Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

“Why Do They Have To Laugh At Me?”: Stereotypes And Prejudices Experienced By Immigrant Youth, Darlene Rodriguez, Lina Tuschling, Paul Mcdaniel

Faculty and Research Publications

When immigrating to a new host country, the overall integration process for immigrant youth and refugees can be taxing, as experiences with prejudice and discrimination are likely to occur. This article highlights the role of contact and social identity in reducing biases such as stereotypes or prejudice for immigrant youth using the contact hypothesis. Then, we apply the contact hypothesis to twenty-five essays written by immigrant youth in Atlanta, Georgia, and analyse the essays in order to understand their attitudes and emotions before, during, and after the migration process. Further, the article addresses immigrant youth expectations and challenges during the …

Refugee Arrivals In The Mountain West, 2017-2021, Saha Salahi, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This fact sheet displays data on the influx of refugee arrivals by nation to five Mountain West States: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. Refugee Processing Center data, selected from annual reports and limited to the years 2017-2021, are presented.

Impacts Of U.S. Immigration Detention And Transfers On The Well-Being Of Those Detained Within A Punitive For-Profit System, Karina J. Livingston

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The United States has the largest detention infrastructure in the world, with over 250 official detention centers and over 1,000 partner facilities. This research project aimed to analyze the U.S. immigration detention system to understand how the history of U.S. immigration and U.S. social structures like immigration law and detention practices, specifically transfers, affect immigrants. Woven into U.S. detention practices is a long history of exploitive and racist policies that have scapegoated new waves of immigrants since the late 1800s, which evolved toward the criminalization of immigrants in the mid-1990s.

One of the contributions of this dissertation is its focus …

A Global Welcome: Metro Chicago's Approach To Immigrant Inclusion, Paul Mcdaniel, Rob Paral

Faculty and Research Publications

Global cities significantly shape our world by driving solutions across a range of challenges, including migration. A new Chicago Council report, A Global Welcome: Metro Chicago’s Approach to Immigrant Inclusion, provides an overview of greater Chicago’s immigrant community and highlights unique approaches taken to create a more inclusive city, while also emphasizing ways for Chicago and other cities to improve. The report is authored by Paul N. McDaniel, Associate Professor of Geography at Kennesaw State University, and Rob Paral, Nonresident Fellow at the Chicago Council.

Immigrants And Crime, Daniel L. Stageman

Publications and Research

The gap between public perception of immigrant criminality and the research consensus on immigrants’ actual rates of criminal participation is persistent and cross-cultural. While the available evidence shows that immigrants worldwide tend to participate in criminal activity at rates slightly lower than the native-born, media and political discourse portraying immigrants as uniquely crime-prone remains a pervasive global phenomenon. This apparent disconnect is rooted in the dynamics of othering, or the tendency to dehumanize and criminalize identifiable out-groups. Given that most migration decisions are motivated by economic factors, othering is commonly used to justify subjecting immigrants to exploitative labor practices, with …

The Southwest Megapolitan Triangle: Immigration And Population Growth, Yanneli Llamas, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This Fact Sheet analyzes population changes in three Mountain West metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs): Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA; Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ; and Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV. Collectively, these three major metropolitan areas are known as the Southwest Megapolitan Triangle. This Fact Sheet illustrates population changes between 2010 and 2018, using data provided by Brookings Institution senior fellow and demographer, William H. Frey, in his report titled, “As Americans spread out, immigration plays a crucial role in local population growth.” By 2019, more than 20 million Americans called this region home.

Immigrants And Their Voting Power In Nevada, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This Fact Sheet presents the number of both documented and undocumented immigrants in Nevada, synthesizing data provided by New American Economy (NAE), a bipartisan research non-profit organization. To estimate the total number of immigrants in the U.S. and across each of the 50 states, researchers reviewed various data sources including the U.S. Census, the American Community Survey, the Center for Migration Studies, and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Conference Of The Birds: Iranian-Americans, Ethnic Business, And Identity, Delia Walker-Jones

Geography Honors Projects

The United States is home to the largest population of Iranians outside of Iran, an immigrant group that slowly emerged over the latter half of the 20th century, spurred by the 1979 Iranian Revolution and subsequent unrest in the mid-2000s. This case study explores the Iranian and Iranian-American-identifying population of the United States, with a geographic focus on the Twin Cities metro area in Minnesota. It delves into several key questions: are Iranian ethnic businesses distinct from those previously suggested in ethnic entrepreneurship case studies? And how do perceptions of Iranian-American identity play a role in the development of these …

“I Wish I Was A Bird To Fly Back And Forth:” Immigrant Women And Their Transnational Families Caring At A Distance: Draft 4/14/15, Sondra Cuban

Adult & Higher Education

This case study of fifty women immigrants in Washington state focuses on the ingenious emotional strategies they engaged in with their left-behind families to care at a distance and the problematic ways the information and communication technology (ICTs) mediated these relationships across space and time. The study draws on a feminist transnational framework and an extended case method approach to understand the emotional dimensions and meanings of care by separated members and the ways the social technologies, and other factors, shaped these transnational spaces and interactions. The study utilizes ethnographic methods (interviews, informants, journals, focus groups, documentary analysis, and informal …

Rethinking Heterolocalism: The Case Of Place-Making Among Albanian-Americans, Merita Bushi

Geography Honors Projects

The theory of heterolocalism explores how immigrants connect to their new setting without clustering among co-ethnics. This research explores the role that Albanian-American organizations in Chicago and New York have in immigrant place-making and building a sense of community through semi-structured interviews and participant observation. The focus on institutions shifts the discourse from individual behaviors to networks. The Albanian case study is used to argue that segmented heterolocalism is more nuanced and thus describes the sociospatial behavior of immigrants in a way that resonates more closely with immigrants and incorporates their sense of community in a place.

Transnational Marriage: Modern Imaginings, Relational Realignments, And Persistent Inequalities, Coralynn V. Davis

Faculty Journal Articles

In the context of shifting cultural anchors as well as unstable global economic conditions, new practices of intimacy and sexuality may become tactics in an individual’s negotiation of conflicting desires and potentials. This article offers reflection on the interface between global forces, powerful transcultural narratives, and state policies, on the one hand, and local, even individual, constructions and tactics in regard to sexuality, marriage, migration, and work, on the other. The article focuses on the life trajectory of Gudiya, an ambitious young Hindu woman who started out life with little social capital and few economic resources in a dusty corner …

The Many Birds Of Passage: A Cultural Self Study On Immigration Then And Now, Paige V. Lindley

Antonian Scholars Honors Program

The Many Birds of Passage: A Cultural Study of Then and Now, is a docu-drama based upon the Norwegian experience of immigration and the Mexican experience of immigration. It focuses on the current system of immigration and the way in which our policies are formed by presenting different voices of immigrants, including a self monologue as well. They are powerful stories representing a few immigrants’ experiences from different points of the process of migration. It begins with the decision process and goes from the journey to arrival and the ultimate experience of staying or returning home or beginning a new …

Brazilians In The United States 1980—2007, Laird Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines demographic and socioeconomic factors concerning Brazilians in the United States between 1980 and 2007.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: The wave of migration from Brazil which began in the 1990s in all likelihood will continue into the future, economic fluctuations in the U.S. notwithstanding. In part this is due to the relatively high rates of educational attainment …

Intersecting Global And Local: Spatial Analysis Of Ethnicities Of Asian Businesses In The Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metro Area, Grace Emiko Guthe

Geography Honors Projects

The changing nature of immigration to the United States and changes in the morphology of American cities challenge traditional theories of ethnic entrepreneurship as a means of success in assimilating into American society. This study, based on data of over 800 businesses in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area, finds that specific Asian ethnic groups demonstrate distinctive patterns, which often do not conform to traditional theories of ethnic entrepreneurship. Instead, other concepts, such as heterolocalism and transnationalism, add to the discussion concerning a new role for modern ethnic entrepreneurs. This new role must examine ethnic businesses as localities of transnationalism in a …

To Bolivia And Back: Migration And Its Impact On La Crete, Alberta, Dawn S. Bowen

Geography Articles

The article focuses on the migration of Mennonites from Bolivia to La Crete, Alberta. It examines the social and economic impact of migration and outlines the measures taken by La Crete citizens as demands for housing, employment, and the provision of education and health services increased. It believes that the migration of the Mennonites, which started in the 1930s, affected the social and economic evolution of the said region and brought new economic opportunities including logging and sawmill work, trucking, and construction.

The Value Of The Colonies To The Mother Country, Lenora Estelle Stillman

Student and Lippitt Prize essays

A study of the relationship of a colony to its original country, focusing on the importance fair policies in Spain, England and France and questioning whether or not Europeans emigrating to U.S. colonies remain European citizens or can be considered representatives of their countries.