Dissertation Research: Changing Ideologies Affecting Immigrants to Sicily

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This dissertation research award will support a cultural anthropologist studying the reaction of working-class townspeople in Palermo, Sicily to immigrant laborers from the third world. The racial stereotyping by Sicilians of "people of color" will be compared with their own understanding of bias directed against Sicilian immigrants to Northern Italy and elsewhere. The methods include participant observation in a working class neighborhood, interviews with union officials and a sample of workers, as well as a structured questionnaire distributed to neighborhood residents. This research is important because migrant laborers are common in many societies in the world. Increased understanding of the causes of anti-migrant bias, especially as expressed in racial terms, will help policy makers deal with these problems.