News from CILS A special issue of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences will appear in late 2008. Co-edited by Alejandro Portes and Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, this special issue is based on the last wave of data collection from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) focused on exceptional outcomes among members of the second generation in early adulthood. Taking advantage of the longitudinal character of CILS, the project sought to identify factors that led youths who grew up in exceptionally disadvantaged environments to succeed by enrolling in college and graduating after four years. The lead paper by Portes and Fernandez-Kelly, "No Margin for Error," summarizes the principal findings from this phase of the project, known as CILS-IV. Other articles in the volume draw from the same study or other data sources to address the same general issue and include: Min Zhou et. al., "Success Attained, Deterred, and Denied;" Lingxin Hao and Suet-Ling Pong, "The Role of School in Upward Mobility of Disadvantaged Immigrants' Children;" Angel Harris et. al., "Disparities in the Educational Success of Immigrants;" Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, "The Back Pocket Map;" Clemens Kroneberg, "Ethnic Communities and School Performance among the New Second Generation;" Lisa Konczal and William Haller, "Fit to Miss, but Matched to Hatch;" Cecilia Menjivar, "Educational Hopes, Documented Dreams;" Ruben Rumbaut, "The Coming of the Second Generation;" Tekla Nicholas et. al., "Here's Your Diploma, Mom!;" Philip Kasinitz, "Becoming American, Becoming Minority, Getting Ahead;" and Robert C. Smith, "Horatio Alger Lives in Brooklyn;" plus commentaries and book reviews. A special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies will also appear in late 2008. The issue focuses on recent research on all aspects of second generation adaptation in the United States and brings together contributions from leading scholars in the field. The issue is headed by an article by Alejandro Portes, Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, and William Haller that summarizes the CILS project in its four successive phases and the most recent quantitative and qualitative findings stemming from it. The article, "The Adaptation of the Immigrant Second Generation in America: Theoretical Overview and Recent Evidence," is available in the CMD Working Papers Series. News from CIOP Final results from the Comparative Immigrant Organizations Project (CIOP), dealing with effects of transnational and domestic organizations on the political incorporation of Latin American immigrants in the United States, were published in the September 2008 issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies. The article, "Bridging the Gap: Transnational and Ethnic Organizations in the Political Incorporation of Immigrants in the United States," was co-authored by Alejandro Portes, Cristina Escobar, and Renelinda Arana. Drawing on data from CIOP and the previously completed Comparative Immigrant Entrepreneurship Project (CIEP), Portes, Escobar, and Arana have also completed a policy-oriented report on the subject of social and political incorporation of Latin migrants in America. Originally written under contract for the Pew Hispanic Center, this report, "Divided or Convergent Loyalties? A Report on the Political Incorporation of Latin American Immigrants in the United States," is available here. It is scheduled for publication, in both English and Spanish, in early 2009. An overview of the situation and prospects of the Hispanic population of the United States, "The New Latin Nation: Immigration and the Hispanic Population of the United States," by Alejandro Portes has recently been published as the lead article of the DuBois Review 4:2 (2007) 271-301. News from ILSEG With support from the Spencer Foundation, the first representative survey of the Spanish immigrant second generation (known by its Spanish acronym ILSEG) has been completed. The study, led by Alejandro Portes and Spanish immigration scholar Rosa Aparicio, is based at the Institute of Immigration Studies of the University of Comillas in Madrid. The survey was based on a random sample of secondary schools in the Madrid metropolitan area, supplemented by a sample of schools in areas of high immigrant concentration. In total, 105 schools were surveyed, yielding a sample of over 3,200 cases. Youths of Moroccan, Ecuadorian, Colombian, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Chinese origin comprise the principal nationalities represented in the sample. In total, students from over fifty different national origins were included. Preliminary results were delivered at press and academic conferences in Madrid on March 2, 2009. A number of articles in the Spanish press and approximately twenty TV and radio appearances by the Spanish co-investigators followed release of these findings. The attention shown by the media and educational authorities reflects the importance of the topic of immigrant youth in Spain. A comparable survey is being conducted in Barcelona and similar events are planned there for late June 2009. See the Madrid report and charts. Read the Madrid press releases: "Yo no me siento espanol" "Cuatro de cada diez nuevos espanoles no tienen interes en seguir viviendo en el pais" "Los alumnos detectan pandillas y peleas interraciales en los colegios" "El 40% de los hijos de inmigrantes no quiere quedarse a vivir en Espana" "Dos tercios de los hijos de inmigrantes de la capital reconocen no sentirse espanoles" News from the Institutions and Development Project With support from the National Science Foundation and Princeton Institute for International Studies, a comparative study of 24 Latin American state and private institutions is nearing completion. The study seeks to identify determinants of the extent to which real existing organizations fulfill the institutional goals for which they were created and the extent to which they make a significant contribution to national development. One-year institutional studies employing identical methodology have been completed in five Latin American countries: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. A similar set of institutions have been studied in each country. They include the Stock Exchange, the National Tax Authority, the Public Health Service, the Civil Aeronautics Agency, and the Post Office. Reports from the first phase of the study comprising three institutions in three countries are available here. The remainder can be found here. A synthetic article, "Latin American Institutions and Development: A Comparative Study," by Alejandro Portes and Lori D. Smith, was recently published in Studies in Comparative and International Development, Volume 43, #2. The article summarizes findings from the first phase of the study employing Qualitative Comparative Analyses to test a series of hypotheses bearing on the two outcomes of interest. An edited volume with the first nine institutional studies produced by the project, plus a Spanish version of the synthetic article by Portes and Smith, will be published by Siglo XXI Editores in Mexico City in early 2009. With the co-sponsorship of the Ibero-American University of Santo Domingo and support from the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the Center held the final project conference in Santo Domingo in September 2008. The conference assembled 15 investigators from the five countries selected for study to present and debate their institutional reports. Feedback from commentators and other participants will help authors revise their respective reports for publication. A book, to be published simultaneously in English and Spanish, will include all fifteen individual reports plus a synthesis of their main findings.   For more information about these projects, please see here.