"How successfully families in the U.S. navigate various institutional contexts frequently relies on a parent's ability to be continuously available for and capable of supporting their children. But what happens when one or both parents are immigrants who have limited English proficiency? This us the case for two-thirds of immigrant families in the U.S., and more often than not the children in these families must support their parents by acting as "language brokers," or translators, often in high-stakes situations. In Language Brokers, Hyeyoung Kwon shines a light on these lived realities for working-class Mexican- and Korean-American youth in Southern California. Focusing especially on healthcare and criminal justice contexts, Kwon shows that the work of translating is about much more than just words. These children learn early about the harsh financial realities their parents face. They are burdened with portraying their parents as "normal" Americans who deserve full citizenship rights, not as inassimilable and undeserving free riders of social welfare. Kwon's stirring account proves that, as long as immigrants' values and behaviors are blamed for what are actually structural problems, children of immigrants will have to perform Americanness to cultivate a sense of belonging"--

"Fleeing war and violence, many refugees dream that moving to the United States will be like going to heaven. Instead, they enter a deeply unequal American society, often at the bottom. Through the lived experiences of families resettled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Blair Sackett and Annette Lareau reveal how a daunting obstacle course of agencies and services can drastically alter refugees' experiences building a new life in America. In these stories of struggle and hope, as one volunteer said, "you see the American story." For some families, minor mistakes create catastrophes-food stamps cut off, educational opportunities missed, benefits lost. Other families, with the help of volunteers and social supports, escape these traps and take steps toward reaching their dreams. Engaging and eye-opening, We Thought It Would Be Heaven brings readers into the daily lives of Congolese refugees and offers guidance for how activists, workers, and policymakers can help refugee families thrive"--

"The great American racial wound is periodically hidden from our view, covered over by civil rights legislation, by the economic success of a few people of color who are held up as evidence of its suture, and by the widespread denial of its existence by white Americans. Now, as the number of Black men and boys shot down by the police or by armed white citizens mounts, as anti-immigration rhetoric increases in stridency and Band-Aid solutions by “progressives” are offered in response, as income inequality deepens, the scab is torn away. Structural inequality seems more entrenched than ever and the denial of white Americans both more inexplicable and more intractable. However, the evidence of ongoing racism seems insufficient either to convince white Americans that racism is both real and matters or to compel them to address racism in any systemic way."