Doctoral Dissertation Research: Techniques of Cultural Adaptation among Immigrant Children

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

Scholars have long focused on the ways immigrant populations in the United States have adapted to US culture and how maintaining transnational ties to their sending communities influence this process and shape their identities. Though it has seldom been studied by immigration scholars, we know religion to be significant in the formation and transformation of identities. This research examines the role of religion in the lives and practices of the children of indigenous immigrants. This project, which trains a graduate student in how to conduct rigorous empirically-grounded scientific fieldwork, seeks to understand the role of religion in the cultural adaptation of immigrant children, as they experience a key period for identity formation process in the United States. The project would also broaden the participation of an underrepresented group in the sciences. Daina Sanchez, under the supervision of Dr. Leo Chavez of the University of California at Irvine will examine the role that religion and ethnicity play in the formation of immigrant identities and their adaptation to US culture. The researcher explores an immigrant enclave from San Andrés Solaga in Oaxaca, Mexico now living in Los Angeles, California. These young people include both those brought to the US as children, the so-called 1.5 generation, and the US-born second generation. The focus here is the yearlong religious ritual cycle that these young people engage in both Los Angeles and Solaga. The questions framing this research are: what role do religious and cultural practices among the children of immigrants living in the United States play in the formation of their ethnic, community, national, and transnational identities? How does their participation in activities and practices that extend to the Solagueno community in Mexico affect their identities and notions of belonging to the United States and to their parents' home community? To answer these questions, ethnographic research will conducted in both Los Angeles and Solaga over a 12-month period. Participant observation and interviews will be conducted among participants at three sites. This study will contribute to scientific scholarly discussions migration, specifically in the areas of immigrant adaptation and identity, rituals and immigrant religion, transnationalism (including 1.5 and 2nd generation transnationalism), and indigenous migration.