The power of family ties in immigrants' lives

Although Latino immigrants have come to form a fundamental part of the U.S. social fabric, we do not, from a research standpoint, have a complete understanding of the social causes of some of the most pressing issues that face this population (e.g., weak English language use, declining mental health, or low levels of trust in the U.S. government). Previous work has focused on degree of acculturation as a common explanation across the three issues, but this explanation falls short in its ability to guide social policy or suggest meaningful interventions. This dissertation moves beyond acculturation to investigate the complex family relationships in which immigrants are embedded. The three articles that comprise the dissertation expand the existing literature by drawing on cross-disciplinary frameworks and investigating both positive and negative influences of families. Two data sets are used: the 2003 New Immigrant Survey. Three findings stand out across the three chapters: 1. The effects, both positive and negative, of family ties on language acquisition and depression are generally stronger for women compared to men; 2. Ties to children tend to have more costs and fewer benefits in terms of mental health and language acquisition; and 3. Effects of acculturation are relatively weak on depression and political trust. A few important caveats to this work are that it is conducted with cross-sectional data, knowledge of what specifically is passed along the tie is not available, and the datasets do not include illegal immigrants