title: Looking Down or Looking Up: Status and Subjective Well-Being among Asian and Latino Immigrants in the United States.
abstract: Foundational theories of international migration rest on the assumption that immigrants maintain reference groups in their country of origin even after settling in a new place, while the transnationalism perspective suggests that immigrants maintain a dual frame of reference. This paper uses the nationally-representative National Latino and Asian American Survey to test the location of immigrants' reference groups. I find that the relationship between various measures of subjective social standing and subjective well-being suggests that immigrants maintain simultaneous reference groups in both the United States and the country of origin, supporting transnational theories, and refuting earlier theories.
authors.affiliation: Princeton University.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gelatt