration experience of the Brazilian community.

This study covers several aspects of the Brazilian experience. We...

References to Catholicism in New England date back to the time of the Puritans and their nonfavorable attitude toward the Roman church. As Thomas H. O’Connor states in his history of Catholics in Boston, “if the English Puritans who followed John Winthrop to the Shawmut Peninsula had their way, there never would have been a Roman Catholic Church in Massachusetts.”¹ The initial anti-Catholic sentiment would carry on throughout the centuries and challenge the establishment of the church in a territory that later on would become one of the major strongholds of the Catholic faith in the United States. Catholics in...

A major goal of the black, Chicano, and Puerto Rican civil rights movements was the elimination of electoral obstacles that kept African Americans and Latinos from having a meaningful voice in the governing process. Political activists and organizers believed the articulation of minority interests would largely be facilitated through the election of descriptive representatives who shared the goals and aspirations of the community.¹

Descriptive representation, also referred to as symbolic representation, is a condition in which a citizen shares ascriptive characteristics such as race, ethnicity, and gender with his or her representative.² African Americans and Latinos achieved a potential breakthrough...

This chapter looks at the role Latinos play in Connecticut politics. It focuses on the state’s three largest cities, which also have the highest Latino concentrations in the state: Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven. The chapter looks at the population and socioeconomic characteristics of Latinos as well as the level of representation the group has achieved. Examining the 2000 presidential campaign assesses the role that Latinos at the mass level play in the politics of the state. The role that the leadership segment of the community plays is assessed by reviewing the 2001 redistricting process as well as through interviews...

This chapter describes and analyzes the ways in which Dominicans are becoming part of American life in the particular context of Providence.¹ Through this analysis, it also addresses contemporary debates on the processes and patterns of immigrant incorporation in multiethnic American cities. Immigrant incorporation is a multigenerational process, and for that reason the focus of the analysis is the differences and commonalties in perceptions and social practices between first- and second-generation Dominican Americans.

The Dominican community in Providence presents us with a good case to study the intergenerational process of becoming part of U.S. life. Providence is a small New...

The second great wave of immigration to the United States, which began in the mid-1960s, has dramatically changed the ethnic composition of the nation. When the first great wave (1880–1930) reached its peak at the turn of the twentieth century, immigrants were close to 15 percent of the total population (14.7 percent in 1910). Today, immigrants have passed the 10 percent mark (11.5 percent in the year 2002). But unlike the first great wave that consisted mostly of populations from Europe, the present one has brought to our shores a much more diverse group of populations from Latin America,...

With a new millennium comes the realization that growing Latino communities will alter the American political system. The demographic Latinization of the United States is no longer limited to the four traditional enclaves or regions: the Southwestern states, southern Florida, metropolitan Chicago, and greater New York City. Government figures reveal that this trend also applies to New England. Except for southwestern Connecticut, we are not discussing a demographic spillover from the New York City region. Latinos are migrating to New England in ever-increasing numbers—particularly in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Over time this community will assert a greater influence...