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Engagement With Ethnic Practices: How Ethnic Communities Contribute To Second-Generation Asian American Assimilation, Bảo-Trân T. Nguyễn

Master's Theses

Previous research on spatial assimilation has described ethnic enclaves as places withmany recently arrived immigrants and fewer socioeconomic resources. As immigrants become more assimilated, they move to more affluent neighborhoods in proximity to Anglos. However, recent studies on resurgent ethnicity challenge the idea of the spatial assimilation by suggesting that Asian immigrants and subsequent generations continue to live near co-ethnics, despite gaining socioeconomic status. The transition from traditional ethnic enclaves to resurgent ethnic communities or ‘ethnoburbs’ indicate shifting understandings of what ethnic communities mean to Asian Americans. Although, Asian Americans are, on average, attaining higher socioeconomic status, the emergent importance …

“The Saloon Is Their Palace”: Race, Immigration, And Politics In The Woman’S Christian Temperance Union, 1874–1933, Ella Wagner

Dissertations

immigration, prohibition, race, suffrage, temperance, women's history

Reams, Radicals And Revolutionaries: The 'Illinois Staats-Zeitung' And The German-American Milieu In Chicago, 1847-1877, Sebastian Peter Wuepper

Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes how a large, German-language newspaper, the Illinois Staats-Zeitung served the German-American immigrant community in Chicago in the second half of the nineteenth century. The German diaspora in the United States was not a secluded, separated, and isolated entity, but a node in a transnational network of cultural exchange that crossed national and natural boundaries. Newspapers contributed significantly to the creation and maintenance of this cultural sphere. The editors of the Staats-Zeitung were refugees of the failed 1848 democratic revolutions in Germany. In Germany they had been academics, intellectuals, lawyers and journalists. They brought their political convictions with …

Engendering Empathy For Immigrants In Middle Grade Readers Through Culturally Relevant Young Adult Literature, Amy J. Cattapan

Dissertations

This dissertation uncovered the ways through which culturally relevant young adult literature (YAL) engenders empathy for immigrants in middle grade readers. Empathy was displayed through both affective and cognitive responses and resulted in mirror and window moments (Bishop, 1990) as well as crystallizing experiences. Their empathetic responses led students to apply critical literacy skills to issues related to stereotypes, racism, discrimination, and immigration policies.

I conducted a qualitative case study to examine the ways in which reading and discussing YAL about immigrants created empathy in eighth graders in a culturally and linguistically diverse middle school and in what ways it …

Resiliency, Bajo Que Costó? How Young Undocumented Mexicans Navigate Trauma And Survival, Julia Mendes

Master's Theses

Under the Trump administration, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has become a "hot topic" in political discourse and in the media. Amidst this discourse, however, the stories of DACA recipients whose lives are drastically affected by this political drama are often overlooked. Furthermore, a problematic narrative has emerged labeling the "dreamers" as "good immigrants" who need to be saved at the expense of their families, relatives, and other undocumented immigrants who do not fit into the "dreamer" category. Another problematic aspect of current research is celebrating this aspect of "resiliency" that undocumented youth portray and ignoring the consequences this …

Latino Academic Achievement: Impact Of Individual, Family, School, Community And Immigration Factors, Jessica Catharine Martone

Dissertations

The dissertation increases our understanding of the influence of multiple social systems on the academic achievement of Latino students. More specifically, this study examines the influence and dynamic interaction of individual, family, school, community, and immigration factors on the academic achievement of Latino students through a secondary data analysis of the ELS: 2002 dataset utilizing hierarchical linear modeling. Academic achievement is measured with a dichotomous variable: high achieving and low achieving. "High achieving" students are those that have an on-time transition to higher education and "low achieving" students are those that have a delayed or no transition to higher education. …

Second-Class Families: The Challenges And Strategies Of Mixed-Status Immigrant Families, Diana Maritza Guelespe

Dissertations

The most recent peak in migration has involved large numbers of undocumented people and much of the sociological scholarship on immigration explores their lives as individuals and how they stay connected to their family across borders, but there is little research about the new phenomenon of mixed-status immigrant families-- families with at least one unauthorized immigrant and one U.S. citizen--or how their families face the looming risk of separation. The purpose of this dissertation is to describe the experiences and challenges these families confront. Why has there been a rise in mixed-status immigrant families? How does the relative permanence of …

Ethnicity, Assimilation And Transnationalism: A Comparative Study Of Eastern European Migration To The United States (1940-2012), Cezara Olga Crisan

Dissertations

Cezara Olga Crisan

Loyola University Chicago

ETHNICITY, ASSIMILATION AND TRANSNATIONALISM:

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF EASTERN EUROPEAN MIGRATION

TO THE UNITED STATES (1940-2012)

Transnationalism is a relatively new pattern of migration; the process by which transnationalism has supplanted assimilation has been the subject of this study, and it has been done by comparing the immigration experience of Eastern Europeans, before and after the demise of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe.

The study employed a qualitative methodology with a total of sixty one respondents divided in two groups from Eastern Europe - a "pre-communist wave" and a "post-communist wave" - who …

Balkan Minds: Transnational Nationalism And The Transformation Of South Slavic Immigrant Identity In Chicago, 1890-1941, Dejan Kralj

Dissertations (1 year embargo)

At the start of the twentieth century, America was inundated with unskilled workers eager to fuel the engines of the new economy. The South Slavs of the Balkans joined countless others from the furthest corners of the European continent during the final years of the nineteenth century and first two decades of the twentieth. Millions of foreign and unfamiliar faces, outlandishly clad, replaced the previous fair-haired and fair-skinned Western Europeans that originally populated the nation. These innumerably diverse peoples of eastern and southern European origin redefined the character of twentieth-century America.

The vast majority of South Slavic immigrants arrived in …

Yo Hablo Ingles: The Influence Of Motivation And Group Cohesion On Learning English In A Workplace Setting, Adam Henry Dehoek

Dissertations

Immigration reform is a current and controversial issue in the United States and around the globe. Although it is unlikely that comprehensive immigration reform is immediately forthcoming in the United States, plans proposed by both liberal and conservative law-makers require those applying for long-term residency to hold employment and demonstrate a working knowledge of the English language. Given that these goals are often difficult to achieve in tandem, enacted immigration reform may suggest that businesses offer English language courses on the job in order to facilitate the legalization process. Answering important questions regarding the process of successful language acquisition, particularly …

Introducing The Common Good Index And A Common Good Immigration Ethic, Ana Bedard

Dissertations

The U.S. and Mexican bishops, in their influential pastoral letter Strangers No Longer, frame immigration ethics through the lens of solidarity with the immigrant. This frame leads them to erroneously interpret the preferential option for the poor and ignore potential harm to poor U.S. citizens caused by recent undocumented immigration from Mexico and other countries. A better framework to immigration ethics is a specified common good approach, which is created in this dissertation. This approach uses the definition of the common good found in Catholic social thought and concretizes it through using a theological anthropology based in Martha Nussbaum's human …

Immigration As A "Theologizing Experience": Spiritual Well-Being As A Moderating Factor In Migratory Grief And Acculturation, Irma A. Sharp

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of spiritual well-being to migratory grief and acculturation. The study employed a cross-sectional design and a convenience sampling method. Data were collected from 75 Mexican immigrant adult education students in the city of Chicago. Instruments used to collect data were a demographic form, Spiritual Well-Being Scale, Migratory Grief and Loss Questionnaire, and the Stephenson Multigroup Acculturation Scale. All instruments were translated into Spanish, the native language of the participants. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the moderator effects of existential well-being and religious well-being, the two sub-scales of the …

Messages Of Nationalism In Mexican And U.S. Textbooks: Implications For The National Identity Of Transnational Students, Danielle Lane Jerdee

Master's Theses

This study uses qualitative content analysis to compare fifth grade social studies textbooks in Mexico and the United States to provide insight on how messages of national identity change as students migrate between school systems. The following research questions will guide the analysis: Given that one of the roles of textbooks is to form a national consciousness through mythmaking, how do messages of national identity conveyed in Mexican and U.S. textbooks conflict? How are the topics of immigration and citizenship presented in each nation's textbooks? In what ways do differences in the accounts of history between Mexico and the United …

Erasing Mexican Chicago: The Role Of Community Based Organizations And Immigrant Networks In The Gentrifying Neighborhood Of Pilsen, David Orta

Master's Theses

This study explores the effects of gentrification in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, a historic port of entry for Mexican immigrants and a basin for community organization and other resources. The research questions of this study first query the effects of gentrification on the informal immigrant networks that make Pilsen a site for community resources for new immigrants. Second, the study explores the effects of gentrification on community-based organizations in a rapidly changing environment. As the racial and economic demographics of the neighborhood shift, community based organizations must adapt. Finally, this study examines the relationship between neighborhood residents and community based organizations. …