Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Note From A Naive, Soft-Hearted Liberal, Katia Rubinstein

SURGE

“I’m voting for Trump,” my step-dad announced this summer. Through and through he is Republican, but his backing of Trump still shocked me.

When I asked him why, he said that he thought Trump could bring change while Clinton would only bring the status quo. He wanted, in fewer words, to “Make America Great Again.”

When I provided him with Hitler’s speeches and Goebbels’s propaganda, comparing the threats made to the Jews with those made to undocumented immigrants today, he brushed it off. “It’ll never happen,” he said with a shrug. When I replied with the sentiment of concern, explaining …

Examining The Experiences Of Government Assisted Refugee Women With Settlement Services In Kitchener-Waterloo, Lydia Awuah-Mensah

Social Justice and Community Engagement

No abstract provided.

A Profile Of The Linguistic Status Among Latinos In The United States Between 1980 And 2014, Karen Okigbo

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines trends in linguistic status — Spanish monolingual, English monolingual, or bilingual — among Latinos between 1980 and 2014.

Methods: Data were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Linguistic status is defined using three categories: Spanish monolingual, English monolingual, and bilingual.

Results: First, the highest percentage of Latinos in the United States were bilingual, and that finding remained stable between 1980 (67%) and 2014 (66%). Second, Latinos who were Spanish monolingual had substantially lower levels of educational attainment than bilingual Latinos …

Rhetoric Vs Reality: Public Opinion On Immigration In The United States, Elizabeth M. Belair

Student Publications

The United States has a rich and interesting history of immigration. The country itself was created by waves of immigrants who came from across the globe. Although immigration has always existed in the U.S., the number of immigrants coming to the United States has increased during the 21st century, and as a result, a controversial debate surrounding the consequences of immigration has emerged. In this paper I examine how Americans view the debate on immigration, specifically focusing on what affects public opinion on this topic. I find that shifts in public opinion do not reflect changes in immigration patterns but …

No Justice Given, Alison P. Lauro

SURGE

I’ve spent a considerable amount of time analyzing privilege and looking at how systems in the United States often work to further oppress the vulnerable, while keeping the privileged in power. I have taken note of how my light skin, middle-class background, and young, abled body has given me opportunities and advantages others don’t have. But, I hadn’t thought too deeply about the privileges that come with being a natural born, American citizen. I’ve stood up to salute the flag every day in school, watched fireworks on the fourth of July, and generally felt proud to be an American; but, …

Multiracial Identity, Matthew Oware

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This entry examines multiracial identity from each of the aforementioned perspectives, positing that classification entails more than individual claims and assertions; rather, the interactions between the state, multiracial groups, and personal decisions lead to a more nuanced understanding of the process of multiracial identification. The government plays a critical role in creating the "mark all that apply" (MATA) option on the census. The emergence and influence of multiracial activist organizations advocating for recognition of this population is significant now. Finally, there is considerable social psychological literature addressing mixed-race identity, focusing on the four largest pairings. Early research characterized this population …

Of All Days: Critical Pedagogy Outside The Classroom, Lisa M. Tillmann Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

A student at the author’s college pens a racist column on immigration for the school newspaper. Two departments, including the author’s, send campus-wide emails denouncing the rhetoric. A firestorm erupts, as much over the emails as over the op-ed. Years later, the student visits the author unannounced.

Boundary Formation And Cultural Construction: How Do Chinese Andindian Immigrant Converts Understand Religious Identity?, Di Di

Sociology

Most scholars study immigrants' religious lives in a vacuum, paying little attention to the religious lives of people who switch from one religious tradition to another. This article relies on interviews with Chinese and Indian immigrant converts in the U.S. to provide a unique comparative perspective on the religious lives of Asian immigrant converts, with a specific focus on their identity construction processes. Findings indicate that Chinese and Indian immigrants establish different types of boundaries, but form similar cultural content within their identities. I debunk the assumption in existing theories that religious conversion is an either/or transition.