Grand Master of the Sociology of Immigration & Assimilation

Jul 21, 2025

54:52

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Episode notes

For decades, Alejandro Portes (CASBS fellow 1980-81) has been among our most distinguished scholars elucidating the causes and consequences of immigration and assimilation. René D. Flores (CASBS fellow 2023-24) engages Portes in a conversation spanning large swaths of Portes's formidable intellectual biography, including his personal journey from Cuba and its influence on his academic trajectory, as well as his approach to social science inquiry and its delivery of insights leading to some of his most celebrated and consequential works.

Robert K. Merton's full quote about Alejandro Portes is contained in the September/October 1998 issue of Footnotes, a publication of the American Sociological Association. Access the full text.

Works referenced in this episode

Alejandro Portes, "Rationality in the Slum: An Essay on Interpretive Sociology," Comparative Studies in Society and History, v13 n3, June 1972.

Alejandro Portes, "Dilemmas of a Golden Exile: Integration of Cuban Refugee Families in Milwaukee," American Sociological Review, v34 n4, August 1969.

Alejandro Portes and Robert Bach, Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States. Univ. of California Press, 1985.

Alejandro Portes and Min Zhou, "The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and its Variants," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, November 1993.

Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut, Immigrant America: A Portrait, Univ. of California Press, 2024 (fifth ed.)

Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut, Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation, Univ. of California Press, 2001.

Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou, The Asian American Achievement Paradox, Russell Sage Foundation, 2015. (Notably, Jennifer Lee was a CASBS fellow in 2002-03; Min Zhou was a CASBS fellow in 2006-06.)

Bonus: 2019-20 CASBS fellow Catherine Ramírez discusses the influence of Alejandro Portes in "What Does Assimilation Mean?" Public Books, Feb. 27, 2020. The essay was written as part of CASBS's partnership with Public Books. Ramírez writes, "By showing that there are many strata in society into which people assimilate, and many outcomes of assimilation, Portes and his coauthors have enriched our understanding of the processes by which people become American, however precarious that status may be.”

René D. Flores: Univ. of Chicago faculty page | CASBS page | on Google Scholar | Personal website |

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