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A considerable body of evidence links social and economic inequities to poor health. One of the means through which these inequities are translated to the body is via negative emotions, which carry known psychological and physiological responses. This thesis is a historically contextualized study of how migration from Mexico to southern Arizona is experienced at the site of the body. In this dissertation, I outline the ethno-historical background of traditional medicinal usage and concepts of health and healing in northern Mexico, the primary sending region to southern Arizona. This historical grounding enables a richer exploration of how Mexicans understand migration to effect their physical and mental health. I then examine migration-related psychosocial stressors impacting first-generation Mexican immigrants in southern Arizona, and report on the primary emotional experiences immigrants associate with these stressors. Finally, I use the illness narratives of my participants to move more deeply into the connections between these experiences of emotional suffering and physical health. Here I employ immigrants' own words to draw a link between group level epidemiological data on health declines in the immigrant community and established research in biological anthropology and neurobiology that identifies individual emotional hardship as a biological pathway to disease. Given the heavy emotional toll of migration and the direct impact that regional legislation and border security has had on well-being, this thesis argues that emotion be considered an important mechanism for health declines in the immigrant community.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, 2008. / Title from screen (viewed on August 28, 2009). School of Social Work, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): William P. Sullivan, Hea-Won Kim, Irene Queiro-Tajalli, Sara Horton-Deutsch. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-236).

While it is clear that alcohol use among immigrants from Mexico has serious consequences, limited data exist on the correlates of this behavior for Mexican immigrants residing in rural, traditionally non-Hispanic settings. A cross-sectional survey with an outreach approach was used to target 173 male Mexican immigrants in rural eastern North Carolina. Questionnaires including demographics, pre and post immigration alcohol use, acculturation, stress, social support, and depressive symptoms were administered through oral interview by trained bilingual interpreters. Results show a higher prevalence of binge drinking in the study sample compared to rate of alcohol use by Hispanics in the United States. Relationships were identified between Pre-immigration alcohol use, lower perceived social support, socialization within one’s own cultural group, and binge drinking. These findings provide a preliminary basis in the development of interventions to address the problem of binge drinking in this population. Further exploration of the interaction between social isolation and social support is also needed.

Mexican immigrants living in the United States face academic challenges as well as being exposed to stereotypes. Additionally, Mexican immigrants tend to report lower self-efficacy compared to their American counterparts. This quantitative study aimed to fill a gap in the literature by examining the impact that stereotype threat (STT) has on Mexican immigrants' academic performance and social self-efficacy using a two-way between subjects design. Self-efficacy theory and stereotype threat theory provided the theoretical foundation for the study. Caucasian and Mexican immigrants were randomly assigned to one of two groups- a group exposed to STT (Caucasian n = 94, Mexican immigrant n = 10) or a group who was not exposed to STT (Caucasian n = 155, Mexican immigrant n = 21) for a total of N = 280. All participants were given quantitative analysis questions, analytical reasoning questions, and a social self-efficacy questionnaire. Results showed that Mexican immigrants in the stereotype threat group and Mexican immigrants in the no threat group underperformed on the quantitative analysis and analytical reasoning measures compared to Caucasians in both of those groups. Mexican immigrants in the stereotype threat group and the no threat group also reported lower social self-efficacy scores compared to Caucasians. This research highlighted the importance of the impact stereotypes may have on academic performance and social self-efficacy, especially among immigrants. The implications for social change include insight for Mexican immigrants about the types of challenges they may encounter upon moving to the United States. Additionally, this research could extend the conversation about the various negative effects that stereotypes may have on immigrants' lives.

The purpose of this work was to investigate how identity is transformed by the experience of immigration. Two research questions were conceptualized in order to address the essence of the inquiry. How do Mexican immigrant women living in the Roanoke Valley describe their lives back in Mexico? How do Mexican immigrant women living in the Roanoke Valley describe their lives in the United States? Interviews with three first-generation Mexican female immigrants currently living in Southwest Virginia formed the basis of the qualitative study presented in this work. The study was designed to understand Mexican women immigrants through their personal experiences and stories. The two main findings about their perceptions of life back in Mexico were related to lack of economic resources and the limited opportunities they had. Also, their memories of Mexico were paired with nostalgia of their loss in terms of family relations and cultural understanding. In general, the participants perceived themselves to be in a better economic position that encourages them to stay in the United States. An unexpected finding was that in all three cases domestic violence was a constant in the women's lives. However, despite the gender construction of Mexican women as passive females, the commonality in the three cases was that they looked for alternatives on how to resist violence by seeking support and resources to escape from it on either side of the border. / Master of Arts

UA Open Access Publishing Fund / It is increasingly argued that social and economic inequities poorly affect overall health. One of the means through which these inequities are translated to the body is via negative emotions, which carry known psychological and physiological responses. This paper examines migration-related psychosocial stressors impacting first-generation Mexican immigrants in southern Arizona, and reports on the primary emotional experiences immigrants associate with these stressors. Data were drawn from a qualitative, ethnographic study conducted over the course of 14 months during 2013–2014 with first-generation Mexican immigrants (N = 40) residing in Tucson Arizona and service providers working directly in the immigrant community (N = 32). Results indicate that the primary structural vulnerabilities that cause emotional hardship among immigrants are pre-migration stressors and adversity, dangerous border crossings, detention and deportation, undocumented citizenship status, family separation, and extreme poverty. Many of these factors have intensified over the past decade due to increased border security and state level anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona. Immigrants connected these hardships to the emotions of trauma (50%), fear (65%), depression (75%), loneliness (75%), sadness (80%), and stress (85%), and most respondents reported suffering from three or more of these emotions. Given the heavy emotional toll of migration and the direct impact that regional legislation and border security had on well-being, this paper argues that emotion be considered an important mechanism for health declines in the immigrant community. In order to stem the frequency and intensity of emotional stress in the Mexican immigrant community in Tucson, it is imperative to support organizations and policies that promote community building and support networks and also expand access to and availability of mental health services for immigrants regardless of documentation status.

Thesis advisor: Sarah Babb / Thesis advisor: Elizabeth Rhodes / This paper, "Free in the Land of Freedom? The Experience of Latin American Immigrants in the United States," examines the situation of Latin American immigrants living in the United States. Looking at the issue from the fields of Sociology and Hispanic Studies, this thesis tries to understand the causes and effects of immigration on a personal level. In the sociological section, I use fourteen in-depth interviews to study the lives of undocumented immigrants in Austin, TX, who emigrated from a town in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. I examine their reasons for coming to the United States, their border-crossing experiences, their current daily lives, and their personal reflections. In the Hispanic Studies section of my thesis, I analyze the novels Esperanza's Box of Saints, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, and the movie El Norte. Although each piece portrays a distinct immigrant experience, presenting immigrants who come from different countries and life situations, a common theme runs throughout the works. This section emphasizes the notion that immigration to another country demands an examination of one's self in an attempt to better understand one's place in the world. Studying immigration from the perspectives of sociology and fictional literature suggests that immigrants create and maintain personal connections in order to reach a sense of comfort in their new surroundings. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2004. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Romance Languages and Literature. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Gerad D. Middendorf / A number of cities in Kansas have experienced rapid growth in Hispanic population during the last twenty five years, due to immigration related in particular to the development of the meatpacking industry in the region. Garden City, Dodge City, and Liberal in southwest Kansas and Emporia in eastern Kansas have undergone significant transformation due to the influx of immigrants, the large majority of whom are of Mexican background. The present research approaches these immigrants from a sociological perspective, observing their cultural characteristics in order to understand who they are, and the process they face when adapting to the receiving environment, as a process of acquisition of cultural capital (Bourdieu 1977). This study focuses on the elements from Midwestern culture that are adopted and adapted, as well as the elements from the immigrants' cultural backgrounds that are softened or modified in order to fit within the receiving environment. The study examines these processes, from the theoretical perspective modeled by Pierre Bourdieu, as an attempt to develop an interpretive and comprehensive approach of immigrant experiences.