On Nov. 1st, Professors Rogelio Sáenz and René Zenteng, and assistant Professor Ying Huang from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) visited Asian Demography Research Institute (ADRI), Shanghai University (SHU). Professor Rogelio Sáenz is Dean of the College of Public Policy and the Mark G. Yudof Endowed Professor at UTSA. Sáenz has written extensively in the areas of demography, Latina/os, race and ethnic relations, inequality, immigration, public policy, social justice, and human rights. René Zenteno is professor of Demography at UTSA. Zenteno has published widely in the areas of social and demographic change, international migration, and social inequality, with a focus on Mexico, U.S.-Mexican migration, and Mexican immigrant incorporation. Ying Huang is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Demography, UTSA. Huang’s research interests include urban sociology, social stratification, and population health.
At ADRI, Professor René Zenteng spoke about “The New Era of Mexico-U.S. migration: The post 2006 Experience and the Collapse of Undocumented Migration”. Professor Zenteng discussed a new chapter in Mexico-U.S. migration. As he explained, the past decade has seen reduced northbound flows, reduced circularity, and an increase of return migration to Mexico as construction industry activity in the United States has diminished, while deportations and border enforcement activities have increased. Professor Zenteng drew on multiple sources of information, including unpublished data from a Border Survey of Mexican Migrants.
Professor Rogelio Sáenz then spoke about “The Demography of Race and Ethnicity in the United States”. Race and ethnicity are important dimensions in understanding the demography of the United States, he suggested, and racial and ethnic groups vary tremendously with respect to population composition, population processes, and their life chances and access to opportunity structures. According to Professor Sáenz, the inequality of groups in American society along racial and ethnic lines has important implications for the future of the United States because of the major demographic transformations already underway.
The last presentation was given by assistant Professor Ying Huang on “Grandparents’ Wealth and the Body Mass Index Trajectories of Grandchildren”. Dr. Huang discussed three-level growth curve models to track grandparents’ wealth ranking and grandchildren’s BMI growth trajectories. She found that lower grandparental wealth ranking is not only associated with slightly higher initial BMI of their grandchildren, it is also associated with accelerated BMI growth trajectories. Her results also highlight the role of wealth as a historical socioeconomic (dis)advantage in accounting for the obesity disparities between white and black children in the current generation.