The Hispanic Population of the United States: (The population of the United States in the 1980: a census monograph series)

During the 1960s and 1970s, a new social awareness of ethnic diversity coincided with a rapid influx of Hispanics to capture unprecedented national attention for the Spanish-origin populations of the United States. By the 1980s, Hispanics were at the centre of major policy issues, from immigration and bilingual education to the continuing dilemmas of discrimination and unemployment. In this volume, authors Bean and Tienda draw on evidence from the 1980 Census, earlier censuses, and other sources to advance the understanding of the changing position of Hispanics in a complex, multi-ethnic society. As the authors demonstrate, there is in fact no single Hispanic population, instead, this category describes a shifting cluster of populations - Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central and South American, Spanish, and Carribean. Rather than examining each population separately, however, Bean and Tienda structure their book around a series of specific topics, including fertility and immigration, family and marriage patterns, education, earnings, and employment. This enables them to present detailed information while simultaneously exploring the large themes of persistence and change over time, variation and uniformity among Hispanics. They also consider convergence and divergence with respect to blacks and non-Hispanic whites. The volume includes analyses of the significant policy implications that follow from these themes and trends.

Table of Contents:
The structuring of Hispanic ethnicity - theoretical and historical considerations; the Hispanic population in numbers - census definitions in historical perspective; a demographic and socio-economic profile of the Hispanic population - persistence, diversity, and change over two decades; immigration; geographical distribution, internal migration, and residential segregation (written in collaboration with Douglas S.Massey); marriage, family, and household; fertility patterns within the Spanish origin populations; the educational standing of Hispanics - signs of hope and stress; Hispanics in the U.S. labour force; earnings and economic well-being.

About the Author :
FRANK D. BEAN is Ashbel Smith Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas, Austin, and codirector of the Program for Research on Immigration Policy at the Urban Institute. MARTA TIENDA is professor of sociology and subdirector of the Population Research Center at the University of Chicago.