Immigrants

The intangible nature of the border leads to a wide array of implications for Latinx migrants. By dissociating borders from the literal space that commonly defines the word, borders can be put into conversation along with the institution of the university. By situating this paper in the larger scholarly discussion of the border and university critique it is possible to see how these intersections result in violent realities for Latinx migrants. Roberto Bolaño’s novel, 2666 provides a means to map out the violent realities that universities manifest for Latinx migrants. The feminicide pandemic in the fictional town of Santa Teresa mirrors the very real violence that happens toward Latinx among these border cultures. In the shadow of the university, violence against Latinx prospers to unknowable heights and a question emerges. Is it possible to determine the extent of damage the university causes Latinx migrants? The answer is unthinkable, but this paper is a means not to answer this difficult question in complete but to begin assessing the damage.

Pro-migration scholars and advocates for stricter immigrant legislation alike tend to rely on an economic framework to measure the value migrants bring toward the nation they’ve immigrated to and whether that value constitutes their right and ability to attain citizenship. By analyzing the influence and value found within Vladimir Nabokov’s use of the aesthetics of displacement, as well as other migrant writers since Nabokov, such as Cristina Garcia and Claudia Rankine that have expanded the racial and ethnic perspective of what can be considered “American,” I argue the criteria for citizenship within the United States should extend beyond traditional economic justifications and encompass the cultural capital immigrants produce through means of artistic labor and participation, influencing what is defined as American culture by being representations of what comprises the nation’s literature and the nation itself.

This thesis examines South Florida’s Brazilian community’ spatial organization in the region and its socio-cultural features in order to understand the nature of this immigrant community and the characteristics of its spatial structure. To do so, this study uses qualitative interviews with members of Brazilian community with the purpose of understanding how they make decisions of where to live, how they are connected to the broader community, how the community affects their individual experiences of living in the region and plan for the future. In addition, using secondary literature, it will compare the transformation of Brazilians ethnic community with that of the Cuban, Haitian and Russian communities located in South Florida. Situating this case within ongoing theoretical debates about immigrant incorporation in US cities, I will make the case that classical ethnic enclave or the spatial assimilation concept does not fit the spatial and social structure of Brazilian community.
The conclusion of this paper is that the US new immigrant ethnic groups may transform their shapes into a new multicultural ethnic web, as a result of the actual economic and social phenomena. The new ethnic web does not discard the disappearance of classical ethnic enclave, or the spatial assimilation processes, but given the actual international and local socio-economic processes, the three types of processes could overlap or be complementary.

The social, economic, and political changes created by the Meiji Restoration triggered Japanese emigration. Economically distressed farmers, planning on staying in America a short time, accounted for most of the Japanese on the Pacific Coast. Most history of Japanese immigration to America focuses on the Pacific states and their anti-Japanese stance. Florida's Japanese colony, Yamato, however, presents a different perspective of the Japanese immigrant experience in two ways. Instead of farmers, Yamato's first settlers included college-educated, ex-samurai men who came to America with every intention of staying. These men shared a common vision based on the unique Christian education that they had received at Kyoto's Doshisha College. At odds with the political conservatism Japan adopted in the mid-1890s, these young men hoped to build new lives in America. Secondly, in the beginning, Florida, a newly developing state, warmly welcomed and supported the establishment of Japanese colonies in the state.

The toxic combination of social, psychological, environmental, cultural, and physiological trauma Mayas living in Southeast Florida face daily places them at higher risk for mental and physical disorders (Marmot & Wilkinson, 2006; WHO, 2010, September). The burden of disease is not limited to mental disorder comorbidities; psychological stress can also induce or exacerbate chronic medical diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension (Brunner & Marmot, 2006; Sridhar, 2007). ... The continuation of this disregard will add to the health disparity of this nation by delaying assessment, treatment, and development of interventions. The purpose of this study was to explore cumulative trauma as it related to social determinants of health and pathophysiological, psychological, and health behaviors of 102 adult Mayas living in Southeast Florida. The trauma profile for the Mayan population sample obtained through this study reflected high exposure to different types of trauma; collective identity trauma was most frequently reported, followed by survival trauma, achievement trauma, secondary trauma, and personal identity trauma, with high rates of repetition of the same traumas ... Key words: Maya; alcohol; ASSIST; cumulative trauma; Beck Depression Inventory-II; genocide; Guatemala; Hispanic; social determinants of health.

Every day children of Guatemalan Maya immigrants balance two cultures. They reside in The United States and attend American schools but are being raised by their Guatemalan Maya parents. They continually navigate between the two and are faced with challenges daily. Since these children are influenced by two cultures, my interest was primarily on the cultural perspectives of these children, more specifically: what effects does the new culture have on the old? Through volunteering at a Guatemalan Maya after-school program, interviewing and administering the Children's Apperception Test, results showed these children to be influenced by American culture. The biggest indicator, play, was reported to be an important aspect in their lives, which is not considered essential in Maya culture. At the same time, these children keep close ties to their cultural heritage through their strong family ties. Overall, these children are influenced by American culture, but at the same time, keep their heritage.

The Migrant Education Program was enacted by Congress in 1966 as an amendment to the Elementary and Second Education Act of 1965. Today Title 1, Part C, of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 provides funding to states and subsequently to local educational agencies (LEAs) to provide educational programs and services to children of migratory farm workers. These funds are intended to enable these unique children to have access to state standards-based curriculum and to find success on standards-based assessments. This study examined the LEA utilization of funds awarded to the State of Florida under Title 1, Part C, from AY2007-09, identified the specific activities implemented by LEAs to meet the unique educational needs of the migrant students, and analyzed the impact of total student membership, total migrant entitlement, and concentration of migrant students relative to the total LEA student membership on the utilization of the funding. The study demonstrated that the Federal Office of Migrant Education policies and rules promulgated by the State of Florida channel funding away from educational activities for the students to non-academic expenditures.

Christian churches in the United States are very diverse. The diversity seen often goes unmentioned by religion and immigration scholars who write about the key role churches play in the assimilation of Hispanic immigrants. Scholars use the word "church" in order to refer to all Christian religious institutions. The use of one word to encompass the broad range of institutions can misguide readers to believe that all Christian churches in the United States help Hispanic immigrants assimilate in the same way. This comparative study includes Anglo, Immigrant, and Transnational Christian churches throughout the United States The focus is to explore the particular methods by which immigrants forge identities in Christian churches, identities with assimilation potential into an already multi-cultural, American society. Whether immigrants build an ethnic identity, a religious identity, or a mix of both, there is no guarantee that the identity developed will help immigrants assimilate.

This paper tests the religious economy model for predicting Church behavior which predicts that religious firms will become more politically active on behalf of potential members in areas where competition for those members is most fierce. An analysis of data from a survey of 106 U.S. Catholic dioceses and archdioceses on outreach to Hispanic immigrants does not support this hypothesis. Religious competition and Church activism on immigration issues did not correlate. Rather, demand for services (measured as Hispanic presence within each diocese) was a better predictor of Church activism on immigration issues. This finding suggests that the "inelastic demand" assumption of the religious economy model must be dropped, re-opening demand side explanations for Church behavior across national and local contexts.

This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. Timothy Steigenga, and has been approved by the members of her supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of The Honors College and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences. Using the United States and Spain as case studies, this thesis argues that increasingly restrictive immigration policies instituted by receiving countries have little to no effect on the net inflow of immigration, nor do they promote a higher rate of assimilation for those immigrants already present within the host country. An analysis of the net inflow of immigrants, their social and economic status, and their rate of assimilation in the U.S. and Spain suggests that restrictive policies only further the social and economic exclusion of immigrants from the host society. Restrictive immigration policies are more effective at keeping immigrants outside of the host country's society than its borders.