02/04/2025 - IIH/SOC MIGRATION WORKSHOP SPEAKER SERIES: Robert Smith, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, CUNY (Marxe School, Baruch College and Sociology Department, and Political Science Department, the Graduate Center) | Dreams Achieved and Denied: Mexican Intergenerational Mobility

In this talk, Dr. Robert Courtney Smith Ph.D., CUNY (Marxe School, Baruch College and Sociology Department, and Political Science Department, the Graduate Center), will present research from his new book, Dreams Achieved and Denied: Mexican Intergenerational Mobility, released September 2024 (Russell Sage Foundation, ASA Rose Series).  Drawing on two decades of research, it analyzes what mechanisms promoted (and blocked) impressive intergenerational mobility among children of Mexican immigrants in New York, which is much higher than in other studies in other places.  Smith is finishing a large fieldwork project analyzing the impacts of having, lacking, getting or losing legal status and DACA, and how they vary by place in New York State, especially due to variation in sheriff and police policies and practices. His current fieldwork studies how the pandemic affected immigrants in NYC and in upstate NY, and how and New York State’s 2021 $2.1 billion Excluded Workers Fund helped workers excluded from federal pandemic relief.

Professor Robert Courtney Smith’s research and work with immigrant families seek strategic sites for cutting edge research and for intervention to improve wellbeing and fight injustice and inequality.  He teaches at CUNY (Marxe School, Baruch College and Sociology Department, and Political Science Department, the Graduate Center).  In 2024, he received the 2024 American Sociological Association Distinguished Career Award for the Practice of Sociology.

This talk will be a live, in-person event, with webinar access for out of state and remote viewers.

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