Researching Second Generation in a Transitional, European, and Agricultural Context of Reception of Immigrants

Previous research focusing on the study of immigrant offspring has shown inconclusive results and uncovered different ways of their incorporation into society. This contrasts with the unilateral model suggested by the more radical notions of “linear assimilation”, for instance, the possibility of an “upward” as well as a “downward assimilation”, giving rise to the segmented assimilation thesis (Portes and Zhou, 1993; Portes and Rumbaut, 2006). Some experts have given empirical evidence to support this view, but other researchers have pointed out that the model of “segmented assimilation” is not so productive in other cases or they have defended that it presents a pessimistic point of view on assimilation processes (see i.e. Alba and Nee, 2003). The majority of these debates have been focused on empirical data obtained in “old countries of immigration”. Since knowledge of second generation immigrant activity is of such importance to social, political and applied sciences in general the objective of this paper is to present a review of some of the theoretical and methodological problems encountered in the research of second generation immigrants in Spain and particularly in Andalusia and one its provinces, Huelva. It is hoped to contribute to the debate on the feasibility of researching this generation in “transitional contexts of immigration”, but also under the eye of the particularities regarding local contexts impregnated in a strong historical tradition of employing immigrants (at first national, later international migrants) according to the agricultural calendar. Primary data taken in Huelva and Andalusia (Spain), in a preliminary exploration, expose the similarities, differences and difficulties in researching second generations in transitional contexts. The first results, though preliminary, seems to give support to the thesis of segmented assimilation.