The Immigrant Advantage: What We Can Learn from Newcomers to America about Health, Happiness and Hope - Hardcover

Kolker, Claudia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1416586822 ISBN 13: 9781416586821

Publisher: Free Press, 2011

Synopsis

Do you have a relative or friend who would gladly wait on you, hand and foot, for a full month after you had a baby? How about someone to deliver a delicious, piping hot home-cooked meal, just like your mother’s, right to your front door after work? Do you know people you’d trust enough to give several hundred dollars a month to, with no receipt, on the simple promise that the accumulated wealth will come back to you a year later?

Not many of us can answer “yes” to these questions. But as award-winning journalist Claudia Kolker has discovered, each of these is one of a wide variety of cherished customs brought to the United States by immigrant groups, often adapted to American life by the second generation in a distinctive blending of old and new. Taken together, these extraordinary traditions may well contribute to what’s known as “the immigrant paradox,” the growing evidence that immigrants, even those from poor or violence-wracked countries, tend to be both physically and mentally healthier than most native-born Americans.

These customs are unfamiliar to most Americans, but they shouldn’t be. Honed over centuries, they provide ingenious solutions to daily challenges most of us face and provide both social support and comfort. They range from Vietnamese money clubs that help people save and Mexican cuarentenas—a forty-day period of rest for new mothers—to Korean afterschools that offer highly effective tutoring at low cost and Jamaican multigenerational households that help younger family members pay for college and, eventually, their own homes.

Fascinated by the success of immigrant friends, Claudia Kolker embarked on a journey to uncover how these customs are being carried on and adapted by the second and third generations, and how they can enrich all of our lives. In a beautifully written narrative, she takes readers into the living rooms, kitchens, and restaurants of immigrant families and neighborhoods all across the country, exploring the sociable street life of Chicago’s “Little Village,” a Mexican enclave with extraordinarily low rates of asthma and heart disease; the focused quiet of Korean afterschool tutoring centers; and the loving, controlled chaos of a Jamaican extended-family home. She chronicles the quests of young Indian Americans to find spouses with the close guidance of their parents, revealing the benefits of “assisted marriage,” an American adaptation of arranged marriage. And she dives with gusto into some of the customs herself, experimenting to see how we might all fit them into our lives. She shows us the joy, and excitement, of savoring Vietnamese “monthly rice” meals delivered to her front door, hiring a tutor for her two young girls, and finding a powerful sense of community in a money-lending club she started with friends.

The Immigrant Advantage is an adventurous exploration of little-known traditional wisdom, and how in this nation of immigrants our lives can be enriched by the gifts of our newest arrivals.

About this title

About the Author:

Claudia Kolker is an award-winning journalist who has reported from Mexico, El Salvador, the Caribbean, Japan and India. A former Los Angeles Times bureau chief and former member of The Houston Chronicle editorial board, she has also written for The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Economist, O: The Oprah Magazine, Slate, and Salon. She lives in Houston with her family.

Review:

"[A] sparkling debut [and] a welcome reminder that America was built by immigrants in search of a better future for their children." (Kirkus)

"Kolker’s explorations teach and entertain with their curiosity, can-do spirit, and vibrant bouquet of cultures and customs." (Publishers Weekly)

“What a fabulous, fun, eye-opening read: Colorful writing with a flair is not incompatible with deep insight and wisdom!” (Amy Chua, Yale Law Professor and author of Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance-- and Why they Fall and Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother)

“Live like an immigrant...How rare to find an intelligent, engrossing book that doubles as a dispensary! The Immigrant Advantage is chock-full of novel, useful prescriptions for a happy, healthy life.” (Daphne Miller, MD, author of The Jungle Effect: A Doctor Discovers the Healthiest Diets from Around the World, Why They Work and How to Make Them Work for You)

“Such a smart and thrilling ride. I had no idea I was surrounded by daily exotic adventures until I opened The Immigrant Advantage. Now that I've read it, I can't wait to live it.” (Christopher McDougall, author of The New York Times bestseller Born to Run)

“A wonderful positive portrayal of immigrant customs and contributions much needed and much welcome at a time of so much confusion about the foreign-born who live among us.” (Kyriakos S. Markides, Ph.D., Annie & John Gnitzinger Distinguished Professor of Aging Studies, University of Texas)

Named one of O Magazine’s 10 Titles to Pick Up Now

About this edition

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1416586822
• ISBN 13: 9781416586821
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256