While Americans largely support legal immigration, this support is conditional on the basis that immigrants “make it on their own”. European-origin Industrial Era immigrants came to U.S. impoverished, worked hard, and achieved the American Dream seemingly on their own. Mexican immigrants, the nation’s largest contemporary immigrant group, are often accused of being dependent on the government and refusing to integrate into American society the “right way.” In their new book, Texas-Style Exclusion, Jennifer Van Hook and James D. Bachmeier evaluate these claims by using linked census and archival schooling data to investigate how American society has responded to different groups of immigrants over time.
Dr. Jennifer Van Hook is interested in demography, immigrant integration, and health. One part of her work is to use demographic methods to estimate the size, characteristics, and dynamics of the unauthorized foreign-born population. Another part of her work focuses on the health and well-being of immigrants and their children.
