Marriages and Families: Changes, Choices, and Constraints Seventh Edition

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Marriages and FamiliesChanges, Choices, and
ConstraintsSeventh Edition Nijole V.
Benokraitis Chapter Four Racial and Ethnic
Families Strengths and Stresses
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Race and Ethnicity

• The United States and Canada are relatively small
  as far as countries go, but they receive more
  than half of the worlds immigrants.

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Assimilationand Cultural Pluralism

• Assimilation is when an ethnic group totally
  conforms to their new culture, including
  interracial marriage. They hold on to almost
  nothing from their original culture.
• Cultural pluralism is when cultures maintain many
  of their original cultural aspects, including
  language and marrying within their own group,
  while living peacefully within their new culture.

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Changes in Immigration

• In 1900 almost 85 of immigrants came from
  Europe. In 2006 Europeans made up about 13 of
  the immigrant population.
• Today most immigrants come from Asia (mostly
  China and the Philippines) and Latin America
  (mostly Mexico).

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Misconceptions about Illegal Immigrants

• Many Americans hold misgivings about incoming
  illegal immigrantsthey see these people as
  moochers. However,
• More than 90 pay payroll and sales taxes.
• They are not eligible for Medicare and food
  stamps, Welfare, or most other public-assistance
  programs.

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Misconceptions about Illegal Immigrants

• Fewer than 10 of Mexican immigrants, both
  documented and undocumented, have used an
  emergency room, compared with about 20 of
  native-born Americans and Mexican Americans.
• Undocumented immigrants pay on average 80 per
  capita more in taxes than they will use in
  government services over their lifetime.

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Undocumented Immigrants

• The U.S. admits more than 1 million immigrants
  every yearmore than any other country, however,
  another 12 million come into the country
  illegally, 59 from Mexico.

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Attitudes about Immigrants

• It really depends on the time in history that we
  are talking about as to what Americans think
  about immigration.
• When the economy is booming and we have an
  overabundance of jobs, we welcome immigrants.
  However, when it is a down economy, most
  Americans see immigrants as taking much-needed
  jobs.

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Is Immigration Harmful or Beneficial?

• Some immigration critics allege that low-skilled
  workers reduce the standard of living and
  overload schools and welfare systems. Others note
  that because immigrants are younger, poorer, and
  less well-educated, they use more government
  services and pay less in taxes.

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Is Immigration Harmful or Beneficial?

• Immigrants themselves also experience costs.
  Employment recruiters promise good jobs and
  training but immigrants at the low end of the pay
  scale often find themselves living in abject
  poverty because they dont receive the promised
  wages.

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Is Immigration Harmful or Beneficial?

• Immigrants also have fought in the Iraq war and
  have been honorably discharged, but they have not
  had their citizenship applications processed as
  they were promised.
• Many immigrants provide work at low wages and are
  more likely to take jobs that other Americans are
  less willing to take.

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Is There Balance?

• Many scholars argue that on balance and in the
  long run, immigrants provide more benefits than
  costs.

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Race and Ethnicity Still Matter

• A minority group is a group of people who may be
  treated differently from the dominant group
  because of their physical or cultural
  characteristics such as skin color, gender,
  sexual orientation, or other characteristics.
• Even in countries or states where minority groups
  outnumber the majority group, they usually have
  less political power.

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Race

• A racial group is a group of people who are
  different from the majority-category people
  because of physical characteristics. Racial
  traits like skin color, eye shape, and hair
  texture are inborn. As few as 6 of the bodys
  inherited 35,0000 genes determine the color of a
  persons skin.

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Ethnicity

• An ethnic group is a set of people who identify
  with particular national origin or cultural
  heritage. Race can sometimes be seenit is about
  biology. Ethnicity cannot be seenit is about
  culture.

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Social or Biological?

• The idea of race and ethnicity are both social
  and biological issues. Race is really only skin
  deep and is only important because a society
  believes it is important.
• Ethnicity is important because it gives people
  their traditions and their cultural identity.

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Whats in a Name?

• Some racial or ethnic groups prefer certain
  labels over other labels.
• Much of the controversy has to do with where the
  original ancestors have come from.
• Racial and ethnic labels can be hurtful or
  helpful, depending on the groups internal
  identity and how they prefer to be named.

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Racism, Discrimination,and Prejudice

• Racism is the belief that ones own racial group
  is inherently superior to others.
• Prejudice is an attitude that prejudges people,
  usually in a negative way, who are different from
  us in race, religion, ethnicity, or some other
  social characteristic.
• Discrimination is the behavior that goes along
  with being prejudiced. It treats people unfairly
  and encompasses many areas.

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African American Families

• Like families of all ethnic or racial groups,
  there are many differences between African
  American families.
• African American families are often stetereotyped
  as matriarchal, but the most common family is
  that of men and women where there is equality in
  the relationship.

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Absent Fathers

• Across all families, black children are most
  likely to be raised by one parent, usually by a
  mother.
• As we will see in future chapters, fathers play
  an important role in their childrens lives.

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Strengths of African American Families

• Strong family kinship bonds
• An ability to adapt family roles to outside
  pressures
• A strong work ethic
• Determination to succeed in education
• Numerous self-help groups

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African American Families

• Parents and childrenmost African American
  families play a huge role in the lives of their
  children. Many black fathers make a conscious
  effort to be involved in their childrens lives.
• The close relationship between African American
  children and their parents can be very beneficial
  to the children being raised in these families.

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African American Families

• More than 33 of black low-income working
  families, and 20 of low- income working
  Hispanics, live in high- poverty neighborhoods,
  while only 3 of their white counterparts do.

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Native American Families

• American Indians and Alaska Natives only make up
  about 1.5 of the total population.
• Family Structureabout 62 of the nation's Native
  American children live with both parents,
  compared with 40 of the total population. They
  are also much more likely to live in extended
  family situations than most of the American
  population.

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Gender Roles

• Research on contemporary American Indian families
  and gender roles is virtually nonexistent.
• One exception is a study of 28 off-reservation
  Navajo families. Compared with other families,
  the Navajo fathers spent significantly more time
  in day-to-day child rearing activities.

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Parents and Children
Children are important members of American
tribes. Parents spend considerable time and
effort in making items for children to play with
or use in activities and ceremonies. Adults teach
children to respect their elders.
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Elders and Grandparents

• Elders are important to a childs care,
  upbringing, and development. They contribute to
  a familys cohesiveness and stability.
• Many grandparents care for their grandchildren as
  it has become more financially stable for both
  parents to work outside the home.

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Strengths ofNative American Families

• Strengths include relational bonding, a core that
  is built on widely-shared values and beliefs such
  as respect, generosity, and sharing across the
  tribe, band, and clan group.
• Some Native American cultures have spent
  generations building tribal self-sufficient
  businesses that can be passed down to the next
  generation.

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Latino Families

• Latino families are very diverse. About 70 of
  Latino children live in two-parent families.
  That is much higher than the national average.
• Gender Roles and Parentingthese vary on factors
  such as how long a family has lived in the U.S.
  and whether the wife or mother works outside the
  home.
• As with other groups, Latino parents encourage
  their children to be successful.

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Parenting

• Like most other parents, Latino parents are
  caring and loving toward their children. Even
  when both must work full-time, they spend as much
  time as possible with their children.
• Women place much value on being wives and
  mothers.
• For many Latino families, extended families meet
  needs of child care when families are working.

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Strengths of Latino Families

• Many Latino families are very resilient.
• They have adapted to hard economic times and
  language barriers to accomplish The American
  Dream.

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Asian American Families

• The term Asian American encompasses a wide
  range of cultures. They are from many different
  countries.
• Asian American families vary widely depending on
  country of origin, time of arrival in the U.S.,
  past and current immigration policies, and
  whether the family are immigrants or refugees.

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Family Structure

• Asian American families are likely to be extended
  rather than nuclear and might include parents,
  children, grandparents, and unmarried siblings.
• Many Asian Americans follow Confucianism, which
  endorses a patriarchal social structure that
  instructs women to obey their husbands.
• Gender-role socialization tends to be very
  traditional.

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Parents and Children

• In many Asian American families the strongest
  ties are between parents and their children,
  rather than between spouses. Parents often
  sacrifice their personal needs to make sure the
  needs of their children are met.
• In turn, one is expected to obey ones parents.

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The Model Minority?

• Is it fact or fiction? Many Asian families
  typify the model minority, but as with all
  human beings, this can be misleading.

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The Model Minority?

• There are three major factors why Asian American
  families have become so successful in the U.S.
• Many who immigrate have college degrees.
• The Buddhist and Confucian values and traditions
  of many Asian American families follow closely
  the prerequisites for the American dreamhard
  work, education, and achievement.
• They are usually harder working than any other
  groupmajority or minority.

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Middle Eastern Families

• Middle Eastern family structures vary. Wealth
  and children are the ornaments of life for some
  of these cultures.
• Most Middle Eastern children live with both
  parents84.
• Middle Eastern families tend to frown on divorce.

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Marriage and Gender Roles

• The family is the center of everything, thus the
  family is the center of marriage. People dont
  marry out of romantic love, they marry out of
  family obligation.
• Marriages tend to be endogamous.
• Middle Eastern culture mandates strict
  gender-role expectations.
• A wife should always act honorably and do nothing
  that would humiliate her husband or family.
• Gender roles are changing.

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Parents and Children

• Parents and children usually have very strong
  bonds. In one study of Arab Canadian teenagers,
  for example, nine out of ten said that they would
  prefer to talk to their parentmostly Momabout
  personal problems or issues.
• There are, however, double standards in the lives
  of many young teenagers and their relationships
  with siblings and parents. Boys are respected
  over girls.

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Strengths of the Middle Eastern Families

• They cope well with discrimination because they
  have a strong ethnic identity. Most have
  extended kin networks as well.

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Interracial and Interethnic Relationships

• More and more people are choosing partners who
  are not the same as they are in one way or
  another.
• In a recent report in the U.S., 4 of children
  were identified as multiracial.
• Of the three million intermarriages, the
  out-marriage rates of blacks and whites are much
  less than the rates for Asians, Latinos, and
  other racial and ethnic groups.

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Interracial and Interethnic Relationships

• The racial and ethnic composition of American
  families is changing. These changes are expected
  to continue in the future as more and more people
  immigrate to the United States.