Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Undocumented Transgenders Fear Getting Sent Back Home Where They Were Discriminated, Denisse Moreno

Capstones

Transgenders from countries where they face heavy discrimination come to the U.S. with hopes of living a better life. However, they fear deportations and the possibility of getting sent back to their home countries.

The Croatian Community Of Southeastern Louisiana: Immigration, Assimilation And The Retention Of Ethnic Identity, Renee Danielle Bourgogne

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This work is a study of a community of Croatian immigrants to Southeast Louisiana in the twentieth century. Drawn from a multidisciplinary approach that included spatial analysis of settlement patterns, quantitative analysis of seafood industry data, the records of voluntary associations, and guided by the oral histories of men and women of Croatia who immigrated to Louisiana, this work reveals a community that has managed to maintain close ties despite its distribution both in urban New Orleans and rural coastal Louisiana through links created by and supportive of the state’s seafood and restaurant industries. The study points out how the …

Situating Belonging Through Multi-Sited Identities: Community Building Among Middle Eastern Christians In Upstate South Carolina, Amelia Ayoob

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a Human Geography perspective on immigrant identity and integration. Using the case of a diverse, multigenerational Middle Eastern Christian population in the Upstate region of South Carolina, I explore how Middle Eastern immigrants and their descendants have negotiated belonging and identity in the United States by simultaneously building new social networks in the Upstate and maintaining ties to the Middle East. The focus on a single case allowed for an in-depth exploration of how geographic and historical contexts have shaped the present-day dynamics of the community (broadly defined) constructed around two Catholic churches, one Latin and one …

Beyond The Economic: The Freedoms, Capabilities, And Social Capital Of Latin American Women Entrepreneurs In San Francisco, Melia M. Vilain

Master's Theses

In light of the scholarly debate surrounding the goals and mixed effects of development programs, particularly in recent years in relation to microfinance, this study investigates the effects of economic development programs on Latin American women entrepreneurs in San Francisco’s Mission District. It demonstrates that microfinance, when combined with education, can provide important non-economic benefits that contribute to increased freedoms and capabilities for immigrant women entrepreneurs. Drawing on qualitative interviews with ten business owners, as well as a review of the existing literature surrounding development, immigration, and gender, this research argues that owning a business in the US can produce …

Into The Red: A Look Into The Reasons Why Refugees Decide To Flee, Settle Or Migrate To And From Morocco, Fadeelah E. Holivay

Master's Theses

This research paper explores some of the main reasons why refugees and asylum seekers, particularly from sub-Saharan African countries, embark on a journey and decide to settle, flee or migrate to and from Morocco. Because of this phenomenon, Morocco has seen a 96% increase of refugees migrating to the borders of Morocco each year for the past three years. Many say that this astonishing increase of migrants choosing Morocco is due to such factors as: wars breaking out regionally across central African and Middle Eastern countries causing them to flee; Morocco being a culturaly diverse francophone country whose laws and …

Global Capitalism, Immigrant Labor, And The Struggle For Justice, William I. Robinson, Xuan Santos

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Around the world borders are militarized, states are stepping up repressive anti-immigrant controls, and native publics are turning immigrants into scapegoats for the spiraling crisis of global capitalism. The massive displacement and primitive accumulation unleashed by free trade agreements and neo-liberal policies, as well as state and “private” violence has resulted in a virtually inexhaustible immigrant labor reserve for the global economy. State controls over immigration and immigrant labor have several functions for the system: 1) state repression and criminalization of undocumented immigration make immigrants vulnerable and deportable and therefore subject to conditions of super-exploitation, super-control and hyper-surveillance; 2) anti-immigrant …

Unprotected, Unrecognized: Canadian Immigration Policy And Violence Against Women, 2008-2013, Rupaleem Bhuyan, Bethany Osborne, Sajedeh Zahraei, Sarah Tarshis

Publications and Scholarship

The Migrant Mothers Project (MMP) was launched in 2011, as a collaborative research project led by Rupaleem Bhuyan at the University of Toronto in partnership with a network of community stakeholders, legal clinics, community health centres, and grassroots women. The MMP examines how immigration policies contribute to the production of violence against women and creates barriers for women seeking safety and support.

In 2013, The Migrant Mothers Project conducted research to understand how immigration and refugee policies impact the safety of immigrants who have a precarious status. Since 2008, the Canadian government has introduced an unprecedented number of legislative and …

Post-9/11 Illegal Immigrant Detention And Deportation: Terrorism And The Criminalization Of Immigration, Stefany N. Laun

Student Publications

This paper analyzes the changes in immigration policy since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in terms of how immigrants are viewed in the United States. The goal is to address the recent criminalization of immigration in that the perceptions of terrorists and immigrants have become relatively synonymous since 2001. Although deportations have decreased, immigrant detention has increased significantly. Detention centers pose threats to the basic human rights of the immigrants residing in them, as well as perpetuate the culture of fear enveloping recent immigrants, whether they are legally or illegally in the country, and native United States citizens …

Immigrants Facing Immigration Policy: State Laws Regulating Eligibility For In-State Tuition And Belonging Among Immigrant Youth In The United States, Fanny Lauby

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation focuses on new paths of immigrant incorporation and on the political mobilization of undocumented youths in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area. The goal of this investigation is to assess whether contrasting state laws that either open or restrict eligibility for in-state tuition are associated with different levels of belonging and different styles of organizing among immigrant youths. This research draws from theories on political incorporation and a resource mobilization model of collective action. It also builds on theories of policy design highlighting the role of policy images in immigration reform. This dissertation aims to develop a broader …

Law Without Recognition: The Lack Of Judicial Discretion To Consider Individual Lives And Legal Equities In United States Immigration Law, John Clark Salyer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Law is not separate and apart from society but exists as a unique institution within society both being directed by social change and affecting social change. The history of U.S. immigration law shows that immigrants were welcomed or rejected depending on economic, political, and social factors (such as racial attitudes) and the legal definitions of what sorts of immigration were permissible or excludable differed over time. Since the 1990s, hostile attitudes towards certain immigrants have been represented in laws to a greater and greater extent, most significantly with the 1996 amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act. As a result …

The Immigration Debate In The 2012 Us Presidential Election And The Role Of Rhetoric, Maria Martinez-Mira

Modern Languages and Literatures Articles

November 6, 2012 was Election Day in the United States. It was the day in which the incumbent candidate, Barack Obama, was elected president of the United States for a second term, defeating Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Although the US domestic economy, together with the country's worldwide significance and global role, were the most prominent issues during the campaign in each candidate's political agenda, it was immigration, especially immigration reform, which became a heated topic of discussion for both political parties and their respective presidential candidates. Initially, it did not seem to be the most important issue of the campaign, …

Getting Kids Out Of Harm's Way: The United States' Obligation To Operationalize The Best Interest Of The Child Principle For Unaccompanied Minors, Erin B. Corcoran

Law Faculty Scholarship

The government estimates by the end of the fiscal year over 90,000 children will enter the United States. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 58% of these children were forcibly displaced and are potentially in need of international protection. However, in U.S. immigration law unaccompanied children are often seen as illegal migrants and law enforcement prioritizes their “alien” status over their status as children. As the crisis escalates, many of these children are being housed at emergency shelters in icebox-cold cells – nicknamed hierleras, Spanish for freezers, with no access to food or medical care, while DHS …

Immigrant Assimilation And Male Racial Labor Market Inequality, Patrick Leon Mason

Patrick L. Mason

At the height of the US civil rights movement in the mid-1960s foreign-born persons were less than 1 percent of the African American population (Kent, 2006). Today, 16 percent of America’s African Diaspora workforce consists of first or second generation immigrants and 4 percent are Hispanic. African American immigrants experience racialized labor market assimilation, with intergenerational improvement, education, and exogamous heritage being important paths of labor market assimilation. After living in the US for 9 – 15 years, first generation black immigrants will have wage and workhours penalties at least as large as native African Americans. The immigration process selects …

Toying With Americanization: The Impact Of Corporate Paternalism On Immigrant Children In Early 20th Century Colorado Coal Mining Communities, Jamie Devine

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the early 20^th century coal miners' lives in Southern Colorado were fraught with violence and hardships. Many immigrant men brought their families to remote areas to live in company towns and work in coal mines. The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) attempted to assimilate these ethnically diverse immigrants into American society. One method was to impart American values onto the children living in these company towns. CF&I purchased American toys for the children during Christmas and created kindergartens for the children to attend with the intent of imparting American values. In contrast, the parents of these children …

As Migrant Crisis Hits U.S. Border, Texas Town Keeps It Classy, Rick Brunson

UCF Forum

It’s a sweltering summer Sunday night in El Paso, Texas, at the city’s new downtown baseball stadium, where the local Triple-A team, the Chihuahuas, is leading the visiting Tacoma Rainiers at the seventh-inning stretch.

Black Is Decidedly Not Just Black: A Case Study On Hiv Among African-Born Populations Living In Massachusetts, Chioma Nnaji, Nzinga Metzger

Trotter Review

Black or African American is a racial category that includes the descendants of enslaved Africans as well as members of foreign-born black communities who migrated to the United States from places abroad, such as Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Grouping native-born and foreign-born blacks into a single homogeneous racial category may make it easier to track disease and health outcomes; however, it masks the different cultural experiences, histories, languages, social and moral values, and expectations that influence health beliefs, attitudes, practices, and behaviors. It also ignores such factors as migration, which forces foreign-born populations to examine both their traditional …

The Somali Diaspora In Greater Boston, Paul R. Camacho, Abdi Dirshe, Mohamoud Hiray, Mohamed J. Farah

Trotter Review

Our nation was founded on and thrives on immigration. One of the newest immigrant groups in the Boston area are Somalis. They are among the largest of the new populations of African immigrants. While precise numbers are very difficult to determine, there are approximately 8,000 in the Greater Boston area and another 2,000 estimated across the rest of Massachusetts. Very few studies have examined Somalis in the United States, and no studies exist on the community in Boston or Massachusetts.

It is an interesting sociological question to ask how similar the Somali experience has been in the United States (and …

God And The Global Economy: Religion And Attitudes Towards Trade And Immigration In The United States, Joseph P. Daniels, Marc Von Der Ruhr

Joseph P Daniels

Using the results of a national identity survey, we test the impact of religious affiliation on trade and immigration-policy preferences of US residents while controlling for individual level of skill, political ideology and other important demographic characteristics. Our results show that religion is an important determinant of international-policy preferences as individuals who are pre-Vatican II Catholic or members of a fundamentalist Protestant denomination are more likely to prefer policies that restrict imports and immigration. Religiosity, in contrast, has a separate effect of moderating attitudes towards immigration. In addition, we find evidence of denominational effects among African Americans in that members …

The Role Of Friendships Among Latino Male Adolescent Immigrants Who Are Unauthorized, Marcel Hernani Tassara

Dissertations (1934 -)

It is estimated that the United States is home to three-quarters of a million immigrant Latina/o youth who do not have proper authorization to be in the country (Passell, 2011). Given their unauthorized status these youth face a bevy of constraining factors, both proximal and distal. Furthermore, migration is typically characterized by a loss of social networks and cultural practices in exchange for disorienting social and cultural changes in a new land (Hernandez & McGoldrick, 1999). The importance of friendships during adolescence, has been well documented across cultures (Hartup, 1996). While a few studies have demonstrated the positive role friendships …

Mediated Narratives On Citizenship, Immigration, And National Identity: The Construction Of Dreamer Identities In Public Discourse Surrounding President Obama's 2012 Deferred Deportation Announcement, Marisa Garcia Rodriguez

Communication ETDs

In the present study, I explore mediated constructions of citizenship, immigrant identities, and national identity in the coverage of the debates that surrounded President Obama's 2012 deferred deportation announcement. My goals in this study are to understand (1) how citizenship is constructed in mediated discourse in response to President Obama's announcement; (2) how immigrant identities, specifically young undocumented immigrants (DREAMers), are constructed in mediated discourse; (3) how national identity is constructed through these mediated discourses; and, (4) how the representation of DREAMer identities reproduces or challenges dominant public discourses on citizenship, immigrant identity, and national identity. Using social constructionism and …

Beginning Again: From Refugee To Citizen, Ahmed I. Samatar

Ahmed Samatar

No abstract provided.

Negotiating Muslim Womanhood: The Adaptation Strategies Of International Students At Two American Public Colleges, Amber Michelle Gregory

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

From a Western perspective, North Americans and Western Europeans perceive Muslim women as being oppressed (Andrea 2009; Lutz 1997, 96; Ozyurt 2013). Led by this assumption, some view studying abroad as an international student as an experience that allows Muslim women the opportunity to "escape" this supposed oppression and to know "freedom" in the U.S. However, Muslim women's experiences are more dynamic and complex than this dualism suggests. In this thesis, I explore adaptation strategies of Muslim women international students, and how gender, race, and religion affect their experiences while abroad. Furthermore, I explore the women's use of emotion management …

Australia’S Boatpeople Policy: Regional Cooperation Or Passing The Buck?, Christopher C. White

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

The Australian government implemented a new policy in July 2013 in an attempt to more effectively address the recent spike in irregular migrants trying to reach its shores. In this paper, I examine the panic over migration in Australia concerning asylum seekers arriving by boat. The discussion is divided into two main themes. First, I look at how the Australian government is attempting to manage irregular immigration with a specific focus on the regional arrangement with Papua New Guinea. I argue that instead of mutually beneficial efforts at regional cooperation, the Australian government is merely shifting its responsibilities to a …

Immigrants, Roma And Sinti Unveil The “National” In Italian Identity, Francesco Melfi

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

This essay picks up a few threads in the ongoing debate on national identity in Italy. Immigration and the intertwining of cultures locally have stretched the contours of the nation state to a breaking point. As a result, the social self has become a sharply contested terrain between those who want to install a symbolic electronic fence around an imagined fatherland and those who want a more inclusive nation at home in a global world. After discussing the views of Amin Maalouf (2000), Alessandro Dal Lago (2009), Abdelmalek Sayad (1999) and Patrick Manning (2005) on national identity and migration in …

More Than A Tribesman: The New African Diasporan Identity, Stephen M. Magu

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Current global levels of immigration stand at about 300 million persons; of these, IFAD estimates that 30 million Africans are in the Diaspora. The contributions of diasporic Africans to their communities and to the cultural experiences of the United States are multimodal. To their domiciles, they contribute economically, empowering their families to become more active and less dependent on the state, while transmitting ideas about democracy and better government. At the same time, they contribute to their adopted homelands through social and cultural activities, cultural festivals and other indicators of cultural connectedness to their motherlands. The African diaspora of necessity …

Social Context And Perceived Belonging: A Comparative Study Of Children Of Immigrants In New York And Madrid, Jessica Sperling Smokoski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project examines the ways in which distinct contexts - and, specifically, distinct histories of immigration and ethnoracial diversity - affect the form, nature, and salience of boundaries demarcating an us/them (immigrant/non-immigrant) divide, including the perceived possibilities of social membership and the compatibility of minority and majority identity. It centers on the following research questions: What do the young adult 1.5/2nd generation see as the dominant boundaries or social divides in their countries of residence, in terms of differentiating immigrant-origin or ethnoracial minority groups from a perceived native-origin/mainstream population? How fluid are these boundaries, and when/why may they be subject …

U.S. Immigration: The Origins And Evolution Of Contemporary Issues And The Architecture Of Future Reform, Andrew Beaule

Honors Theses

In 1965, the United States Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act, attempting to remove racial, religious, and cultural discrimination from the immigration system. However, the infamous act and subsequent legislation have caused unintended consequences. Illegal immigration has skyrocketed despite a massive increase in border enforcement; and Central Americans, particularly Mexicans, have become the target of racial and cultural discrimination, much like the Southern European immigrants of the early 1900s. The current immigration system still relies on the framework passed nearly 50 years ago, proving to be insufficient for contemporary United States. This thesis investigates the historical patterns in immigration …

Ways To Refuge: Bosnians In Central New York In Ethnographic Perspective, Fethi Keles

Dissertations - ALL

Ways to Refuge: Bosnians in Central New York in Ethnographic Perspective

This dissertation documents the resettlement experiences of Bosnian Muslims relocated to two urban locales in the north of New York State during and after the Bosnian War in the Balkans. To do so, it relies on ethnographic data gathered mainly through extensive interviews and participant-observation conducted over a period of fourteen months of fieldwork in a variety of places in Central New York.

The dissertation provides individual- and group-level descriptions and analyses of various aspects of the diasporic experiences of the Bosnians encountered in the research, in addition to …

Irish And German Immigrants Of The Nineteenth Century: Hardships, Improvements, And Success, Amanda A. Tagore

Honors College Theses

This paper examines the economic and social reasons that are attributed to the high emigration rate in Ireland and in Germany during the nineteenth century, and how the lives of these groups turned out in the United States. As a result of economic deterioration and social inequality, pessimism became prevalent in Ireland from the 1840s onward and in Germany from the 1830s onward. Because the United States was perceived as an optimistic avenue for advancement, thousands of Irish and Germans emigrated their homelands and fled to America in search of a better life. During the first few decades upon their …

Are Non-Profit Immigration Organizations Ready For A Comprehensive Immigration Reform?, Sandra Lizeth Molina, Deserae Leanna Quezada

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore whether non-profit immigration organizations are ready for a comprehensive immigration reform. Social workers need to recognize that a lack of readiness among non-profit immigration organizations for a comprehensive immigration reform will lead to a lack of required services for undocumented populations. The sample consisted of twelve religious and non-religiously affiliated non-profit immigration organizations. A qualitative research method was used to analyze the data.

The results of the study concluded that non-profit immigration organizations are not ready for a CIR. Although the organizations are not ready, several factors were found to affect their …