ABSTRACT
This chapter presents each of the secondary study's conceptual measures, and links them to the theories presented and applied in the integrative analysis of contemporary immigration policy. The integrative analysis of contemporary immigration policy reforms, with a focus on deportation reforms, uncovered a White Nativist process of identity contestation and preservation. The Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) is the largest, longitudinal study of the adaptation process of second-generation immigrant children to date. The secondary study presented only examined the adaptation process of the American-born children of immigrant Mexican parents who participated in the CILS. A hyphenated-American identity represents a bridge between the immigrant experience and the American identity, and the pan-ethnic identity suggests "identification with American racial minorities in contexts in which class and race play a more determinative role than culture and language". The study includes a racial identity measure, since racial identity interacts with ethnicity, modes of acculturation and upward or downward segmented assimilation.
