Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Seeing Red: Immigration And Asymmetrical Partisan Polarization In The United States, Robert M. Worth

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Since the mid-1970s, partisan polarization has been increasing in Congress and the Presidency, and, although most voters lack a stable, consistent ideology, non-ideological forms of partisan polarization have emerged in the mass public in recent decades. Moreover, ideological polarization among elites is highly asymmetrical, with increased Republican conservatism accounting for most of the increased ideological distance between the parties. Here, I develop a racial-threat backlash theory and argue that increased rates of immigration are associated with increased asymmetrical ideological polarization among elites and in the mass public. Tests of this theory on voters, the mass public in the states, state …

New Australia, Un Nuevo Mundo, Elizabeth Christensen

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

I focus on the diaspora of the Australian immigration to the South American colony known as New Australia. My project addresses the question of identity. I address questions such as: how much do the surviving descendants of the New Australia colony identify with the homeland of Australia or the hostland of South America? How has their identities influenced the way they raise their children

Reimagining Essex Street Market, Madeleine M. Crenshaw

Capstones

Reimagining Essex Street Market is a multimedia story highlighting a historic 78-year-old market on the Lower East Side that is moving to a massive mixed-used development. Using, GIFS, text, social video and photo, this project illustrates the historical and cultural significance of the market that has been a staple to the neighborhood and the immigrant communities of the Lower East Side for decades.

https://medium.com/@madeleinecrenshaw/reimagining-essex-street-market-6ebcbb704b25

Supranational Identity Politics: Sovereignism In The Eu, Emilio Jacintho

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The implementation of identity politics policies conceived at a supranational level appears to motivate the coordination of populist movements, the radicalization of their discourses, and an increasing resentment towards minority groups. I investigate the reaction of populist sovereignist political movements, among recently admitted EU member states, to the implementation of European Union policies that involve the positive discrimination of minority groups and mandated refugee relocations. The implementation of such policies seems to have contributed to the resentment toward policy-favored minorities, the increase of anti-immigration values, the success of extremist political expressions, and the mistrust of political institutions and traditional parties. …

A Mother And Son Are Reunited After 18 Years, Comice Johnson

Capstones

Alfonso Xicali López saw his mother for the first time in almost two decades. He is participating in a program called Raíces de Puebla, which means Roots of Puebla in Spanish. The program pays for tourist visas and plane tickets for the relatives of undocumented Mexican immigrants who haven’t seen their family members in a decade or more. The government of Alfonso’s home state, Puebla, funds the program. They aim to maintain family connections and reward immigrants who are active members of their communities.

https://medium.com/@comicejohnson/today-alfonso-xicali-lópez-will-see-his-mom-for-the-first-time-in-18-years-1fc6c27caaa

The Impact Of Ancestral Language Maintenance On Cultural Identity Among White Immigrant Descendants: A Phenomenological Qualitative Study, Micaella Elizabeth Colla

Doctoral Dissertations

There is insufficient research on the cultural identity formation of White immigrant descendants who have experienced ancestral language loss. This phenomenological qualitative study conducted in San Francisco, California explored the experiences and perceptions of seven White immigrant descendants in response to these questions: (1) What is the role of L1 (mother tongue) maintenance on identity maintenance among White immigrant descendants? (2) How do immigrant descendants view their cultural identities in the absence of their ancestral languages? And (3) How might educators encourage second language and culture acquisition, while protecting students’ first languages and cultures? Research data included narratives from in-depth, …

Educational Attainment Of Immigrant Students In The United States: Generational Struggle Towards Success, Robin Das

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Known as the land of opportunities, United States has always been a key attraction to outside world as the place where people can live up to their potential dreams. People migrate from far lands to settle down and find the missing link that was absent in their native country. Among numerous reasons, financial inefficiency and social and political insecurity at homeland, new immigration policies in the US, expectation of a better socio-economic lifestyle and a secure and prosperous future for their children are some key reasons why immigrants move out of their motherland and travel to America. They hope and …

A Qualitative, Phenomenological Study Of Psychotherapists’ Perception Of Ethnic Identity Shifts In Immigrant Patients, Ricardo Corbetta

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This qualitative phenomenological paper investigates ethnic identity shifts in immigrant patients by interviewing nine psychotherapists who work with immigrant patients in New York City. It takes into consideration the privileged and biased perspective of the therapist’s subjective experience of their patient’s ethnic identity shifts. The study argues that ethnic identity affiliation is relevant and worth investigating during the psychotherapeutic work, as it can shed light on crucial aspects of one’s emotions, thoughts and behavior.

Chile’S Decree-Law 1094: A Source Of Immigrant Vulnerability, Joao M. Da Silva

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The South American nation of Chile is rapidly becoming a receiving nation for immigrants from other South American nations and the Caribbean. By December 31, 2017, the immigrant population had surpassed 1.1 million, 300,000 of whom are in irregular status. Immigration to Chile is governed by Decree-Law No. 1094 (DL 1094) of 1975, the oldest immigration law in South America, decreed by the military junta led by General Augusto Pinochet. I argue that the continued application of DL 1094, and the Chilean state’s failure to enact a new law that addresses immigration from a human rights-based approach, contributes to perpetuating …

We Refugees, Again, Aaron Linas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Dramatic shifts in climate have generated a new form of global displacement. These ‘climate migrants’ challenge the notion of state sovereignty by introducing a new paradigm for global responsibility. I seek to address this emerging demand of sovereignty by outlining the normative mechanisms of state institutions when encountering displaced persons. The extreme cases of disappearing island nations creates stateless population incompatible with standard liberal values of humanitarianism and border security. My claim is that current normative institutions and principles of assistance to migrating people are insufficient to manage the international crisis of climate change. To be able to aid migrants …

"But The Heart Stays Turkish": Identifications Of Immigrants And Boundaries Of Belonging In America, Zeynep Selen Bayhan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation focuses on the symbolic boundary-making processes of first-generation Turkish immigrants in New York and New Jersey, where Islam has been tainted with negative meanings and symbols. By focusing on the characteristics, salience and endurance of ethno-national, religious and gender boundaries that immigrants perceive and experience in the U.S., it examines the possibilities of social inclusion and assimilation/integration of immigrants into the mainstream society. The dissertation addresses following research questions: What sort of symbols and markers, as well as narratives do immigrants use in order to construct boundaries regarding American society? How do Turkish immigrants, in the aftermath of …

Brentwood, New York 11717: A Multimedia Ethnographic Study On An Immigrant Town, Ashley Mungo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Brentwood, New York is a working-class town of about 60,000 situated forty miles east of Manhattan on Long Island. As of the 2010 Census, 68.5 percent of residents are Latino or Hispanic, with 10.7 percent of the overall population living below the federal poverty level. Less than ten percent of the population has obtained a bachelors degree or higher. Street violence, gangs, and overall crime are frequently addressed at community meetings, igniting a fierce debate on immigration within the town that has reached national media, with critics arguing that the exponentially increasing Latino migrant population has caused this crisis.

The …

How Can Developmental Transformations Address Culture Shock To Those Moving From Collectivist Societies Into Individualistic Ones, Such As, Chinese Immigrants Into The United States?, Fabiola Valdivia

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Immigration has always existed, and lately with the heyday of social networks and media, we have witnessed high rates of immigration due to different social and political contexts that have forced people to leave their homes looking for a better situation. Many of these individuals have emigrated and continue to emigrate to the United States of America, in search of, what in some cases they believe will be, the American dream.

This document explores the implementation of developmental transformations (DvT), originally a drama therapy approach, with an immigrant population coming from a collective society such as the Asian into an …

A Nordic Anomaly: Examining The Establishment Of An Anti-Immigrant Party In Sweden, Louise Paulsen

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the establishment of an anti-immigrant party (AIP) in Sweden. Until recently, Sweden was known as the Nordic anomaly with no AIP in spite of high levels of immigration and high rates of right-wing violence. This has now changed, and the AIP, Sweden Democrats, are rising to popularity in high speed. I examine the causes given for the anomaly up until 2006 and show that a change in these has since created a favorable environment for an AIP to become successful. First, socio-economic cleavages have become less salient through decreasing party loyalty and increasing numbers of party switchers. …

An Assessment Of Service And Program Support For Government Assisted Refugees (Gars) In A Multi-Level Policy Delivery System: A Case Of Selected Ontario Municipalities, Henry Gyeketey Awere

MPA Major Research Papers

Since the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) came into effect in 2002, Canada has stopped placing so much emphasis in the selection process on refugee skills and ability to integrate. Rather, emphasis is placed on resettling refugees who need protection. As a result, post-IRPA Government Assisted Refugees (GARs) arriving in Canada are younger and have higher needs than previous groups of GARs. In Canada the Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP) is responsible for providing GAR’s with their immediate needs. RAP came into effect in 1998. A key component of RAP saw a change in the service delivery method, with a …

Effects Of Immigration On Interpersonal Relationships With Others Amongst Native And Mexican-Born Mexican Americans, Juan Zaragoza

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study presents the findings of how and to what extent immigration effects Native and Mexican-born Mexican American’s relationships with others. This study was quantitative and measured participant’s levels and qualities of interactions with others. The participants in this study were students from California State University, San Bernardino’s School of Social Work. The student population that was targeted was Native and Mexican-born Mexican Americans. The participants were contacted via email and provided with a questionnaire that measured the quality and quantity of interpersonal relationships they held with others. The original sample size consisted of 53 participants but reduced to a …

El Viaje Desde Centroamérica A Los Estados Unidos: How Us Foreign Policy Impacts Migration From Central America To The United States, Cecilia Cerja

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

In the face of ever increasing civil conflict in Central America, the United States is attempting to grapple with immigration reform as the number of refugees continues to rise. Though the dominant narrative seems to indicate that people are flocking to the United States for economic opportunity, upon further analysis it seems that there are a variety of push and pull factors for migration to the United States. In this thesis three case studies of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala are analyzed to determine the push and pull factors causing migration to the United States. After examining the push and …

The Influence Of Foreign-Born Population On Immigrants' Academic Achievement: A Multilevel Analysis Of Students In High-Income Countries, Florencia Silveira

Theses and Dissertations

Scholars have linked multiple background characteristics to academic achievement; among these are student SES and race/ethnicity. A largely understudied student characteristic in relation to academic achievement is student immigrant status. I contextualize this relationship by considering a macro social setting: country-level foreign-born population. To do this, I examine mathematics achievement from the 2015 PISA assessment in 41 high-income countries. Using mixed-effects modeling, I examine student- and country-level factors and their effects on mathematics achievement. I use within- and cross-level interactions to examine the relationship between 1) immigrant status and student SES and between 2) immigrant status and foreign-born population. To …

The Structurally Adjusted School: School Restructuring And Youth Political Incorporation In Suburban America, Erin Michaels

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation argues that key 21st century education reforms intended to improve education for Latinx and Black students are actually new mechanisms of educational inequality. I examine this trend in the suburbs where Latinx and Black populations are growing due to new immigration and gentrification. I show how state-mandated education reforms use conditional financing and coercive restructuring policies to undermine the school’s local control by tying major reforms to vital school aid and threatening it with closure. I relate this model to the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) the IMF and World Bank use globally in order to coerce countries to …

The Socio-Cultural Implications Of The Aging Population In Japan, Jacqueline Banas

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone research looks at how Japan, as a nation, is dealing with aging populations as a society, what problems and solutions work for the Japanese, and how future studies and research on Japan’s elderly population could help lead for possible solutions for the global elderly. Through this capstone, I wanted to bring awareness to the Japanese elderly as well as generate light on the topic.

Becoming United Statesian: Experiences Of Newly Resettled Iraqi Refugees And Iraqi Immigrants, Bnar Mustafa

Institute for the Humanities Master's Papers, Projects, and Capstones

The differences between refugees’ dreams before and after coming to the United States of America is often shocking. One might ask, “Isn’t America the country of the refugees?” The United States is the largest nation built by refugees and immigrants, yet recently resettled refugees or “new Americans” struggle in multiple and overlapping ways to reach successful resettlement. Some of the challenges they face are inherent to resettlement, others come from the socialization process, and the interplay of human beings as they exist together. Language and culture shock are the natural struggles that any internationally-relocated person experiences. The challenges that stem …

Immigration In Japan: History, Attitudes, And Effects, Jacqueline Witwicki

Senior Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Immigration Enforcement In The Age Of Trump: Local Government Responses To Federal Immigration Rhetoric And Policy Change, Abigail Painchaud

Senior Theses and Projects

This thesis explores how local governments, and specifically police departments are responding to the federal immigration rhetoric and policy changes. Previous literature argues that the national government’s role in immigration will strongly shape how local governments respond and how they will change their policies. In the first section, this thesis examines sanctuary cities across the United States and uses a specific data set of sanctuary cities to determine their status and their changes under the new administration. I find that despite the constant change on the national level and the anti-immigrant rhetoric, localities around the United States are pursuing accommodating …

Risk Factors For Domestic Homicide: Immigrant & Canadian-Born Populations, Sakthi Kalaichandran

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Domestic violence is a critical human rights issue that can escalate to cases of domestic homicide. Globally, approximately 30% of women in relationships have reported experiencing violence at the hands of an intimate partner. In Canada this pattern is echoed, as over 25% of police-reported violent offences were from victims of domestic abuse. Recent research has revealed that immigrant & refugee victims experience unique risk factors that may render them more vulnerable to this form of violence. Yet, despite this burgeoning research area, and Canada’s diverse population of 6 million immigrants, there is a dearth of research pertaining to domestic …

The Bronx Was Brewing: A Digital Resource Of A Lost Industry, Michelle Zimmer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Bronx: a bucolic oasis laden with history, a suburb within city-limits, an urban warzone, and thanks to the recent renaissance, a phoenix of progress rising from the proverbial ashes of the fires that burned through the borough in the 1970’s. But many people are unaware that the Bronx also brewed.
Uncovering the brewing industry of the Bronx tells not only the story of the lost industry, but it also communicates the narrative of the development of the Bronx. The brewers were German immigrants who developed a thriving industry by introducing lager beer to the United States by taking advantage …

Out-Group Threat Or Inter-Group Contact Theory? Out-Group Attitudes And Interaction In Times Of Diversity Growth, Annette Jacoby

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Much attention has been devoted to the presumed negative effect of diversity growth on various dimensions of attitudes and interaction between different racial and ethnic groups. However, whether the claims hold true is unclear- there is a considerable controversy over the impact of changing diversity on societal behavior. With ongoing migration, the United States are becoming more and more ethnically diverse but a sound debate on racial and ethnic composition and its consequences for inter-group interactions and attitudes towards others has not yet been possible due to a lack of causally-oriented panel studies.

In this study, two important features are …

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 …

Identity Crisis: Effect Of Immigrant Replenishment On Spanish Language Use Among Us-Born Mexican Descendants, Ana Sosa

Sociology Senior Seminar Papers

Immigrant replenishment may affect assimilation patterns of US-born descendants by maintaining the use and relevance of the language of origin. This study asks, how does Mexican immigrant replenishment affect Spanish language use among adult US-born Mexican descendants? Descendants include members of the second or later generations. I propose that greater exposure to Mexican immigrants will encourage adult US-born Mexican descendants to maintain their ethnic origins, especially language of origin. Therefore, the higher the rate of immigrant replenishment, the more likely respondents will speak Spanish at home. I analyze a five-year cumulative data file of the US American Community Survey (ACS) …

Sexualized Black Bodies: The Lived Experiences And Perceptions Of Diasporic Ghanaian Women Within The United States As It Relates To Black Sexuality, Yaa Bempa-Boateng

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The central purpose of this study was to explore the conflict within the problematic racialized and gendered construction of black women as primarily sexualized objects. This study examined the impact of media cultural representations of black sexuality on identity formation, migrant integration (ethnic and cultural interactions within and between groups), and perceived social achievements of migrant Ghanaian women in the United States. The goal was to gain in-depth knowledge surrounding how media representations are resisted or internalized among Ghanaian migrant women. This research was designed to discover the conflict resolution process undertaken by Ghanaian migrant women regarding this struggle of …

Emotional Directives Of Legal Status Changes: A Study On Immigration Status Grants, Perla Galindo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Judicial decision making has provided new frameworks to examine the effects of extra-legal factors. Yet, immigration courts have not received much scholarly attention. This Thesis examines the conditions under which non-citizen applicants likely to receive successful immigration status change. In particular, I analyze the effects of sympathy on the decision making of immigration court judges. Using a convenience sample of the El Paso Area, I evaluate immigrant applications for status changes to identify which factors illicit sympathetic and thus more likely to receive their status change requests. I find that younger applicants and Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals (DACA) applicants …