Masters Thesis Abstract

Abstract

The Immigration Reform Act of 1965 ushered in a new era of mass immigration that is predominantly Latin American and Asian. The shift from traditional to new sending areas as well as the changed economic and social landscape of the United States has reignited immigrant scholarship and spawned new methods to predict pathways of adaptation and assimilation, namely Segmented Assimilation Theory. A mixed-methods approach is used to measure immigrant and second-generation intergenerational mobility and to understand the experience of 1.5 and 2nd generation Mexican and Mexican Americans in Seattle. Questionnaires are used to measure assimilation determinates outline by Segmented Assimilation Theory – modes of incorporation, human capital and family structure. In-depth interviews deepen our understanding of an individual experience while simultaneously broadening our understanding of how individuals define and perceive their experience. From the questionnaire, we find that the educational and occupational achievement of 1.5 and 2nd generation sample members is strongly tied to modes of incorporation, human capital and family structure, as suggested by Segmented Assimilation Theory. Documentation is requisite for the educational funding all sample members have required to pursue secondary and post secondary degrees. The immigrant community in rural areas is seen as a catalyst for personal, educational and occupational growth while an inner-city immigrant community is seen as a hindrance to growth. Intact and extended families provide material and emotional support superior to that of fractured families, however, single parents with high levels of human capital provide vital role-modeling to their children. From interviews, we find that Mexico is at once a point of origin and departure, a place of celebration and anxiety, a source of cultural groundwork and cultural confusion for participants. Almost universally, Mexico as a background, a place and an idea has become a toolkit from which participants pull to overcome obstacles. The bicultural experience comes in distinct stages that followed the transitions from youth to adolescents and adolescents to adulthood – where being bicultural transitions from a source of embarrassment and discontent to a set of skills that influences personal and professional goals. Almost universally, sample members pursue goals that directly or indirectly honor, cement or reestablish their Mexican heritage.