Second-Generation Pessimism and Optimism: How Chinese and Dominicans Understand Education and Mobility through Ethnic and Transnational Orientations

Abstract

Higher education is crucial to the outcomes of the second generation. This paper explores the contrasting views second-generation Dominicans and Chinese have on their educational trajectories and social mobility. Drawing on interviews with individuals who have gone on to college, I argue that the optimism of the Dominicans emerges from their use of both transnational and ethnic/panethnic perspectives. The Dominicans believe they are doing better than peers in the Dominican Republic and in the United States. The pessimism of the Chinese can be traced to their use of ethnic/panethnic frames of comparison. The Chinese believe they are faring worse than peers in the United States. The results complicate segmented assimilation and transnationalism theories.

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