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This paper presents the authors' comments on "Dreams Fulfilled, Dreams Shattered: Determinants of Segmented Assimilation in the Second Generation" by William Haller, Alejandro Portes and Scott M. Lynch. The overall well-being and integration of second-generation immigrant youth constitute an important topic for researchers and policy makers, one that has generated a great deal of empirical research. While the article by Haller, Portes and Lynch organizes that research into two competing camps--segmented assimilation vs. other theories of assimilation--the authors think that these theories are better seen as complementary rather than antagonistic. They also believe that empirical findings on the second generation from various studies are not far apart, but in the authors' view they do not show that "downward" assimilation is as widespread as Portes and his colleagues assert. They believe that segmented-assimilation and mainstream-assimilation theories are complementary in that both approaches have overlapping explanations for the varying levels of success of the second generation, but contribute insights that are distinct.

Examines the incorporation of second generation immigrants in New York City, asserting that their experiences are shaped by the history of immigration among Whites, predominance of minorities in the city's population and institutions today, and interactions among immigrants and native minority groups. Discusses school and work, intergroup contact and conflict, reassessing segmentation and assimilation, the positive impact of institutions on minority mobility, and the creation of hybrid minority cultures. (SM)

Explores racial and ethnic identities adopted by a sample of 83 adolescent second-generation West Indian and Haitian Americans in New York City. Subjective understandings of their ethnic identities are described and contrasted with the identities and reactions of first-generation immigrants from the same countries. (GR)

This refreshing book is an important contribution to the sociological literature on immigration, ethnicity, community studies, and refugee studies. The book reports on the author's eight-year study of the Vietnamese [...]