Immigrant Home Research Articles

Literacy practices in Mexican immigrant homes

Despite a well-established body of literature focusing on school-based Spanish and English bilingualism of Latino children in the United States, the biliteracy development and literacy practices at home have received little attention by the educational research community. Addressing this gap is important because educators can then use the knowledge related to home language and literacy resources to inform the school curricula and better serve the needs of a linguistically and culturally diverse student population. We contribute to this endeavor by exploring two Mexican immigrant families and their language and literacy practices in their home milieu. Findings from this study suggest that family interactions, as well as the more general home context, are crucial factors in supporting children's development of both oral language and literacy in Spanish and English. An important and recurrent observation is the scaffolding that parents use in Spanish as part of their literacy practices. In addition, children act as agents in their own learning of Spanish, and in making connections to their knowledge of English

Two Stoves, Two Refrigerators, Due Cucine: The Italian immigrant home with two kitchens

Many Italian North Americans have two kitchens in their homes: one on the first floor, and a second in the basement. While this set-up is pervasive in cities across North America, homes with two kitchens are uncommon in Italy. This article explores the significance of the basement kitchen in first-generation Italian homes in Canada and the United States. Examining homes of various typologies in and around Toronto, Montreal and New York, purchased by Italian immigrants between 1950 and 1980, this paper argues that for Italian women the basement kitchen is a liberating space, free from the constraints of formality and traditional room divisions.

Domestic Violence in the Chinese and South Asian Immigrant Communities

Although the Chinese and South Asian immigrant populations are largely silent on this issue, domestic violence is a fact of life in many families. In this article, we discuss cultural factors that may cause and prolong abuse in Asian immigrant homes, and review similarities and differences between the two Asian cultures in this regard. This article also addresses the psychological trauma experienced by abused Asian immigrant women and the coping strategies that they are likely to employ. Culturally sensitive intervention strategies are presented that may be appropriately used in working with Chinese and South Asian immigrant women for whom abuse is a terrifying and demeaning fact of life.

Migration and Home Gardens in the Brahmaputra Valley, Assam, India

The Brahmaputra is the largest river system in northeast India. Its valley, in the State of Assam, is home to the Assamese people, indigenous Mishing and Karbi tribes, and Kaziranga National Park. A spectacular array of wildlife shares the floodplain including the endangered Asian elephant, tiger, one-horned rhinoceros and wild buffalo. The fertile floodplain and tea estates have attracted immigrants from within India and from neighboring countries. Migration has been linked to Assam's high population density and agriculture expansion. Based on household surveys in 37 villages in the park's periphery, we compared home garden productivity and economic return among residents and immigrants of different ethnic groups and explored the hypothesis that residents had an advantage over immigrants in maximizing gains from home gardens resources. The results indicated that, although resident home gardens were larger, production from immigrant home gardens was over four times higher and their economic returns were greater. Immigrants, who tended to live in low-lying areas close to the park and whose land tenure was less certain, were at higher risk of crop damage by wildlife and floods. They compensated in part by maximizing productivity of home gardens and by choosing crops that yielded greater economic return. We conclude that home gardens provide a basis for distinguishing between resident and immigrant land use practices.

Intergenerational Conflict in Korean Immigrant Homes and Its Effects on Children's Psychological Well-Being

This study is concerned with the nature of parent-child conflict in the Korean immigrant home and how such conflict impacts on children's self-esteem, depressive symptoms, sense of marginality and subsequently their coping behavior. Acculturative stresses of immigrant families and potential cultural sources for intergenerational conflict are explored. To test the relationship between intergenerational conflict and its impact on children's psychological well-being, the study relies upon 312 cases of survey data that were collected by Shalom Christian Counseling Center in Los Angeles in 1999-2001. Using a series of bivariate relationships and multiple regression analyses, we evaluate the relative effects of intergenerational relations and perceived marginality along with several demographic factors on dependent variables: self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and coping behavior. Our findings clearly demonstrate that conflictual intergenerational relations impact negatively on the psychological adaptation process of Korean immigrant children. Korean immigrant children whose conflict is not dealt with or resolved well tend to exhibit high depressive symptoms and low self-esteem, which also are associated with their perception of marginality in larger society. Females are more associated with depressive symptoms, but less on unhealthy coping behavior. Children whose residency is relatively shorter are less likely to show depressive symptoms and subsequently to engage less in negative coping behavior than are those who have resided longer in the U.S. These children tend to experience more unhealthy coping behavior than do children having stable relations with their parents at home. The implication of this study is discussed, and possible intervention methods are suggested.

Making up for lost time: the experience of separation and reunification among immigrant families.

In the United States today, one-fifth of the nation's children are growing up in immigrant homes. In the process of migration, families undergo profound transformations that are often complicated by extended periods of separation between loved ones--not only from extended family members, but also from the nuclear family. Though many families are involved in these transnational formulations, there has heretofore been little sense of the prevalence of these forms of family separations, nor of the effects on family relations. Further, such research has generally been conducted with clinical populations using Western theoretical frameworks and perspectives of families, limiting its applicability to immigrant families. The data presented in this article are derived from a bicoastal; interdisciplinary study of 385 early adolescents originating from China, Central America, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico. Findings from this study indicate that fully 85% of the participants had been separated from one or both parents for extended periods. While family separations are common to all country-of-origin groups, there are clear differences between groups in lengths of separations as well as people from whom the youth are separated. Descriptive statistics of country-of-origin prevalence, patterns, and outcomes are presented. Results of analyses of variance indicate that children who were separated from their parents were more likely to report depressive symptoms than children who had not been separated. Further, qualitative data from youth, parent, and teacher perspectives of the experience of separation and reunification provide evidence that the circumstances and contexts of the separations lead to a variety of outcomes. We conclude with a discussion of attenuating and complicating factors family therapists should consider in the assessment and treatment of immigrant families.

The Morality of Immigrant Home Ownership: Gender, work and Italian-Australian sistemazione

Studies on Australian migrants and housing consistently confirm that the Italianborn have the highest home-ownership rates of all birthplace groups in Australia. Only a few studies have suggested explanatory factors, including agrarian histories and economic aspirations. This paper demonstrates that home ownership for post-war Italian migrants to Australia was indeed conditioned by these and other factors, but within the broader process of migration. Conditions of poverty in Italy made sistemazione (settling down) the goal of migration. Built into sistemazione was a gendered moral imperative to achieve it. Work experiences demonstrate how this imperative conditioned home ownership in Australia.

Marketing in a Multicultural World: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Cultural Identity

PART ONE: GENERAL ISSUES OF CULTURAL IDENTITY AND MARKETING Perspectives on Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Cultural Identity - Janeen Arnold Costa and Gary J Bamossy Ethnoconsumerism - Alladi Venkatesh A New Paradigm to Study Cultural and Cross-Cultural Consumer Behavior Marketing and the Redefinition of Ethnicity - Dominique Bouchet Consumer Culture or Culture Consumed? - A Fuat Firat Interest Groups with a Noble Face - Eugeen Roosens PART TWO: CASE STUDIES AND APPLICATIONS The Cultural Past in the Present - Annamma Joy et al The Meaning of Home and Objects in the Homes of Working-Class Italian Immigrants in Montreal Ethnicity and Consumption in Romania - Russell W Belk and Magda Paun McDoner - Ayse S Caglar Doner Kebap and the Social Positioning Struggle of German Turks Blurred Borders - Thomas M Wilson Local and Global Consumer Culture in Northern Ireland Marketing Developing Society Crafts - Kunal Basu A Framework for Analysis and Change Culture and the Marketing of Culture - Janeen Arnold Costa and Gary J Bamossy The Museum Retail Context

Health status and health care utilization among New York City home attendants: an illustration of the needs of working poor, immigrant women.

In this paper, the health needs and health care utilization patterns of home attendants and their families have been studied as an illustration of those likely to be found among working poor, immigrant women and their children. Despite tremendous growth in the number of immigrants, studies to date provide only limited information regarding the specific health needs and patterns of health care utilization among such women and their children. As part of a longitudinal study on the impact of insurance on health status and health care utilization, 387 female, immigrant home attendants were interviewed. Data were also gathered on 355 of their minor children. These women and children were found to be less likely than other Americans to make use of basic health services, despite the fact that they are more likely to indicate fair or poor health status. This is true even in comparison to poor or uninsured Americans. Immigrant attendants in fair or poor health report an average annual visit rate of 4.1 ambulatory care visits for themselves and 2.2 for their children, as compared to 8.4 for poor adults and 4.4 for poor children in national samples. These findings illustrate the likelihood that poor, immigrant women make limited use of American medical care, and face barriers to health care that appear even greater than those faced by the uninsured and the poor.

Effects of School Climate and School Social Structure on Student Academic Achievement in Selected Urban Elementary Schools

One of most pressing educational problems which has plagued American educators during last two decades is failure of our urban public schools to educate children effectively in basic skills of reading and mathematics. Silberman reminds us that this failure is not new, the public school never has done much of a job of educating youngsters from lower class or from immigrant homes.1 Additional support for this observation comes from Michael Katz who argues that: United States has never, on any large scale, known vital urban schools which embrace and are embraced by mass of community, which formulate their goals in terms of joy of individual instead of fear of social dynamic or imperatives of economic growth.2 The public constantly has been provided with evidence of widening disparity between academic achievement of students in urban public schools and that of their peers in suburban public schools. The results of standardized achievement tests have long provided documentation of persistence and seriousness of this problem. In response to concern expressed by parents and educators, New Jersey State Legislature enacted Thorough and Effi-

Language usage in the homes of polish immigrants in Western Australia

Language usage in the homes of polish immigrants in Western Australia

A Pioneer Artist and His Masterpiece

by MARION JOHN NELSON i A Pioneer Artist and His Masterpiece When to America the great got under wave of way emigration in the second from quarter Norway of to America got under way in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, folk art in the home country was at a high level. One might, therefore, expect to find a folk art of distinction in the Norwegian-American settlements. Scattered Norwegian folk artists in the Middle West did produce works of exceptional quality, but a tradition never evolved. The reason was, apparently, that the geographic and socio-economic circumstances which had given rise to and perpetuated the tradition in Norway were not found on the American prairie. What were some of the conditions which accounted for the highly developed and long-lived practice of the folk arts in Norway? Most important was the mountainous terrain, which made transportation difficult and kept many communities almost totally dependent on locally produced goods until around 1900. Norway, far from the centers of modern development in Europe and without political freedom until 1905, was also late in industrializing. This meant that even in many districts where transportation was not a serious problem , local arts and crafts remained alive through much of the nineteenth century. For the development of purely decorative arts, the economic situation resulting from overpopulation seems also to have played a part. Most of the "rose 3 Marion John Nelson painters"- Norwegian decorative folk artists - discussed by 0ystein Vesaas in his Rosemaaling i Telemark came from cotter or small-farm families which could not depend totally on the land for a living. Rose painters, incidentally, were therefore well represented among the emigrants to America.1 Conditions in nineteenth-century America had little in common with those in Norway. Few immigrant homes or settlements in the Middle West remained self-reliant units for more than a decade. The railroad followed close upon the covered wagon, bringing factory goods and bourgeois tastes from the industrialized East into the remotest settlements. And on the prairies there was ample space for expansion. The enclosed and overpopulated community, which had to develop inwardly, did not exist. Most of the Norwegian pioneers who were active in the arts fell into one of two categories: those for whom creative activity was a hobby, carried on in spare time or in old age; and those for whom work in the arts was psychologically so important that it was given a substantial place in their lives, even if it served no obvious social or economic need and was looked on by the average immigrant as an almost indecent luxury. It was in the latter category that Lars Christenson (1839-1910) of Benson, Minnesota, belonged. His major work is the carved wooden altarpiece in the NorwegianAmerican Historical Museum at Decorah, Iowa (Figure l).2 Except for his artistic activities, Christenson was a typical pioneer. Coming originally from Stedje Parish in Sogndal, Norway, he arrived in the Benson area in 1866, and, as one of the first settlers in Swift County, had to clear and break 1 Vesaas mentions about twenty folk painters from Telemark alone who emigrated to this country in the mid-nineteenth century. Since very little significant rose painting from this period has come to light in America, it would appear that the painters felt no great urge to continue their art after they found more lucrative occupations here. Vesaas' book was published in Oslo in 1954. 2 Christenson sometimes added his family farm name, Kj0rnes, to his Christian and surname. The latter was originally spelled "Christensen," but became "Christenson" in America. 4 A PIONEER ARTIST his land, construct his buildings, and help found a community . He served as unofficial postman in the area, bringing in mail from great distances, and as government assessor for a district that covered several counties. He was the first chairman of the township; and he helped organize a Lutheran congregation, which often met in his house during the ten years before there was a church. He followed the typical pattern of material advancement, first digging a dugout, then building and gradually expanding a log cabin, and finally, in 1907, buying a frame house in...

AN OFFICIAL REPORT ON NORWEGIAN AND SWEDISH IMMIGRATION, 1870

AN OFFICIAL REPORT ON NORWEGIAN AND SWEDISH IMMIGRATION, 1870 BY A. LEWENHAUPT WITH A FOREWORD BY THEODORE C. BLEGEN In 1870 A. Lewenhaupt, the chargé d'affaires attached to the Swedish-Norwegian legation at Washington, made a report , based upon first-hand observation, on the immigration to the United States from Norway and Sweden, with special reference to the conditions met by the immigrants in America. This report is broad in scope: it examines the situation not only at Castle Garden but also in the areas of the Middle West to which the emigrants went. Lewenhaupťs findings are incisively presented, filled with concrete detail, and clearly of distinct historical interest. It is a sixteen-page pamphlet entitled Indberetning fra hans majestœts chargé d'affaires i Washington angaaende udvandringen fra de Forenede Rig er til de N ordamerikanske For enede Stater (Report from His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires at Washington concerning Emigration from the United Kingdoms to the United States of North America) . I found a printed copy, in Norwegian, preserved in the Norwegian archives , and the present translation, which makes the document available for the first time in English, is based upon this copy.1 After the report proper, Lewenhaupt gives some extracts from American laws in reference to the traveling effects of immigrants and a statistical table having to do with prices of various American products, foods, clothing, and the like in certain selected states in 1869. This material is not included in the translation herewith presented. T. C. B. 1 The translation was made some years ago under my direction by Mr. J. A. Fagereng as part of a University of Minnesota CWA project. 46 REPORT ON IMMIGRATION 47 The Lewenhaupt Account Since immigration constitutes the chief means of contact between the United Kingdoms and the United States of North America, and in view of the fact that current business at the legation consists largely of commissions from the immigrants' relatives in the mother country, I have hereby the honor to present in part some information relative to immigration in general , as well as to render an account of the reason for the delay in the execution of the commissions presented to the legation. Most of the immigrants from the United Kingdoms to America reach New York via England and on English steamships. Last year, however, a small group of about five thousand arrived on American steamships via Copenhagen. At present no immigrants are conveyed directly by steamship from the United Kingdoms to America. As a consequence of this situation, Swedish laws have definitely prohibited the overcrowding of immigrant ships such as prevails in other countries. Meanwhile, the immigrants complain more of the poor food aboard the ships than of the lack of sufficient space. Upon arrival in New York the immigrant vessels land their passengers on a cliff that projects into the harbor; it is called •" Castle Garden.'' There the passengers are received by the emigration commissioners or by a committee appointed by the state of New York, to whom the supervision of immigrants is entrusted . This committee has at its disposal a considerable sum of money; every passenger boat that arrives in New York must pay a fee of 7 rix-dollars, 50 öre (1 specie dollar, 105 Norwegian skiUing ) for each immigrant. This sum, which amounts annually to more than 3,000,000 rix-dollars, Swedish currency (750,000 Norwegian specie dollars), is used for the maintenance and expansion of the immigrant home on Ward's Island, an island situated at the entrance to New York. These fees also defray expenses incurred by the committee for the reception of the immigrants at Castle Garden and for their transportation to other points. All immigrants coming by way of New York have the right to free accommodation, if they need it, on Ward's Island during the first five years of their stay. The accommodations to be had there are necessarily comparable to those received at 48 STUDIES ANDRECORDS poorhouses; if they were otherwise the immigrant house would become overcrowded. The immigration committee's report for last year indicates, nevertheless, that immigrants seek admission to Ward's Island during the winter months in order...