Kids in the Middle

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A01=Vikki S. Katz
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Americal culture
anthropology
Author_Vikki S. Katz
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Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=JBSP1
Category=JFSP1
childhood studies
children
communication
communication studies
community interactions
community studies
COP=United States
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education
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eq_isMigrated=2
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eq_society-politics
family studies
healthcare facilities
How Children of Immigrants Negotiate Community Interactions for Their Families
immigrant children
immigrant families
immigrants
immigration
kids
Kids in the Middle
language capabilites
Language_English
local institutional networks
local schools
media content
PA=Available
parents
Price_€100 and above
PS=Active
public health
Rutgers Series in Childhood Studies
social devices
social services
social workers
sociology
softlaunch
Southern California community
VIKKI S. KATZ

Product details

  • ISBN 9780813562193
  • Weight: 399g
  • Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
  • Publication Date: 31 May 2014
  • Publisher: Rutgers University Press
  • Publication City/Country: US
  • Product Form: Hardback
  • Language: English
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Complicating the common view that immigrant incorporation is a top-down process, determined largely by parents, Vikki Katz explores how children actively broker connections that enable their families to become woven into the fabric of American life. Children’s immersion in the U.S. school system and contact with mainstream popular culture enables them more quickly to become fluent in English and familiar with the conventions of everyday life in the United States. These skills become an important factor in how families interact with their local environments. Kids in the Middle explores children’s contributions to the family strategies that improve communication between their parents and U.S. schools, healthcare facilities, and social services, from the perspectives of children, parents, and the English-speaking service providers that interact with these families via children’s assistance. Katz also considers how children’s brokering affects their developmental trajectories. While their help is critical to addressing short-term family needs, children’s responsibilities can constrain their access to educational resources and have consequences for their long-term goals. Kids in the Middle explores the complicated interweaving of family responsibility and individual attainment in these immigrant families.

Through a unique interdisciplinary approach that combines elements of sociology and communication approaches, Katz investigates not only how immigrant children connect their families with local institutional networks, but also how they engage different media forms to bridge gaps between their homes and mainstream American culture. Drawing from extensive firsthand research, Katz takes us inside an urban community in Southern California and the experiences of a specific community of Latino immigrant families there. In addition to documenting the often-overlooked contributions that children of immigrants make to their families’ community encounters, the book provides a critical set of recommendations for how service providers and local institutions might better assist these children in fulfilling their family responsibilities. The story told in Kids in the Middle reveals an essential part of the immigrant experience that transcends both geographic and ethnic boundaries.
 VIKKI S. KATZ is an assistant professor of communication at Rutgers University. Her research explores the communication challenges immigrant Latino families face as they integrate into U.S. society. She is also co-author of Understanding Ethnic Media: Producers, Consumers, and Societies (2011).

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