Too frequently, the media and politicians cast Mexican immigrants as a threat to American society. Given America's increasing ethnic diversity and the large size of the Mexican-origin population, an investigation of how Mexican immigrants and their descendants achieve upward mobility and enter the middle class is long overdue. This book offers a new understanding of the Mexican-American experience. It explores the challenges that accompany rapid social mobility and examines a new indicator of incorporation, a familial obligation to “give back” in social and financial support. The book investig ... More

Too frequently, the media and politicians cast Mexican immigrants as a threat to American society. Given America's increasing ethnic diversity and the large size of the Mexican-origin population, an investigation of how Mexican immigrants and their descendants achieve upward mobility and enter the middle class is long overdue. This book offers a new understanding of the Mexican-American experience. It explores the challenges that accompany rapid social mobility and examines a new indicator of incorporation, a familial obligation to “give back” in social and financial support. The book investigates the salience of middle-class Mexican Americans' ethnic identification, and details how relationships with poorer coethnics and affluent whites evolve as immigrants and their descendants move into traditionally white middle-class occupations. Disputing the argument that Mexican communities lack high-quality resources and social capital which can help Mexican Americans incorporate into the middle class, it also examines civic participation in ethnic professional associations embedded in ethnic communities.