Central Americans now represent the third largest Latinx demographic in the United States and the number is growing (Noe-Bustamante, Flores & Shah, 2019). Central America and those of the Central American diaspora are frequently featured in policy discussions, the media, and even Hollywood, but Central Americans themselves are often absent from such discussions and representations. Further, little of this work highlights the history of American imperialism in the region and how such actions have contributed to the instability and corruption now experienced in many Central American countries (Chomsky, 2015; Frank, 2019). The effects of such intervention and exploitation contributes directly to the displacement and northern migration of many from the isthmus to the United States, who then are confronted with xenophobic rhetoric and policies (Garcia, 2006). Still, despite the close and often intertwined histories between the United States and Central America, as well as their position as one of the largest immigrant groups entering the United States, little social studies research has focused on the teaching of their histories and experiences (Alvarenga, 2019; Bermudez, 2020). Few have used the study of the relationship between Central America and the United States as an opportunity to reconceptualize immigration, especially those from historically exploited countries, as inherently linked to American empire and imperialism. This qualitative research project, grounded in Latina/Chicana epistemologies and LatCrit, fuses together elements of narrative inquiry, through pláticas and testimonios, with participatory 3 action research. It explores how Central American teachers engage with testimonios, both as a process as testimonistas and as listeners of testimonios by reading collectively a set of testimonios written by Central American migrant youth. Through a series of pláticas and curriculum dreaming and building encuentros, our aim was to explore how testimonio could serve a disruptive pedagogical and curricular practice for the teaching of immigration, empire and Central America. The results demonstrate that the impact of American empire and imperialism in Central America has long-lasting and far-reaching implications for Central Americans living both within and outside of the Isthmus, which manifests in silences in both our homes and in our schools and which drastically affect Central Americans’ sense of belonging in our schools. Despite these silences, the teachers in this study, all of Central American descent, reveal how they grew to claim and be proud of their Central American identity. Further, this study illuminates how these experiences with empire-induced migration and displacement then affects who they are as educators, as well as their pedagogical and curricular decision-making.

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Settlement services for immigrants are a relatively new phenomenon in Canada. There is a dearth of research examining the roles of settlement services in the transition process of immigrant youth. Drawn from Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory, this interpretive qualitative study explores the experience of Asian immigrant youth who settled in Canada with the assistance of settlement services for youth. This study, conducted in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, involved immigrant youth from China, Korea, and the Philippines, aged 15-24, who participated in semi-structured, audio taped interviews regarding the roles a local settlement services agency (the Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society) played in their transitions to Canada. Data were analyzed using an iterative thematic analysis approach. The findings contribute to understanding the ecological context of settlement experiences of youth and shed light on challenges and barriers that Asian immigrant youth may experience in smaller, predominantly white, urban centres such as Victoria. The study also yields insight about the impact of settlement services in the acculturative process of Asian immigrant youth. This research offers a theoretical framework that can informs the design of settlement programs and the delivery of programs in practice. The study also supports several recommendations for settlement services that may be useful for the particular agency and for settlement agencies in general. / Graduate

The purpose of this research study is to compare two yearlong program models designed specifically to educate secondary-level newcomer immigrant youth within one large, urban school district in Southern California. The two divergent secondary-level programs that are compared in this study, a self-contained newcomer program and a beginning level English as a Second Language program (ESL 1/2), are explored to determine which program more successfully prepares secondary-level Latino immigrant youth to gain the language proficiency, academic skills, and academic self-concept necessary to exit after the requisite year. The research for this study is informed by scholarly literature that concerns the education of immigrant youth. The literature review is driven by the following four central concepts: an analysis of significant federal and California state language policy, mitigating factors in the education of immigrant youth, existing specialized program models, and guiding theories in the schooling of linguistically and culturally diverse students. The data for this study was collected utilizing a mixed-methods multiple case study approach. Three classrooms within each of the two programs were observed over a month-long period as simultaneous stakeholder interviews and focus groups were carried out to illuminate emergent themes and tensions. Additionally, both current and former students from the two programs were surveyed to determine their academic, social, and personal self-concept levels. The qualitative and quantitative data gathered through this study was analyzed and triangulated to determine the effectiveness of each program and answer the guiding research questions. The results of this study demonstrated mixed findings between the two programs under study. The students gained greater academic skill levels and a higher academic self-concept level as a result of the more supportive environment offered within the newcomer program, yet the ESL 1/2 students made greater gains linguistically, as was evidenced by higher redesignation rates. In addition, after their second year, the students from the newcomer program reported far lower academic self-concept levels than those who had exited the ESL program. Therefore, due to the mixed results, this study incorporated an action plan to assist districts in creating and implementing effective programs for newcomer youth.

Immigrant youth face uncertainty in many aspects of their lives. Most have little control over their family’s decision to immigrate and once they arrive, many encounter challenges. The Navigating Multiple Worlds project worked with a group of youth researchers to explore the relationship between stress, resilience and expressions of subjectivity among immigrant youth. Moving beyond the negative conceptualizations of stress and acculturative stress that dominate the literature, this research gathered youth perspectives on stress and what could be done to enhance supports for immigrant youth in Victoria. Through our participatory approach, the youth research team was involved in the design and implementation of interviews, focus groups and finally a photovoice exercise. Our methodology sought to highlight narrative complexities and the fluidity of experiences, with the research team reflecting on their own experiences while gathering perspectives on stress from other immigrant youth. The benefits and challenges of working in participatory paradigms with youth and the value of arts based methods for capturing youth voices and creating ‘thinking spaces’ for community engagement are highlighted. Historically, research has problematized immigrant youth identities. A focus on immigrant youth perspectives reveals that while many youth face challenges after immigration, they also emphasize the value of flexibility in self-definition. The combination of our methods, participatory approach, our focus on youth voices and taking an ethnographic approach to documenting experiences of stress, contributed to the distinctiveness of our findings. Considering stress as an idiom of narrative expression rather than an index of negative experience, acknowledges its place as part of the worldview of the participants, who use the term in multiple ways. The physicality of stress, the spatial and temporal dimensions of stress and ‘everyday stressors’ emerged from our analysis as thematic categories that describe the ways that youth experience ‘stress’. The findings of the Navigating Multiple Worlds project speak to the value of conceptualizing stress as a narrative idiom. Over the course of our research it became apparent that youth were talking about stress in ways that allowed them to discuss and normalize negative experiences, re-framing experiences of ‘stress’ in positive terms. For many, this facilitated fluid movement from a focus on challenges to a focus on coping and resilience. Our research suggests that while conflicting expectations in the lives of immigrant youth are sources of ‘stress’ for many, they can also be understood as key ‘sites of flexibility’. The processes of negotiation that occur in these ‘sites of flexibility’, as youth use the language of stress to name challenging experiences and overcome them, contribute to the resilience of youth. Although our findings are specific to a small group of immigrant youth in Victoria, BC, considering stress as an idiom of resilience as well as distress creates opportunities to recognize and enhance the strengths of immigrant youth and the supports available to them. Recommendations from our research in terms of service provision, supports, and participatory research with youth are provided, as well as suggestions for future research in anthropology related to immigrant youth and stress. / Graduate / 0339 / 0326 / 0347 / sarah.fletcher@gmail.com

No description available.

No description available.

Immigration disrupts an individual’s support network; however, the stresses of the immigration process increase the need for social support. The presence of social support becomes essential for immigrant children and adolescents to cope with these important transitional circumstances. Friends are both sources of social support and models for behavior. Furthermore, friendship networks are known to have a significant influence on youths’ functioning. Literature suggests that peer relations become more important in adolescence and friend support is related to child and adolescent well-being. Thus, friend relationships may be particularly important for immigrant youths who experience disruption in their friendship networks during the process of migration to another country. In addition to friendship networks and support, friend characteristics also need to be taken into consideration as important factors for immigrant youth adjustment. My study involved analyses of the effects of friend support and friend problem behaviors on emotional and behavioral functioning for elementary, middle, and high school age newly immigrant children and adolescents. Immigrant children and adolescents (N = 503) were interviewed at schools by interviewers fluent in participants’ languages. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyses revealed that friend support and friend problem behaviors were related to children’s self-esteem and externalizing behaviors. In addition, friend problem behavior alone predicted children’s psychological symptoms and depression scores. Furthermore, age/grade was found to be a moderator for the relation between friend problem behavior and immigrant youth behavioral adjustment such that compared to elementary and high school cohorts, middle school youths showed more externalizing behaviors when they had friends performing problem behaviors. Results supported the idea that both friend support and friend behavior are related to newly immigrant youths’ emotional and behavioral adjustment. This study informs further research and interventions concerning the development of programs to facilitate immigrant youths’ adjustment by revealing friendship factors related to their adaptation.

The United States is in the midst of demographic transformation that will continue to diversify the cultural, ethnic, racial, and linguistic landscape of the country. Within the last decade, millions of immigrant families have emigrated to the U.S. to escape tremendous hardships in their native countries. These families are guided by the hope of creating a stable, safe, and comfortable environment for their children. Unfortunately, the pathway to citizenship and authorized entry into the U.S. is convoluted (Kremer, Moccio,& Hammell, 2009) and families are frequently assigned wait times that can last several years (U.S. Department of State, 2013). These very long wait times are an unfortunate reality for several families, which is one of the many reasons some families enter the U.S. without authorization. Upon arrival into the U.S., many immigrant families experience anti-immigrant attitudes, prejudicial law enforcement practices, and feel socially isolated. The U.S. born children of these immigrant families are at risk for being separated from their parents who lack authorized resident status. In this regard, over 100,000 parents of U.S. citizen children were deported between 1998 and 2007 (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2012). However, little is known about how these children cope with the loss of their parents. To date, no research has been conducted that measures the psychosocial impact of parental absence because of aggressive immigration enforcement. Thus, a patent need exists for research on the psychosocial implications of parental absence in a child's life because of deportation. This study addressed the psychosocial impact of parental loss because of aggressive immigration enforcement. All participants of this study completed a demographic questionnaire and two technically adequate standardized psychosocial assessments that measured emotional symptoms. A two-group independent samples design was employed that included a sample of youth who were homeless because their parents were impacted by immigration and customs enforcement and a sample of youth who were homeless for other reasons. The present study sought to answer the following questions: Are there significant differences in emotional symptoms between youth who are living on their own as a result of immigration enforcement in comparison to those youth who are living on their own for other reasons? Are there significant differences in emotional symptoms between U.S. citizen and non-U.S. citizen youth? Do significant differences exist in perceptions of school climate between youth who are living on their own as a result of immigration enforcement in comparison to those youth who are living on their own for other reasons? Is the quality of relationships with parents significantly different between youth who are living on their own as a result of immigration enforcement in comparison to those youth who are living on their own for other reasons? Do significant differences exist in emotional symptoms between youth whose parents have been impacted by immigration and customs enforcement (ICE; Impacted by ICE group) in comparison to youth whose parents have been impacted by immigration enforcement for other reasons (Homeless for Other Reasons group)? Lastly, are there significant differences in perception of school climate between U.S. citizen and non-U.S. citizen youth? Results of this study did not reveal significant differences in emotional symptoms between the Impacted by ICE group and the Homeless for Other Reasons group. However, in terms of how they perceived their relationships with their parents, the Impacted by Immigration group reported more positive relations with their parents. There were significant differences regarding perceptions of school climate between the Impacted by ICE and Homeless for Other Reasons groups. Intra-group analyses within the Impacted by Immigration group indicated significant differences in perceptions of school climate among authorized U.S. citizens and unauthorized non-U.S. citizens. Unauthorized non-U.S. citizens tended to perceive school climate more favorably than U.S. citizens.

The purpose of the study is to gain a deeper understanding of the perceptions, among the inhabitants of socially vulnerable areas, of the various factors that make immigrant youth participate in criminal activities. The essay is a qualitative case study with semi-structured interviews, each respondent hailing from a particular vulnerable area of Sweden. The data was processed in a thematic analysis which was then divided into different themes. The study begins with an introduction informing the reader of what to expect ahead as well as background information on vulnerable areas, criminal activity, and newcomers. The collected data has been analyzed theoretically with the help of Hirschi's social bond theory, Becker's labeling theory and Merton's strain theory. The results show that young immigrants choose to participate in illegal activities due to various factors. According to the respondents, the factors can be anything from housing situation, living conditions, financial resources and others that empower them to commit crimes. The norms and values that immigrant youth have are unlike established social norms and for this reason they are regarded as deviants and feel excluded from the majority society. Immigrant young people experience strain from an early age as they attempt to establish themselves and enjoy a similar level and standing as other Swedes.