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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

An Exploratory Study Of Acculturation Experiences Of Graduate Student Immigrants At The University Of San Francisco, Courtney Lamar Dec 2018

An Exploratory Study Of Acculturation Experiences Of Graduate Student Immigrants At The University Of San Francisco, Courtney Lamar

Master's Theses

This study explores the shared challenges during the acculturation process of graduate student immigrants pursuing higher education in the United States. 13 graduate student immigrants at the University of San Francisco discuss their experiences of cultural adjustment into U.S. culture. Through qualitative interviews and thematic analysis, this study seeks to understand the acculturation experiences of graduate student immigrants in the San Francisco Bay Area of the United States. This analysis is based on the individual-level experience examining attitudes and acculturation strategies in the dominant society. Analysis, possibly policy implication for institutions of higher education, and possible directions for future research …


Hyper-Selectivity, Racial Mobility, And The Remaking Of Race, Van C. Tran, Jennifer Lee, Oshin Khachikian, Jess Lee Aug 2018

Hyper-Selectivity, Racial Mobility, And The Remaking Of Race, Van C. Tran, Jennifer Lee, Oshin Khachikian, Jess Lee

Publications and Research

Recent immigrants to the United States are diverse with regard to selectivity. Hyper-selectivity refers to a dual positive selectivity in which immigrants are more likely to have graduated from college than nonmigrants in sending countries and the host population in the United States. This article addresses two questions. First, how does hyper-selectivity affect second-generation educational outcomes? Second, how does second-generation mobility change the cognitive construction of racial categories? It shows how hyper-selectivity among Chinese immigrants results in positive second-generation educational outcomes and racial mobility for Asian Americans. It also raises the question of whether hyper-selectivity operates similarly for non-Asian groups. …


Islamic Terrorism In The United States – The Association Of Religious Fundamentalism With Social Isolation & Paths Leading To Extreme Violence Through Processes Of Radicalization., Shay Shiran Jun 2018

Islamic Terrorism In The United States – The Association Of Religious Fundamentalism With Social Isolation & Paths Leading To Extreme Violence Through Processes Of Radicalization., Shay Shiran

Student Theses

This exploratory study focuses on identifying motivations for religious terrorism and Islamic terrorism in the United States in particular. Terrorism is a crime of extreme violence with the end purpose of political influence. This crime is challenging to encounter for its multi-faced characteristics, the unusual motivations of its actors, and their semi-militant conduct. The hypothesis of this study asserts that religious terrorists are radicalized by passing from fundamental to extreme devout agendas, caused by isolation from the dominant society, and resulted in high potential to impose those agendas by extreme violence. Under the theoretical framework of subculture in criminology, this …


Becoming United Statesian: Experiences Of Newly Resettled Iraqi Refugees And Iraqi Immigrants, Bnar Mustafa Apr 2018

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 …


Czech Immigrants In Nebraska: A Question Of Identity And Assimilation, Katharine Meegan Mar 2018

Czech Immigrants In Nebraska: A Question Of Identity And Assimilation, Katharine Meegan

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the dynamics of cultural and social assimilation through the experiences of Czech immigrants into Nebraska. The Czechs' long struggle to maintain their ethnic identity has shaped their experiences with assimilation. After a review of assimilation theory, I conclude that the Czech experience with assimilation follows a “straight-line” assimilation model, a progression of assimilation that is complete by the third generation. Their relatively small size, settlement in rural areas, and a strong desire to maintain ethnic identity, as reflected in the formation of Czech language benevolent associations, gymnastic societies, and Czech language newspapers, led to “social” and “structural” …


Identity Crisis: Effect Of Immigrant Replenishment On Spanish Language Use Among Us-Born Mexican Descendants, Ana Sosa Jan 2018

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) …


Acculturation And Belongingness: The Keys To International Student Satisfaction, Semehar Ghebrekidan Jan 2018

Acculturation And Belongingness: The Keys To International Student Satisfaction, Semehar Ghebrekidan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to explore if acculturation in conjunction with belongingness, affected international student satisfaction. With the changes in immigration, the political climate as a whole and college campus demographics, it was important to evaluate what stress factors international students faced while being undergraduate students at a Midwestern University. In addition to using secondary research, primary research was conducted in the form of 4 interviews and 59 electronic surveys. The independent variables that were measured were reorganized into 2 categories: the students’ religious beliefs and the country where the student is from. Themes that came across throughout …


Sing Your Ethnicity Aloud! Grundtvigian Danes At The Intersection Of Denmark And America, Tina Langholm Larsen Jan 2018

Sing Your Ethnicity Aloud! Grundtvigian Danes At The Intersection Of Denmark And America, Tina Langholm Larsen

The Bridge

Most people familiar with Danish American history have encountered a narrative about the allegedly quick and unproblematic assimilation of Danish immigrants in the US, as presented here on the website of the Museum of Danish America: “Danes assimilated quickly, aided by the fact that they were white, northern european, and Protestant. Furthermore, Danes are practical and believed that assimilating into American society promised greater rewards than hanging onto their Danish identity and traditional ways.”1 even though this master narrative does, to some extent, capture the larger trajectory of the Danish immigrant experience, it disregards those Danish immigrants who played a …