Between Two Islands

by Patricia R Pessar, Sherri Grasmuck, Patricia R. Pessar

Book Overview

Popular notions about migration to the United States from Latin America and the Caribbean are too often distorted by memories of earlier European migrations and by a tendency to generalize from the more familiar cases of Mexico and Puerto Rico. Between Two Islands is an interdisciplinary study of Dominican migration, challenging many widespread, yet erroneous, views concerning the socio-economic background of new immigrants and the causes and consequences of their move to the United States. Eschewing monocausal treatments of migration, the authors insist that migration is a multifaceted process involving economic, political, and socio-cultural factors. To this end, they introduce an innovative analytical framework which includes such determinants as the international division of labor; state policy in the sending and receiving societies; class relations; transnational migrant households; social networks; and gender and generational hierarchies. By adopting this multidimensional approach, Grasmuck and Pessar are able to account for many intriguing paradoxes of Dominican migration and development of the Dominican population in the U.S. For example, why is it that the peak in migration coincided with a boom in Dominican economic growth? Why did most of the immigrants settle in New York City at the precise moment the metropolitan economy was experiencing stagnation and severe unemployment? And why do most immigrants claim to have achieved social mobility and middle-class standing despite employment in menial blue-collar jobs? Until quite recently, studies of international migration have emphasized the male migrant, while neglecting the role of women and their experiences. Grasmuck and Pessar's attempt to remedy this uneven perspective results in a better overall understanding of Dominican migration. For instance, they find that with regard to wages and working conditions, it is a greater liability to be female than to be without legal status. They also show that gender influences attitudes toward settlement, return, and workplace struggle. Finally, the authors explore some of the paradoxes created by Dominican migration. The material success achieved by individual migrant households contrasts starkly with increased socio-economic inequality in the Dominican Republic and polarized class relations in the United States. This is an exciting and important work that will appeal to scholars and policymakers interested in immigration, ethnic studies, and the continual reshaping of urban America.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520071506
• ISBN13: 9780520071506
• Release Date: August 1991
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book

This is not your typical ethnic studies book. In addition to theory, this book provides an impressive array of quantifiable data to justify the author's postulations. Anyone who is wondering about studying sociology or wondering why sociology, ethnography, history, and cultural studies are important ought to read this book. Anyone looking to start a discourse about migration, race, socio-economic, and political issues of migrants could use this book as a good source of vocabulary and analytical construct.

From Merengue to Washington Heights

Interesting, well-researched book on Dominican migration between the the Dominican Republic and the United States, "Between Two Islands," is an important book for those who want to understand the reasons and causes why many Dominicans leave their nation. The title, referring to the island nation and Manhattan Island in New York City (which houses the largest Dominican community in the world outside the island) catches one's attention, as this group stands to become the third largest group of Latinos in the United States (after Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans). The author has done careful and thoughful research in explaining the wave of Dominican immigration to the U.S., however little is covered on the large waves of Dominican immigrants to neighboring Puerto Rico or the Netherlands/Netherlands Antilles. You don't have to live in or near Washington Heights (the Manhattan neighborhood with the largest Dominican community in the city) to really grasp this books importance. As Latinos stand to replace African-Americans as the largest minority group in the country, it is important to understand why this is happening now and now back in the 1960's (Trujillo regime did not permit emigration from the country) or why many chose to go to New York. In addition to this book readers should also pick up a copy of the books "Why the Cocks Fight," and "Sugarball" to understand the Dominican experience entirely. Overall, this is one of the best anthropology books I ever read and I highly recommend it to all.