Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Power of Place: Ethnic Urban Geographies and the Negotiation of Central American Immigrant Identities in Atlanta, Georgia

对移民适应的传统理解认为，随着时间的推移，新移民随着时间的推移逐渐失去他们的种族和/或国家认同，因为他们融入了正常的北美白人环境。尽管同化研究往往过于简单化，而且建立在种族认同的静态范畴概念上，但最近的研究强调了身份认同的流动性和变化性。这一博士论文研究改进项目将考察在佐治亚州亚特兰大出生的中美洲居民谈判种族/国家认同过程中，被概念化为社会空间背景的地点的重要性。最近的中美洲移民不仅必须驾驭他们在亚特兰大遇到的二元但动态的种族结构，他们还必须将他们不断演变的个人种族认同感与其他人对他们是谁和他们属于哪里的看法进行谈判。本研究将使用定量和定性相结合的方法来解决以下研究问题：(1)中美洲移民如何适应亚特兰大种族结构但动态的定居地理环境？(2)随着亚特兰大的种族等级制度，亚特兰大最近的中美洲移民的种族/国家身份如何以及在多大程度上发生变化？(3)中美洲移民生活和体验日常生活的社会空间环境(如家庭和工作场所、娱乐、崇拜和购物)如何影响身份谈判的过程？将这三个问题联系在一起的一个关键主题是，亚特兰大的中美洲移民在多大程度上接受了泛种族的“拉丁裔”身份认同，以及种族身份的表达和意义在多大程度上可能会或可能不会在定义日常生活的各种社会空间背景中发生变化。这个项目将拓宽当代移民在美国经历的研究范围，并将提供可能对处理移民政策和/或移民生计和福利的人有用的新见解。此外，这项研究项目将突出移民对亚特兰大等非传统目的地日益增长的影响。在美国南部，拉美裔移民人口正在迅速增长，该地区历史上以没有移民和强大的黑人/白人种族等级为标志。亚特兰大经历了拉美裔移民的迅速涌入，来自中美洲的新移民在拉美裔移民流动中构成了越来越重要的组成部分。拟议的研究提供的洞察力将指导未来对亚特兰大和其他地点的中美洲移民的研究。通过加强地方和身份研究与新移民适应经验研究之间的联系，该项目还将为在其他背景下研究其他群体提供一个范本。该项目应具有一般的公共政策影响，因为它将强调需要针对特定群体的移民调整政策和举措，以便了解这些群体与他们居住的地方之间的相互作用。最后，作为博士论文改进奖，这一支持将有助于为有前途的年轻学者建立坚实的独立研究计划。

Conventional understandings of immigrant adjustment assume that newcomers progressively lose their ethnic and/or national identifications over time as they assimilate into a normatively white North American context. Although assimilation research too often is overly simplistic and based on static categorical notions of racial identity, recent research has stressed the fluid and shifting nature of identities. This Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement project will examine the importance of place, conceptualized as socio-spatial context, in the process of negotiating ethnic/national identity by Central American-born residents of Atlanta, Georgia. Not only must recent Central American immigrants navigate the binary yet dynamic racial structure they encounter in Atlanta, they must also negotiate their evolving personal notions of ethnic identity with perceptions of others as to who they are and where they belong. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative approaches will be used to address the following research questions: (1) How are Central American immigrants fitting in to Atlanta's racially structured yet dynamic settlement geographies? (2) How and to what degree do the ethnic/national identities of Atlanta's recent Central American immigrants shift in response to Atlanta's racial hierarchy? (3) How do the socio-spatial contexts in which Central American immigrants live and experience their daily lives (such as home and places of work, recreation, worship, and shopping) affect the process of identity negotiation? A key theme connecting the three questions concerns the degree to which Central American immigrants in Atlanta embrace a pan-ethnic "Latino" identity, and the degree to which the expression and meaning of ethnic identity may, or may not, shift across the various socio-spatial contexts that define everyday life.This project will broaden the range of research on the experiences of contemporary immigrants in the U.S., and it will provide new insights that may be useful for those who deal with immigration policy and/or the livelihoods and welfare of immigrants. In addition, this research project will highlight the growing impact of immigration on non-traditional destinations like Atlanta. Latino immigrant populations are rapidly growing in the southern United States, a region marked historically by the absence of immigration and a strong black/white racial hierarchy. Atlanta has experienced rapid influxes of Latino immigrants, and newcomers from Central America constitute an increasingly important component of Latino immigration flows. The insight provided by the proposed research will guide future research on Central American immigrants in Atlanta and other locations. By strengthening the links between studies of place and identities and research on the adjustment experiences of newly arriving immigrants, this project also will provide a model for research on other groups in other contexts. The project should have general public policy implications, as it will emphasize the need for immigrant adjustment policies and initiatives that target specific groups in order to understand the interplay between these groups and the places in which they reside. Finally, as a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award, the support will facilitate the establishment of a solid independent research program for a promising young scholar.