This dissertation is an ethnographic study of Oromo Presbyterian Evangelical Church located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The case study of this congregation contributes to our understanding of how "new immigrants" are changing the American religious landscape. By assessing religious and ethnic identity among immigrant Oromo Ethiopians, this study traces Oromo conceptions of identity from the homeland to the diaspora. As identities are renegotiated in the new land, this immigrant group establishes a faith community whereby religion serves as a meaning-making institution to meet the social, cultural, and spiritual needs of the immigrant group. Furthermore, the relationship between post-1965 immigrant Christians with Protestant mainline churches is a dynamic affecting ethnic diversity and church growth. Thus, this case study points to the normative challenges faced by the Protestant mainline as new immigrants contribute to the redefining of American Protestantism. / Religion

Traditionally, the Vietnamese culture demands strong conservative values where individuals are expected to practice abstinence before marriage and faithfulness afterwards. Thus, the topic of sex is not widely discussed in Vietnamese families amongst parents and children. As a result, men and women who have never been to an American school will not have received up-to-date sexual health education. In addition, low acculturation levels could be preventing some Vietnamese men and women from accessing the educational and medical resources available to them. Vietnamese immigrants living in Central Florida could, therefore, be at higher risk for HIV/STI's. My research indicated several noteworthy patterns. Individuals who lived in the United States longer were able to name more types of STIs in existence. In addition, those who were slightly more acculturated were more likely to have tested themselves for STIs. These findings indicated that further research on Vietnamese immigrant is needed to explain these correlations and, hopefully, eliminate them with education specifically tailored for Vietnamese immigrants.

Few studies have quantified the effects on academic performance; none has investigated, as this study does, the effects of immigration, home language, and school mobility on academic development over time. What makes this study unique is its melding of sociological and psychometric perspectives – an approach that is still quite new. Logistic regression was used to analyze data from Ontario’s 2007-2008 Junior (Grade 6) Assessment of Reading, Writing and Mathematics, with linked assessment results from three years earlier, to investigate students’ academic achievement. The focus of this study is on whether the students maintained proficiency between Grades 3 and 6 or achieved proficiency in Grade 6 if they were not proficient in Grade 3. The results indicate that Grade 3 proficiency is the strongest predictor of Grade 6 proficiency and that home language or interactions with home language are also significant in most cases. In addition, students who speak a language other than or in addition to English at home are, in general, a little more likely to be proficient at Grade 6. Most students who were born outside of Canada were significantly more likely than students born in Canada to stay or become proficient in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics by Grade 6. These results highlight the importance of considering the enormous heterogeneity of immigrants’ experiences when studying the effects of immigration on academic performance.

Thesis advisor: Gerald M. Easter / This dissertation explores the factors that influence immigrant reception and integration in new immigration spaces like Dublin and Madrid. Through the case studies of Poles and Nigerians in Dublin and Ecuadorians and Bulgarians in Madrid, the thesis provides a response to three research questions: 1) How do Western European receiving societies construct inclusion and exclusion of the immigrant?; 2) Why do immigrants belong or fail to fit in?; 3) How do inclusion-exclusion dynamics and immigrants’ perceptions affect incorporation outcomes? The project contributes to migration scholarship by emphasizing the understudied cultural and local aspects of incorporation and bringing immigrant agency back into the integration equation. The central argument is that culture and identity matter. While acknowledging the significance of material self-interest, social contact, or national policy regimes, the dissertation finds that identity characteristics, both those of the newcomers and their host societies, are primary in determining the welcome or rejection of different ethnic communities in receiving cities. Further, the study shows that migrants are agents who form their own perceptions of belonging or isolation on the basis of cultural identity. These perceptions determine the foreigners’ stake in the host context and what they do with the openings and closures they face. The thesis concludes that political, economic, and social incorporation outcomes are ultimately conditioned on the interplay between the inclusion-exclusion dynamics in the receiving context and the immigrants’ perceptions of welcome or rejection. Analysis of in-depth interviews, survey data, and relevant documents and legislation for all four case studies confirms the main argument. The comparison among European and non-European immigrants in Dublin and Madrid attests to the significance of culture and identity for integration outcomes and contributes to the broader understanding of immigrant incorporation in Europe and beyond. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

Migration is at the centre of human history (Benmayor & Skotnes, 1994, p.5) and it has become easier to migrate inside Europe since the Schengen Area has been implemented in 1995. However, European immigration in France is invisibe and very little researched (Lillo, 2014, p.85). The migration to Brittany is a phenomenom developed recently (Morillon & Etiemble, 2008, p.125) and even if it is gaining momentum, this French region has still the lowest rate of immigrants in France (Economic and Social Council of Brittany, 2007, p.87, INSEE & DRJSCS, 2005, p.5-6). Brittany's regional identity is well known in France (Quand les sondages sont unanimes, 2019, p.44) and this region is defined as one with a strong identity (Kernalegenn, 2011). The aim of this master thesis is to elaborate hypothesis about whether or not European immigrants are aware of Brittany's regional identity before settling in the region, the perception they have of Brittany's regional identity once they live there and finally whether or not their integration in this French region with a strong identity is difficult. This qualitative research is based on four semi-structured interviews with European immigrants and one with a French person born in England, all now living in Brittany.

This thesis explores the notion of identity dilemma and its visualisation in the context of New Zealand Chinese immigration. It focuses on interpreting and visualising New Zealand Chinese immigrants’ thoughts and feelings and their struggle to adapt to the environment as well as their ambivalent negotiation to balance their in-between identity of being a New Zealander (Westerner) and Chinese. It is a practice-based project and is presented by means of photography, with illustration as the supporting medium. The predicament of identity is explored through interviewing members of the New Zealand Chinese community. A semi-constructed interview is designed and introduced to canvass 20 Chinese participants’ opinions of their cultural beliefs and sense of belonging in a Western society. The data is collected and analysed to investigate the informants’ thoughts and feelings in their daily routine in a multicultural community. I, as an art and design practitioner, visually interpret and transcend my opinion of identity dilemma of Chinese immigrants into my practical works. The participants’ thoughts and feelings are transferred into my artwork through creating patterns of visual elements. Employing a heuristic visual research method, my explorative work attempts to transfer social research findings of the idea of identity dilemma into my artwork for initiating contemporary visual discourse.

Cette recherche descriptive et exploratoire vise à décrire le phénomène de l'acculturation alimentaire auprès des immigrants récents originaires de l'Afrique de l'Ouest francophone établis à Montréal. À travers une approche écologique et sous l'angle de la communication pour la santé, notre motivation première est de cerner le besoin et la pertinence d'élaborer des programmes de sensibilisation et d'éducation à la santé alimentaire pour les nouveaux arrivants. Nos objectifs de recherche, au nombre de quatre, sont de décrire les habitudes alimentaires des immigrants avant et après leur arrivée à Montréal, d'identifier les facteurs d'acculturation alimentaire qui interviennent auprès des membres de cette communauté et de cerner les conceptions des immigrants relatives à l'alimentation et à la santé, ainsi que leur degré de connaissance et leur intérêt au sujet du discours alimentaire canadien. Pour y arriver nous avons privilégié une combinaison de méthodes qualitatives et quantitatives. Les principaux résultats obtenus démontrent que les immigrants de l'Afrique de l'Ouest francophone sont faiblement acculturés et conservent, par conséquent, en grande partie leurs habitudes alimentaires d'origine. Leur conception de l'alimentation et de la santé demeurent empreints des valeurs africaines, alors que leur niveau de connaissance envers le discours alimentaire local est faible et leur intérêt limité. Les principaux facteurs d'acculturation identifiés sont l'emploi du temps et l'habitude acquise au fil du temps ainsi que la solitude et l'individualisme entourant les repas. En outre, nous proposons une typologie et un modèle chronologique des modes d'acculturation alimentaires qui traduisent avec justesse ce phénomène auprès du groupe culturel que nous avons étudié. Finalement, nous en sommes venus à la conclusion qu'il existe un besoin réel pour l'élaboration de programmes d'éducation et de sensibilisation alimentaire auprès des membres de cette communauté culturelle. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Acculturation alimentaire, Habitudes alimentaires, Immigration, Afrique de l'ouest francophone, Approche écologique de la santé.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Urban Systems." Includes bibliographical references (p. 154-168).

Although research on parental involvement is increasing, little is known about the beliefs, goals, and practices of minority parents of adolescent children. This study investigates four key aspects of parental academic socialization, targeting Korean immigrant parents of adolescents: 1) meaning of parents’ educational goals and expectations for their children, 2) parents’ practices in facilitating children’s academic achievement, 3) ways of transferring parental beliefs to children, and 4) cultural influences on parenting. Using an ethnographic inquiry for the study, I will interview 5 Korean immigrant couples. The data will consist of interviews, demographic questions, home observations, and field notes. The implications of the outcomes are discussion. This report also includes an evaluation plan which details the components of the dual language program, an example program that the outcomes of the proposed study can be used to design or to modify. / text

This article is about immigrant entrepreneurs and their way through business life in an unfamiliar business world. Focusing on the region of Växjö, Sweden the article presents different attitudes of immigrant entrepreneurs and shows common problems and barriers. The article investigates how immigrant entrepreneurs’ deal with their daily life and what they struggled with in the past. What kind of barriers do immigrants face when they leave their home country? The overall aim is to research what support is needed in order to help regional immigrant entrepreneurs with their business. Therefore this article highlights barriers which immigrant entrepreneurs struggle with. As the regional support programs influence the path of business life the article presents their perspective as well. These supporters have a lot of experience in dealing with immigrant entrepreneurs which can be used to investigate improvements. As the most outstanding result, this article presents the importance of overall integration in the host country. The way through business life for immigrant entrepreneurs is characterized by an effectual logic but the support to entrepreneurs is often based on a causation-logic. Therefore the support givers should consider focusing on the individual entrepreneurs and the surroundings that influence the integration.