Race Migrations: Latinos and the Cultural Transformation of Race is a novel written by Wendy Roth, explaining how immigration from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic to the United States has impacted the changing cultural conceptions of race. In her study of immigration, she explores the societies of those who chose either to leave or remain in their home countries. The results from this study allowed her to understand and explain how migrants adopt an American idea about race without abandoning their earlier ideas of race. In other words, Roth explains how racial schemas are developed and transferred across borders, creating the possibility for schemas to be learned without an individual leaving his/her home country. Also, she uses this study to answer how Hispanics/Latinos integrate into the United States and where they fit into its racial structure. Overall, Roth’s study shows how racial classification and stratification are ideas…
The book Harvest of Empire offers many examples of the factors leading to migration, which include economic and political persecution. The book has a direct connection between the hardships Latinos faced economically and military in their perspective countries. By reading this book it is clearly stated that Latinos are on the verge of becoming the largest minority group in America. Juan Gonzalez presents a devastating perspective on U.S. history rarely found in mainstream publishing aimed at a popular audience. Few of those countries were immigrants from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Dominican Republic and Central Americans.…
More than one Million Latinos live in New England. This Book observes the Latinos impact on the religions culture, politics and economics while at the same time it investigates the effects of the locale of Latino resident’s lives and traditions. This book explores demographic trends, migration and community formation, and identity and politics using a wide range of approaches. From the Dominicans entering the Latino community In Water Bury, Connecticut, to the immigration experiences of Latinos in Massachusetts, these essays show a new view of the growing Latino presence in the birth place of the United States.…
Instrumental/environmental stressors have been characterized as challenges related to obtaining employment, healthcare, language skills and other goods needed for daily life (Arbona et al., 2010). These environmental stressors are experienced by most Latinos, however undocumented immigrants experienced these types of stressors at a greater rate due to their limited English language skill (Caplan, 2007). Leuck and Wilson (2010) conducted 2059 face-to-face interviews with adolescent Latinos, and found that while high English language proficiency is a significant predictor for having low acculturative stress among Latino immigrants, having high Spanish language proficiency predicted that these Latino immigrants would experience high acculturative…
The first five weeks of the course Latin America Through Another Lens has introduced me to another perspective on Latin America and immigration to the United States. We have watched film, read articles and completed research to better understand many Latin American countries and the people who call them home. Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, and San Salvador have all been considered in film and I found the movie When the Mountains Tremble to be especially moving. The course introduced me to immigration from Latin America to the United States and we took a closer look at five current myths that are often associated with Latin American immigration. I was very curious about the idea that immigrants are a drain on society’s resources.…
Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo and Mariela M. Páez. Latinos: Remaking America. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1997.…
After five or more years of living in the US, Latinos become much more likely to develop heart diseases and to be obese. The longer immigrants stay in the US, the more they struggle with discrimination, lower paying jobs, bad schools and bad housing. Many young Latinos drop out the school, and because of the cultural isolation, which they are not used to, many young Latino women commit suicide. Because these people are economically unstable, they don’t like to take days off when they are sick, and that makes them even more likely to develop various diseases.…
It was a pleasure to attend the lecture titled “The Economic Contribution of Immigration in America” by Dr. Alfonso Morales. As a Latina I am always happy to attend a lecture that is a part of the Latino Heritage Lecture Series. I strongly believe it is important to learn about different cultures, and these lectures are always very informative. For this lecture, I was especially excited to hear Dr. Morales discuss not only the economic contributions of immigration but also the more culturally inclined aspects of immigration. I found that even though his lecture was titled the “economic contributions of immigration”, he strongly emphasized more life enriching aspects like diversity and culture.…
Derose, K. P., Escarce, J. J., & Lurie, N. (2007). Immigrants and Health Care: Sources Of Vulnerability. Health Affairs, 26(5), 1258-1268. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.26.5.1258…
Acculturation is vital to adapting to a new environment, but it causes difficulties for parents, children, and the relationship between them. In a large study of Latino families, acculturation was found to have both positive and negative effects. The study found that more acculturated Latino adolescents exhibited higher rates of problem behavior. The causes included higher exposure to discrimination and negative stereotypes, a greater susceptibility to peer pressure, and lessening family cohesiveness as traditional values were lost and parental authority waned. Because the adolescents adjusted more rapidly then their parents, the values they absorbed from their environment clashed with those they were taught at home, causing parent-child alienation and youth maladjustment. Those less acculturated may remain invested in traditional values of respect and familial harmony, while those more adjusted may worsen relations with the more direct communication valued in the United States. However, acculturation may not be the only cause of conflict among Latino generations. As adolescents age, they naturally demand more autonomy, and this will cause conflict, though in these cases there is the added factor of rejection of traditions. This new independence is more cultivated under more highly acculturated parents, who tend to be less involved and monitoring. Because English proficiency is viewed as the best marker of acculturation, children of less adjusted parents have the added stress of acting as translators and interpreters from a young age. In this case, parents with higher levels of English proficiency, and thus acculturation, would benefit their children by obviating this role, as well as being able to obtain more resources and facilitate…
Indian American/Alaska Natives are one of the minority groups that struggle daily for improvement in cultural status, providing for their families, and living a healthy life. The percentage of Indian American/Alaska Natives who lacked health insurance in 2013 was 2.6% (CDC Feb 3rd, 2015). This paper will discuss the Indian American/Alaska Natives current health status, health promotion among this diverse minority group, and how this group relates to health disparities. Lastly, this paper will discuss three levels of health prevention that is likely to be the most effective given…
For this assignment, I thought it would be important to research the new wave of Honduran immigrants coming to America by way of Mexico and the complexity of migration, culture and education. The process of migration is incredibly complex and in many respects, traumatizing for those that have taken the journey. For Honduran immigrants, there are issues of brutality and harsh living conditions endured in ones home country and deprivation of basic resources and human rights while crossing into unsafe countries. In many instances, there is already trauma before one arrives in the US. Once here, Honduran Americans must often contend with language and economic barriers; for the Garifuna people of African descent, issues of race, language and cultural…
Large waves of Latinos have been immigrating to the United States for about a century. They have caused Americans to create policies throughout the years aimed at controlling and limiting migration. America’s Xenophobic values have caused questions of who is or isn’t a true American.…
Latino neighborhoods have increased by 232% from 1980 to 2010 (Onesimo Sandoval & Jennings, 2012). Residential segregation, which I define as the Latino and White spatial segregation by income for this paper, is an important concept to consider when creating health policies that are meant to ensure equal health outcomes among society as a whole. Although the World Health Organization defines health to be “a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity,” empirical evidence and statistics show that residential segregation has a threatening impact on the physical and mental health outcomes for disadvantaged Latinos (WHO, 100). Therefore, it becomes a social determinant of the health of the fastest growing population in the country (Onesimo Sandoval & Jennings, 2012). However, health researchers and practitioners…
In the following paper, “A Cultural-Ecological Model of Migration and Development: Focusing on Latino Immigrant Youth” (Perreira, and Smith, 2007), “Understanding and Responding to the Needs of Newcomer Immigrant Youth and Families” (Gaytan, M.S.W, E.M, Carhill, M.A, Suarez-Orozco, 2007), and “Immigrant Youth in U.S. Schools: Opportunities for Prevention” (Birman, Weinstein, M.A., Chan, and Beehler, 2007), will be compared and contrasted. Two common themes amongst the three articles will then be identified and then discussed in relation to how they relate to powerlessness and despair. Finally, a current community resource will be identified which is available for immigrant youth today that can help address the common themes that are identified within the three articles.…