The Media's Role in Immigrant Adaptation: How First-year Haitians in Miami Use the Media

Abstract

Immigrants to a now country need a vast amount of information to help them with everything from job-hunting to -developing relationships. Interpersonal relationships have been credited with having the most powerful effect on immigrant adaptation. However, in an environment that is often unnaturally restrictive (because of ghetto-like barriers between races), immigrants may turn to the media for information they cannot find elsewhere. This study investigates uses of the mass media and interpersonal communication in the adaptation of Haitian immigrants in Miami. It does this by testing several of the theories on immigrant adaptation presented by Young Yun Kim. The findings suggest that interpersonal relationships are (not surprisingly) critical in shaping an immigrant's adaptation to a new society. However, media use (both of the host - in this study, American - and ethnic - in this study Miami's Haitian - media)' influences and encourages adaptation when used in conjunction with a growing number of interpersonal relationships in the new homeland. Some studies of ethnic media have suggested that the ethnic media may help initially with an immigrant's adaptation, but that later adaptation may be hindered if the immigrant depends on the ethnic media for too long. This study found that ethnic media use was positively associated with adaptation of first-year immigrants only when the immigrants also used other American media sources. Those are two findings from this two-stage survey of Haitian immigrants completed in Miami during 1992. In order to interpret the results, it is critical to first understand the settings for the study and then to examine the theories of adaptation that provide a framework for interpreting the results. The Setting This study was done among Haitian immigrants in Miami, where many recent immigrants from Haiti have settled. The primary destination for most Haitian immigrants before 1970 was New York City. Other noticeable Haitian settlements also appeared in Boston, Montreal, and Miami. During the 1970s and early 1980s the most recent wave of Haitian immigration grew to include thousands of Haitian boat people headed to Miami.' Many fled Haiti for the same reason as Europeans a century before - to escape a land that no longer provided enough for them, Often, political problems contributed to economic hardship. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. As Miller puts it, life in Haiti is so difficult that have become aliens in their homeland. 113 These boat people drew headlines and resentment in Miami at the same time as thousands of Cuban boat people arrived to a much more receptive welcome.4 The U.S. government distinguished between the Cubans, who fled from a Communist government, and Haitians, who fled from a proWestern authoritarian government.' This unwelcome reception was accentuated by the 1983 misclassification of as a high-risk group for Although the Centers for Disease Control later changed this classification, the stigma attached to has not disappeared as easily. As a Miami Herald editorial put it: Haitians as a group have suffered real severe trauma, loss of jobs, and have been ostracized socially as a result of the link to AIDS.' The condemnation by association continued when the Food and Drug Administration recommended a more recent (1990) ban on giving blood, although it later withdrew the ban. Even as the number of in Miami approaches or surpasses 100,000,' the concentration of in a few areas continues. Little Haiti, the largest Haitian district in Miami, has more than half of the Haitian population in Miami. Little Haiti is a several square-mile area that includes most of the Haitian stores, restaurants, and headquarters for Haitian organizations. Its central area is at 54th Avenue, where the Haitian Refugee Center is located. Two-thirds of the early 1980s refugees settled in Little Haiti, while another 20 percent moved into predominantly black American districts. …