Abstract:
This paper is a comparative study of Mexican and Cuban immigrants who arrived in the United States between 1980 and 1994. During this timeframe, the number of immigrants arriving from Mexico and Cuba was vast. While their modes of entering the United States and their contexts of reception upon arrival differed, both groups faced similar struggles to integrate into the American cultural and economic system, and to raise and utilize their human and social capital.
Although both groups faced animosity and barriers to success on arrival, the Cuban immigrants have been statistically more upwardly mobile than the Mexican cohort in terms of their economic and social mobility. This paper investigates four variables impacting Cuban and Mexican social and economic mobility after arrival in the United States. These include: socio-economic status and education level on arrival, documentation status, ethnic enclave resources and spatial concentrations, and gender norms and reception in the United States. In this paper, the term ‘economic mobility’ refers to an individual’s ability to gain access to higher skilled and higher paying jobs, which can be based on the income a person receives as well as how an individual contributes monetarily to society. ‘Social mobility’ can be understood as an individual’s potential social status based on education, labor market experience, and language ability. The study found that although Cuban immigrants had significant barriers to mobility from the 1980s through the mid-1990s, they were more successful than the Mexican cohort in terms of social and economic mobility. This may be explained by their documentation status, levels of education and skills on arrival, connections through ethnic enclaves and spatial concentration, as well as their cultural views on gender and their reception in the United States.
