Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Psychological Effects Of Immigration: A Comprehensive Review Exploring Social Identity, Acculturation And The Effects Of Cultural Attitudes And Systemic Factors On The Well-Being Of Immigrants, Huda Abu Nasab

Honors Theses

Immigration is a life-altering experience that can greatly affect an individual's identity, sense of belongingness, and well-being. The United States is known as a nation of immigrants; however, many immigrants have faced challenges related to assimilation and the development of their social identities in a new society. For example, immigration challenges often include adapting to a new culture, learning a different language, and navigating unfamiliar healthcare and educational systems. There are many factors that influence how immigrants adjust in their host country, such as acculturation challenges, cultural attitudes towards immigrants, and the availability of essential resources. This literature review aims …

The Rise And Fall Of Daca: An Audio Series, Dulce Garcia

Honors Theses

The history of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, commonly known as DACA, is a tumultuous one. In 2012, when President Obama created DACA through an executive order it gave relief to hundreds of thousands of people who were brought to the United States as children without their knowledge, giving them a range of benefits like never before including a work permit, a social security number, protection from deportation, and others. Yet, these last ten years the program has stood on shaky grounds with constant court battles canceling, reinstating or partially rolling the program. This audio series will give a deep …

German Immigration And Its Ties To Landscape Change In Nebraska, Lindsey Labrie

Honors Theses

This thesis uses a multidimensional approach to frame the different waves of German immigration within the context of land use change in Nebraska. By recounting the historical challenges and struggles Germans faced in their homelands, this thesis provides similarities between historical immigration patterns throughout the state. Observing the timing of these movements of people paints a clearer picture of how these immigrants might have helped change the farming and cultural landscapes of Nebraska. Knowing and recognizing historical immigration in Nebraska cultivates a deeper appreciation for the current relations between immigrants and Nebraska’s physical landscape.

Support For Open Borders: A Case Study Of Spanish Society, Anna Ondracek

Honors Theses

In his book “The Ethics of Immigration”, political philosopher Joseph Carens argues for the rights of migrant populations on the grounds of democracy, freedom, and equality. He advocates for open international borders, focusing on democratic countries in North America and Europe. Carens compares the current international order of closed borders to feudalism and discusses various forms of privilege Westerners have, which, he says, makes those in the West complacent and unaware of the injustices from which Westerners benefit. Focusing on the case of Spain, this project evaluates public opinions on the debate over open borders. I survey the support for …

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” …

European Spaces And The Roma: Denaturalizing The Naturalized In Online Reader Comments, Theresa Catalano, Grace E. Fielder

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

With the entry of several Eastern European nations into the European Union (EU), a “third” space has developed in the discourse for nations perceived as not fully integrated “inside” the EU system. This article investigates the construction of this “third space” in the resultant “moral panic” about undesired immigration from other EU countries and its potential drain on the social services of the United Kingdom and links it to Euroskeptic discourse in British media. The article uses construal operations from cognitive linguistics combined with critical discourse studies as a way of denaturalizing the discourse in online comments that focus on …

Depressive Symptoms In Mexican-Origin Adolescents: Interrelations Between School And Family Contexts, Prerna G. Arora, Lorey Wheeler

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

This study, as guided by cultural-ecological frameworks, examined multiple contextual stressors, including subjective economic hardship, acculturation, discrimination, and negative perceptions of school safety, as simultaneously linked to adolescents’ depressive symptoms, as well as the role of gender, familism values, family cohesion, and school connectedness on these associations. Data come from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (Portes and Rumbaut 2012) that included second-generation 8th- and 9th-grade children of foreign-born parents from the Mexican-origin subsample (n = 755; 52% male; time 1 M age = 14.20 years). Adolescents were either born in (60%) or immigrated prior to age 5 to …

Aging And Disability Among Hispanics In The United States: Current Knowledge And Future Directions, Marc A. Garcia, Brian Downer, Michael Crowe, Kyriakos S. Markides

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Background and Objectives: Hispanics are the most rapidly aging minority population in the United States. Our objective is to provide a summary of current knowledge regarding disability among Hispanics, and to propose an agenda for future research.

Research Design and Methods: A literature review was conducted to identify major areas of research. A life course perspective and the Hispanic Paradox were used as frameworks for the literature review and for identifying future areas of research.

Results: Four research areas were identified: (1) Ethnic disparities in disability; (2) Heterogeneity of the U.S. older Hispanic population; (3) Risk factors for disability; and …

Adolescent Survival Expectations: Variations By Race, Ethnicity, And Nativity, Tara D. Warner, Raymond R. Swisher

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Adolescent survival expectations are linked to a range of problem behaviors, poor health, and later socioeconomic disadvantage, yet scholars have not examined how survival expectations are differentially patterned by race, ethnicity, and/or nativity. This is a critical omission given that many risk factors for low survival expectations are themselves stratified by race and ethnicity. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we modeled racial, ethnic, and immigrant group differences in trajectories of adolescent survival expectations and assess whether these differences are accounted for by family, neighborhood, and/or other risk factors (e.g., health care access, substance use, exposure …

Love Thy Neighbor? Trust In Foreigners And Support For Transnational Policies, Sergio Wals, Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, Frank J. Gonzalez, Tess Gosda

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

This study assesses the extent to which individual levels of trust in foreigners relate to preferences about regional transnational policies. We use a nationally representative survey from Mexico (2003), an emerging democracy with relatively high levels of nationalism and several multinational trade agreements. We argue that clarifying the target of social trust is essential for understanding the attitudes of citizens of less powerful countries toward the international policy realm. Statistical analysis strongly suggests that in fact trust in foreigners, above generalized trust, is key to understanding such attitudes. Our results indicate that trust in foreigners among Mexican respondents is positively …

International Knowledge Flows And Technological Advance: The Role Of International Migration, Kacey N. Douglas

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Immigration is a major aspect of globalization. As the world becomes increasingly integrated, it becomes important to learn more about the effects of immigration on global economic growth. According to Robert Solow’s long run growth model, technological advance is the only form of economic growth sustainable in the long run. Those who contribute to technological advance – highly skilled labor – however, increasingly emigrate from lesser developed to more developed countries in a process known as brain drain. This process has been shown to lead to a permanent increase in income and growth in the host country relative to the …

Religious Affiliation And Attendance As Predictors Of Immigration Attitudes In Nebraska, Courtney Lyons Breitkreutz

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study examines the relationship between religious affiliation, church attendance, and attitudes towards immigration. Following the ethnoreligious perspective, I predict that those who identify as Mainline Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, or Catholic will hold more positive attitudes than those who do not affiliate, which would reflect the teachings of their churches. I also predict that Catholics may have particularly positive attitudes because of social identity theory. Attending church services should be associated with more positive attitudes, according to religious restructuralism. Using 2006 telephone survey data of 1,135 Nebraskans from the Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS), I use binary logistic regression …

Parallel Tracks, Same Terminus The Role Of Nineteenth, Century Newspapers And Railroads In The Settlement Of Nebraska, Charlyne Berens, Nancy Mitchell

Great Plains Quarterly

Nebraskans of the early twenty-first century have had few encounters with railroads. Passenger trains are nearly extinct, and freights run over only a few main lines. But without the railroads that began to crisscross Nebraska in the 1860s, it may have taken years for significant settlement to reach throughout the territory that became a state in 1867. As history unfolded, Nebraska became a state more rapidly than expected. Against a backdrop of threats from competing railroads, extreme weather conditions, and remnants of Civil War politics, two key institutions led settlers into the new state: the railroads and the newspapers. The …

Measuring Immigration’S Effects On Labor Demand: A Reexamination Of The Mariel Boatlift, Örn B. Bodvarsson, Hendrik F. Van Den Berg, Joshua J. Lewer

Department of Economics: Faculty Publications

Why do immigration shocks tend to have benign effects on native wages? One reason is that immigrants as consumers contribute to the demand for their services. We model an economy where workers spend their wages on a locally produced good, then test it via a reexamination of the 1980 “Mariel Boatlift” using Wacziarg’s Channel Transmission methodology. Current Population Survey data on workers in 9 different retail labor markets and Survey of Buying Power data on retail spending by consumers in Miami and four comparison cities are used. We find strong evidence that the Mariel Boatlift augmented labor demand.

Shaping Nebraska An Analysis Of Railroad And Land Sales, 1870-1880, Kurt E. Kinbacher, William G. Thomas Iii

Great Plains Quarterly

On December 23, 1878, Ohio resident D. F. Vanniss wrote to George P. Cather, the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad's land agent in Red Cloud, Nebraska. He asked Cather to buy for him "the best 160 acres of R. R. Land in your county," and just to be clear he emphasized, "I want it before somebody else gets it." Cather received many such breathless letters, urgent, pleading, and intense inquiries about the lands the railroad had for sale. Nearly all wanted to know the position of the allimportant railroad. Almost all inquired about the availability of the all-important resource: water. …

Imagining Kansas Place, Promotion, And Western Stereotypes In The Art Of Henry Worrall (1825-1902), Karen De Bres

Great Plains Quarterly

In May of 1876 three men took a private Santa Fe railroad car from Topeka, Kansas, ro the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. One was the Santa Fe land commissioner and the director of the railroad's exhibit, another was secretary of state for the Kansas Board of Agriculture. The third was a self-trained artist in the railroad's employ, and the designer of both the Kansas and Santa Fe exhibits. Fifty-one year old Henry Worrall lifted himself from a boyhood in the back streets of Liverpool to a comfortable life, and this journey in a company car, through artistic endeavors that helped support …

Beyond Hispanic/Latino: The Importance Of Gender/Ethnicity-Specific Earnings Analyses, Rosalie Torres Stone, Julia Mcquillan

Bureau of Sociological Research: Faculty Publications

The effect of economic change on the Latino to non-Latino White earnings gap has been well documented; however much of this research has focused on Latinos as a general category with little focus on subgroup variations. Despite varied histories and demographic characteristics Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans, the largest Hispanic subgroups, have usually been combined in analyses of earnings gaps. Consequently, we know little about differential effects of the “new economy” on earnings by subgroup across labor markets. Using a sample consisting of Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and non-Hispanic Whites residing in 106 metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) from the 2000 …

Canada's Campaign For Immigrants And The Images In Canada West Magazine, Laura A. Detre

Great Plains Quarterly

One of the major challenges that Canadian government officials felt they faced at the end of the nineteenth century was the development of the prairie West. By this time there were large urban centers in eastern Canada, but many Canadians worried that they had not truly ensured the future existence of their country. They hoped that filling the middle, the province of Manitoba and the region that would become the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta, with prosperous, white, family farmers would support the industrialized cities of the East. To do this the government engaged in a systematic program to encourage …

Come To The "Champagne Air" Changing Promotional Images Of The Kansas Climate, 1854 -1900, Karen De Bres

Great Plains Quarterly

Euro-American settlers poured into Kansas during the second half of the nineteenth century, and there they encountered a hostile and unpredictable climate. Rainfall patterns were erratic, and the extremes of temperature were both demanding and daunting. Countering these conditions, or at least tempering them, became a task for a variety of individuals and organizations. The work was straightforward: to transform the image of Kansas in order to attract prospective immigrants. As historian Carl Becker wrote, this was not easy: Until 1895 the whole history of the state was a series of disasters, and always something new, extreme, bizarre, until the …