Description of Research Summary Statement of Research Interests Jody Agius Vallejo specializes in immigrant integration, race/ethnicity, and social stratification. Her book, "Barrios to Burbs: The Making of the Mexican-American Middle Class," (Stanford University Press 2012) examines patterns of mobility and socioeconomic incorporation among the Mexican-origin middle class in Southern California. "Barrios to Burbs" addresses the following questions: How are upwardly mobile and middle-class Mexican Americans integrating into America’s core social structures? Are they incorporating into the white middle-class, as traditional assimilation theory predicts or are they forging a new route where they follow a minority pathway into the middle class? Second, what are the mechanisms that promote upward mobility and integration into the middle class? And finally, what is it like to be Mexican American and middle class in a society that holds a narrow view of the class structure of the population? Vallejo systematically address these issues with a mixed methodological approach, which combines the qualitative strengths of traditional sociological inquiry (in-depth interviews, participant observation, ethnography) with demographic analysis of representative statistics from the U.S. Census. Her newest project, The Latino Elite: Entrepreneurship, Community, and Mobility, is a study of middle-class and professional Latino entrepreneurs in Los Angeles. Building on theories of ethnic entrepreneurship, assimilation, racial/ethnic identification, and civic engagement, this research uses in-depth interviews, ethnography, and statistics to investigate the rise of Latino business owners in the formal economy, the institutions that support them, their patterns of ethnic philanthropy, the factors that shape their racial/ethnic identification, and the challenges and successes they experience as formal-sector entrepreneurs. Vallejo's third project, in which she is a Co-Pi with Lisa Keister (Duke), examines heterogeneous assimilation outcomes of today's new immigrants via the lens of wealth accumulation and business ownership, with a focus on Chinese Americans. This NSF funded study relies on mixed methods including extensive quantitative analysis of large data sets and an ethnographic study of Chinese American business owners in Southern California. Other projects include analyses of middle-class Mexican Americans' experiences of subtle discrimination and microagressions in the white collar workplace and the mechanisms, such as early familial obligations, that lead to differential patterns of educational attainment between Mexican Americans and Chinese and Vietnamese Americans. Research Keywords immigrant integration, race/ethnicity, Mexican-origin middle class, middle-class minorities, Latino entrepreneurs, Wealth accumulation Research Specialties Immigrant Incorporation, Race/Ethnicity, Mexican-Origin Middle Class, Middle-Class Minorities, Latino Entrepreneurs