In the era of advanced communication and transportation technology, immigrants and their descendents can be reunited with their ancestral land from where they or their forebears once were displaced. Visiting the ancestral land as tourists, or "roots tourism," is a major and easily accessible means through which people can recreate and retain the social ties with their ancestral communities. Roots tourism is loosely defined as a type of tourism in which ethnic minorities visit their ancestral lands to discover ethnic roots and culture. Despite the recent popularity of this type of tourism, many gaps remain in the research of roots tourism especially about its influence on ones' identity and sense of home among second generation of immigrants. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to explore the experiences of visiting ancestral land among second generation immigrants. For the purpose of this study, I focus on experiences of roots tourism among Chinese Americans. By investigating their motivation to visit their ancestral land, experiences and encounters in their ancestral land, and feelings toward the ancestral land and toward the United States after the visit, I attempt to explore how roots tourism influences ways in which second generation define and redefine who they are and where they belong under the transnationalism. Face-to-face, in-depth interviews with forty Chinese Americans revealed that, contrary to the idea that roots tourism generates strong feelings of belonging to one's ancestral land, a majority of the interviewees in this study felt foreign in their ancestral land. Although they felt a certain sense of connection to China or Taiwan, the feeling was overwhelmed by the differences in language, norms, class, culture, upbringing, citizenship, and family and gender composition. Analysis indicated that among forty interviewees, only three interviewees felt a sense of belonging to their ancestral society after their visit, and the rest of the interviewees realized their home is the United States. This study revealed the limitation of roots tourism as a tool to foster an identity and sense of home attached to the tourists' ancestral land. At the same time, the findings also suggest that roots tourism played a significant role to assist the interviewees to develop a positive sense of being Chinese Americans.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-18T18:44:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Ailton Goncalves Dias Filho_Parte1.pdf: 2376593 bytes, checksum: 847b916704878117fa6d48b9c0257901 (MD5) Ailton Goncalves Dias Filho_Parte2.pdf: 1943730 bytes, checksum: fcbc49fdfb2f15cec5f1f4d2ee5a65f5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-29 / Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie / The only moviment of North-American immigration happened between the years 1866 and 1890 to Brazil. After the civil war, a great number of families from the north of the US headed to Brazil looking for a new home. Some regions took those immigrants, creating the immigrant colonies. The colony that has succeeded and has developed the most was the once which has established itself in the region of Campinas, in the cities of Americana and Santa Bárbara d‟Oeste in the state of São Paulo. Those immigrants were mostly protestants. Their arrival has contributed to the development of the region in several aspects. Nobody can deny the fact that the presence of the American colony in the region has contributed abundantly with the introduction of machines and agricultural equipments to the racional and productive development of the existent crops. This presence has also contributed to the implantation and expansion of the Protestantism in the region. / O único movimento de imigração de norte-americanos aconteceu entre os anos de 1866 a 1890 para o Brasil. Após o fim da guerra da secessão, inúmeras famílias do sul dos Estados Unidos rumaram para o Brasil procurando um novo lar. Algumas regiões acolheram esses imigrantes, formando colônias de imigrantes. Contudo, a que logrou êxito e se desenvolveu foi a que se estabeleceu na região de Campinas, mas precisamente nas cidades de Americana e Santa Bárbara d‟Oeste, no interior do Estado de São Paulo. Estes imigrantes eram quase todos de origem protestante. Sua chegada na região contribuiu para o desenvolvimento da região em vários aspectos. É fato incontestável que a presença da colônia americana na região contribuiu em muito com a introdução de máquinas e equipamentos agrícolas no desenvolvimento racional e produtivo das lavouras existentes. Esta presença contribuiu também com a implantação e expansão do protestantismo na região. Assim, a educação, a agricultura, o comércio, a indústria e a religião, vão receber a influência desta presença norte-americana.