WALDINGER, Roger (David) 1953-

PERSONAL: Born October 22, 1953, in New York, NY; son of Hermann (a professor of mathematics) and Renee (a professor of French) Waldinger; married Hilary Kantrowitz, September 5, 1977; children: Max, Miriam, Joseph. Education: Brown University, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1974; Harvard University, Ph.D., 1983.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, 264 Haines Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1551. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: City College of the City University of New York, New York, NY, began as assistant professor, became professor of sociology, 1983–91; University of California, Los Angeles, professor of sociology, 1990–, director of Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, 1995–98, chair of department of sociology, 1999–. Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York, member of graduate faculty, 1987.

AWARDS, HONORS: Grants from John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, 1992–94, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, 1993–95, 1996–98, Andrew Mellon Foundation and Russell Sage Foundation, both 1993–94, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1994–95, Ford Foundation, 1996–99, and Rosenberg Foundation; Best Urban Politics Book award, Urban Politics Section, American Political Science Association, 1996, for Still the Promised City?; Thomas and Znaniecki Award, International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association, 1997, for Ethnic Los Angeles; Robert E. Park Award, Urban and Community Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association, 1998, for Still the Promised City?

WRITINGS:

Through the Eye of the Needle: Immigrants and Enterprise in New York's Garment Trades, New York University Press (New York, NY), 1986.

(With Howard Aldrich, Robin Ward, and others) Ethnic Entrepreneurs: Immigrant Business in Industrial Society, Sage Publications (Newbury Park, CA), 1990.

(Editor, with Mehdi Bozorgmehr, and contributor) Ethnic Los Angeles, Russell Sage Foundation (New York, NY), 1996.

Still the Promised City?: New Immigrants and African-Americans in Post-Industrial New York, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1996.

(Editor and contributor) Strangers at the Gate: New Immigrants in Urban America, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2001.

(With Michael I. Lichter) How the Other Half Works: Immigration and the Social Organization of Labor, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2003.

Contributor to books, including Hispanics in the U.S. Economy, edited by Marta Tienda and George Borjas, Academic Press, 1985; American Immigration Policy, Duke University Press, 1985; Hispanics in the U.S. Economy, Academic Press, 1985; Women in 20th Century Labor History, Routledge, Kegan and Paul, 1985; New Approaches to Economic Life, University of Manchester Press, 1985; Setting Municipal Priorities, edited by Charles Brecher and Raymond Horton, New York University Press, 1989; Setting Municipal Priorities, New York University Press, 1989; Structures of Capital, Cambridge University Press, 1990; L'Immigration au Tourant, L'Harmattan, 1991; Ethnic Minorities and Industrial Change, Cambridge University Press, 1992; New York—Structuren einer Stadt, Suhkamp Verlag, 1993; The Changing U.S. Labor Market, Westview Press, 1994; The Changing U.S. Labor Market, edited by Eli Ginzberg, Westview, 1994; The Bubbling Cauldron: The New Political Economy of Race and Ethnicity, edited by Joe Feagin and Michael P. Smith, University of Minnesota Press, 1995; The Bubbling Cauldron: The New Political Economy of Race and Ethnicity, University of Minnesota Press, 1995; Immigrants and Immigration Policy: Individual Skills, Family Ties, and Group Identities, JAI Press, 1996; California Policy Options 1997, UCLA Policy Forum and the UCLA Business Forecasting Project; Organizing to Win, Cornell University Press, 1997; Minority and Minority: The Dynamics of Race and Ethnicity in American Life, sixth edition, Allyn and Bacon, 1999; Immigration and Opportunity: Race, Ethnicity, and Employment in the United States, Russell Sage Foundation, 1999; Migrations internationales and relation interethniques: Recherche, politique, et societé, Harmattan, 1999; From Metropolis to Cosmopolis, South Jutland University Press, 1999; Immigrant Businesses: The Economic, Political and Social Environment, Macmillan Press, 2000; Organizing Immigrants: The Challenge for Unions in Contemporary California, ILR Press/Cornell University Press, 2000; Multiculturalism in the United States, Pine Forge Press, 2000; Entrepreneurship, Oxford University Press, 2000; Race and Ethnicity: Critical Concepts in Sociology, Routledge, 2001; Social Stratification: Race, Class, and Gender in Sociological Perspective, Westview, 2001; Color Lines: Affirmative Action, Immigration, and Civil Rights Options for America, University of Chicago Press, 2001; Race, Ethnicity and Social Mobility in the US and UK, Cambridge University Press, 2003; Host Societies and the Reception of Immigrants, Center for Comparative Immigration Research, 2003; Reinventing the Melting Pot: Will Today's Immigrants Become Americans?, Basic; Migrants, Minorities and Urban Transformations in Comparative Perspective, Macmillan; Urban Labor Markets and Job Opportunity, Urban Institute Press; A Tale of Two Cities: London and New York Compared, Blackwell; and The Sociodemographic Implications of Immigration for Racial/Ethnic Minorities, edited by Frank Bean and Stephanie Bell-Rose, Russell Sage Foundation.

Associate editor, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies; guest editor, New Community, 1988; consulting editor, American Journal of Sociology; associate editor, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Contributor to periodicals, including Sociological Perspectives, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, American Sociological Review, Politics and Society, and International Migration Review. Correspondent, Revue Europeene des Migrations Internationales.

SIDELIGHTS: Roger Waldinger is a sociologist who has written about international migration, race and ethnicity, and urban sociology. For example, in his book Through the Eye of the Needle: Immigrants and Enterprise in New York's Garment Trades, Waldinger focuses on the New York City garment trade to analyze the Chinese and Hispanic immigrant groups and ethnic enterprises. The book also includes a detailed history of the garment industry in New York. Writing in Social Forces, Abraham D. Lavender noted: "At times this discussion wanders far from standard sociological expectations, but the author admirably uses it as a base to explain further the interrelation between ethnic immigrants and the garment enterprise." The reviewer went on to say that "this book does an admirable job."

In Still the Promised City?: New Immigrants and African-Americans in Post-Industrial New York, the author presents his argument that work has not necessarily disappeared for the inner-city poor of New York. Waldinger argues against the hypothesis that the workless inner-city poor face a plight created by the lack of manufacturing jobs and economic restructuring. New Republic contributor Nathan Glazer noted that the author "points to another factor that must be taken in to account in explaining the evolution of the workless black ghetto. This is the connection between what people expect or hope to earn in jobs and the jobs available." Writing in Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Bruce Nelson commented that "in answering the question of who thrived and why, Waldinger focuses mainly on the role of ethnic networks and niches, which, he believes, have always played a vital role in providing jobs and security for immigrant groups and, to a lesser extent, for African-Americans." Nelson went on to call Still the Promised City? "a splendid achievement," adding that the book "should remain relevant—and required reading—for many years to come." Journal of Socio-Economics contributor Robert L. Boyd pointed out that "Waldinger studiously avoids liberal and conservative rhetoric and squarely confronts the thorny issues." Boyd also wrote that the "book is a model of clear exposition and methodological rigor, and as a result of its innovative theory and careful analyses of rich historical and contemporary evidence, it yields insights that substantially contribute to the literature on ethnic inequality."

Ethnic Los Angeles, which Waldinger edited with Mehdi Bozorgmehr, presents a collection of studies looking at how Los Angeles has in many ways replaced New York City as the major assimilator of immigrants in the United States. The book's chapters focus on such issues as language diversity and assimilation, racial disparities in the work world, the Mexican-immigrant population and its struggles, and the divided African-American population. Writing in the Journal of the American Planning Association, Dowell Meyers said that the book "provide[s] rich insights about the facts of contemporary immigration and their possible interpretations, about changing ethnic patterns, and about where we are headed as a nation." In a review for the Journal of American Ethnic History, Pierette Hondagneu-Sotelo observed that "this meticulously researched book will remain critical to our understanding of late twentieth-century immigration and to the unfolding L.A. story."

Waldinger also served as editor of and contributor to Strangers at the Gate: New Immigrants in Urban America, which presents nine essays focusing on the immigrant experience in labor markets in five major U.S. cities: Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Miami, and Chicago. These cities contain approximately fifty-six percent of the U.S. immigrant population. Writing in Social Forces, Brian N. Fry noted that "attention to context and rigor comes standard in every chapter," and he added, "Many of the conclusions are noteworthy." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies critic Caroline Alcorso observed: "Although six other authors contribute to the book, Strangers at the Gate, bears the firm mark of Waldinger's direction and concerns, providing coherence and strength to the volume as a whole." Alcorso went on to note that "the collection handsomely rewards the reader's effort in digesting its conclusions, in terms of understanding both immigrant experiences in the US, and US social theorising of this complex social field."

Waldinger collaborated with Michael I. Lichter to write How the Other Half Works: Immigration and the Social Organization of Labor. In this book, the authors explore how the U.S. economy absorbed a high number of low-skilled immigrants into a 1990s economy that was largely based on a high-tech explosion requiring a more educated workforce. The authors discuss such issues as social networks and their role in who gets hired, the philosophy of hiring practices and how ethnic preferences evolve in certain work environments. Also addressed is the dichotomy of an economy producing both high-skilled and low-skilled jobs requiring different amounts of education. In addition, the authors focus on language issues and the phenomenon of low-skill jobs that only immigrants seem willing to take. Writing in the International Migration Review, Philip Martin called the book "a wide-ranging analysis" and added that "the introduction provides a useful review of theories of the functioning of labor markets." Library Journal contributor Antoinette Brinkman called the effort a "meticulously researched survey." She concluded: "Discussions are rigorous and grounded in sociological theories … which the authors successfully critique and expand."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Journal of Sociology, March, 1988, Ivan Light, review of Through the Eye of the Needle: Immigrants and Enterprise in New York's Garment Trades, p. 1249; September, 1997, Gregory DeFreitas, review of Still the Promised City?: New Immigrants and African-Americans in Post-Industrial New York, p. 505; March, 1998, William Alonso, review of Ethnic Los Angeles, p. 424.

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, November, 1997, Sharon Zukin, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 232; September, 1998, review of Through the Eye of the Needle, p. 195.

Annals of the Association of American Geographers, March, 1988, John Mercer, review of Through the Eye of the Needle, p. 208; September, 1998, Dennis Dingemans, review of Ethnic Los Angeles, p. 539; May, 2005, Nancy Foner, review of Strangers at the Gate: New Immigrants in Urban America, p. 295.

Choice, April, 1987, review of Through the Eye of the Needle, p. 1259; September, 1990, review of Ethnic Entrepreneurs: Immigrant Business in Industrial Society, 439: January, 1997, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 885; July-August, 1997, P. J. Venturelli, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 1879; November, 2003, E. Hu-DeHart, review of How the Other Half Works: Immigration and the Social Organization of Labor, p. 628.

Contemporary Sociology, November, 1987, Ivan Light, review of Through the Eye of the Needle, p. 803; March, 1991, Jose A. Cobas, review of Ethnic Entrepreneurs, p. 235; November, 1997, Suzanne Model, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 701.

Dissent, fall, 1997, Philip Kasinitz, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 121.

Ethnic and Racial Studies, July, 1990, Nebahat S. Tokatli, review of Ethnic Entrepreneurs, p. 439; October, 1991, Peter Kivisto, review of Through the Eye of the Needle, p. 563; January, 1998, Graham Russell Hodges, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 178.

Industrial and Labor Relations Review, July, 1997, Bruce Nelson, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 698.

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, March, 1999, Robert A. Beauregard, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 189.

International Migration Review, winter, 1997, Marilyn Fernandez, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 1132; fall, 2004, Philip Martin, review of How the Other Half Works, p. 1256.

Journal of American Ethnic History, winter, 1993, Pyong Gap Min, review of Ethnic Entrepreneurs, p. 69; spring, 1998, Frederick M. Binder, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 104; summer, 1998, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, review of Ethnic Los Angeles, p. 107.

Journal of Economic History, June, 2000, William J. Collins, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 584.

Journal of Economic Literature, March, 1997, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 302.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, May, 2003, Caroline Alcorso, review of Strangers at the Gate, p. 578.

Journal of Regional Science, August, 1987, Walter S. McManus, review of Through the Eye of the Needle, p. 489.

Journal of Socio-Economics, July, 1999, Robert L. Boyd, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 536.

Journal of the American Planning Association, autumn, 1997, Dowell Myers, review of Ethnic Los Angeles, p. 517; autumn, 1998, Laura Huntoon, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 497.

Labor History, winter, 1996, David M. Reimers, review of Still the Promised City, p. 126.

Labor Studies Journal, spring, 1988, Howard Harris, review of Through the Eye of the Needle, p. 85.

Labouor/Le Travail, fall, 1988, review of Through the Eye of the Needle, pp. 316-319.

Library Journal, December, 2002, Antoinette Brinkman, review of How the Other Half Works, p. 160.

New Community, April, 1997, Jan Rath, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 288; April, 1997, Jan Rath, review of Ethnic Los Angeles, p. 288.

New Republic, December 16, 1996, Nathan Glazer, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 29.

Reviews in American History, September, 1997, Deborah Dash Moore, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 509.

Social Forces, March, 1988, Abraham D. Lavender, review of Through the Eye of the Needle, pp. 853-854; March, 1991, Suzanne Model, review of Ethnic Entrepreneurs, p. 925; June, 1998, Robert L. Boyd, review of Ethnic Los Angeles, p. 1584; September, 2002, Brian N. Fry, review of Strangers at the Gate, p. 356.

Social Science Quarterly, June, 1997, Robert M. Silverman, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 621.

Social Science Review, June, 2002, review of Strangers at the Gate, p. 360.

Wall Street Journal, September 3, 1996, Fred Siegel, review of Still the Promised City?, pp. A12(W), A15(E).

Washington Post Book World, December 15, 1996, review of Still the Promised City?, p. 5; March 9, 2003, review of How the Other Half Works, p. 13.

ONLINE

Social Sciences at UCLA Web site, http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/ (August 25, 2005), faculty profile of Waldinger.