Race and Ethnicity Commons^™

Commonwealth Compact: Using Research To Promote Diversity, Robert Turner

New England Journal of Public Policy

Commonwealth Compact is a statewide initiative of the University of Massachusetts Boston launched in 2008 with a primary focus of promoting diversity—especially racial and ethnic diversity—in the workplace. In addition to conducting workshops, sponsoring forums, and creating job placement tools, Commonwealth Compact has conducted research, which is the central focus of this article.

Three rounds of Benchmarks reports, using data from 2007, 2008, and 2011, showed that the reporting Massachusetts employers generally weathered the recession fairly well but that efforts to improve racial diversity lagged far behind those for gender diversity.

Data from two national surveys, produced for Commonwealth Compact …

Social Networks And Employment For Latinos, Blacks, And Whites, Luis M. Falcón

New England Journal of Public Policy

Despite the immigrant character of Latino groups in the United States, little attention has been given to the role of social networks in the job-search process and in labor market outcomes for Latinos. The literature on social networks describes their use as important in providing access to jobs but neutral as to affecting earnings or attainment of prestige. This study uses data from a 1988-1989 Boston survey to examine the effect of finding employment through social networks on the income attainment of white, black, and Latino workers. Job seekers in all groups rely on such networks, but Latinos exhibit the …

Latinos And Labor: Challenges And Opportunities, Andrés Torres

New England Journal of Public Policy

The growing presence of Latino workers in the Massachusetts labor force presents opportunities as well as challenges for the labor movement. An overview of occupational, industrial, and unionization patterns helps to describe the potential for Hispanic contribution to renewed union strength in the region. But revitalizing the house of labor in the twenty-first century requires an innovative interplay of workplace and community strategies. As labor comes to terms with its multiracial/multicultural constituency, the relationship between class and race/ethnicity is being revisited, as is the very definition of "labor movement."

Industrial Change, Immigration, And Community Development: An Overview Of Europeans And Latinos, Ramón F. Borges-Méndez

New England Journal of Public Policy

The industrial forces and conditions of Massachusetts that awaited and attracted European immigrants were vastly different from those encountered by the more recent wave of Latino immigrants. This study seeks to compare and clarify what those forces and conditions were at three different times, especially in the small mill towns of Lowell, Lawrence, and Holyoke. The objective is to delineate a historical backdrop to allow an understanding of the present situation of Latinos in those cities and, to some extent, within the commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Latina Women And Political Leadership: Implications For Latino Community Empowerment, Carol Hardy-Fanta

New England Journal of Public Policy

Mainstream studies of Latino politics have tended to reflect a primarily male view of political participation and political leadership. In such a view, the study of Latino political leadership continues the tradition of viewing leadership as derived from official positions in elected or appointed office and informal organizations. This article demonstrates that (1) contrary to prevailing myths, Latina women in Massachusetts run for and are elected to office in very high numbers, and (2) when the definition of political leadership is expanded to include community-based, not solely position-derived, forms of leadership, Latino community empowerment may depend, to a great extent, …

Latinos In Massachusetts: Growth And Geographical Distribution, Ralph Rivera

New England Journal of Public Policy

Massachusetts has undergone radical changes in its racial/ethnic composition in the last ten years. The Latino population, owing to its extraordinary growth rate during the last two decades, is the largest racial/ethnic minority group in the state. Yet relatively little is known about this population because of the "information gap." Based on 1990 census data, this article focuses on the growth and geographical distribution of Latinos in Massachusetts. It considers the undercount of Latinos, the growth of Latinos in the commonwealth from a national perspective, and assesses the increase of Latinos in the New England states. It explores the growth …

Roxbury, Boston, And The Boston Smsa: Socioeconomic Trends 1960-1985, Sally Brewster Moulton

New England Journal of Public Policy

Socioeconomic trends for a primarily black and poor urban area, Roxbury, Massachusetts, are compared to those of the surrounding city of Boston and the Boston Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA) for the period 1960 to 1985. Patterns in income, poverty, labor force participation, educational attainment, and racial composition are examined for each of the three areas. The chief purpose of the analysis is to determine the nature of gaps between Roxbury residents and the rest of the metropolitan area as well as the ways in which such gaps have changed over time.

The findings indicate that, despite growth in income, …