Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Strategies of Economic Adaptation Among Self-Employed Nigerian Immigrants in New York City

博士论文改进补助金：纽约市自营职业的尼日利亚移民的经济适应策略

• 批准号: 0718968
• 负责人: Patricia Johnson
• 金额: $ 0.75万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-07-01 至 2008-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0718968&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Strategies

Graduate student Leila Rodriguez, supervised by Dr. Patricia L. Johnson, will undertake research on the employment choices of Nigerian immigrants in New York City. She aims to answer two specific research questions. First, how does family affect the choice between wage work and self-employment? And second, for those immigrants who become self-employed, what determines their differential access to and use of social networks?Self-employed immigrants are of interest because they generate their own employment and that of other immigrants. Families and social networks have been shown in other studies to be important to self-employed immigrants.This study will expand on that research by determining how and how much family and social networks matter. Nigerian families differ in size and composition, as do their social relationships. This researcher will examine how different immigrants maneuver their families and social relationships in their occupational choices, and to what effect. Research will be carried out during a 12-month period in New York City. The researcher will conduct in-depth, semistructured interviews with Nigerian business owners. She will collect migration and employment histories and generate information on immigrants'' motivations, strategies, and obstacles in occupational choices. She also will conduct a quantitative survey of a larger and broader sample of Nigerian immigrants to determine differences between wage workers and the self-employed. Finally, she also will do participant observation and conduct interviews with community and religious leaders throughout the year. Participant observation involves spending time in Nigerian activities and becoming immersed in the community. This proximity to the community allows for a better understanding of their lives as well as increasing trust between the community and the researcher, crucial to obtaining detailed information. This research is important because it will improve understanding of how and why some immigrants are successful in establishing themselves financially and contributing to the local economy. The research will contribute to social science theory about socialization and economic incorporation. The research also will contribute significantly to the education of a graduate student.

研究生莱拉·罗德里格斯 (Leila Rodriguez) 在帕特里夏·L·约翰逊 (Patricia L. Johnson) 博士的指导下，将对纽约市尼日利亚移民的就业选择进行研究。她的目标是回答两个具体的研究问题。首先，家庭如何影响工资工作和自营职业的选择？其次，对于那些成为自营职业者的移民来说，是什么决定了他们对社交网络的不同访问和使用？自营职业移民之所以受到关注，是因为他们为自己创造了就业机会，也为其他移民创造了就业机会。其他研究表明家庭和社交网络对自营职业移民很重要。本研究将通过确定家庭和社交网络的重要性以及重要性来扩展该研究。尼日利亚家庭的规模和组成各不相同，他们的社会关系也各不相同。本研究人员将研究不同的移民如何在职业选择中操纵他们的家庭和社会关系，以及产生什么效果。研究将在纽约市进行，为期 12 个月。研究人员将对尼日利亚企业主进行深入的半结构化访谈。她将收集移民和就业历史，并生成有关移民动机、策略和职业选择障碍的信息。她还将对规模更大、范围更广的尼日利亚移民样本进行定量调查，以确定工资工人和个体经营者之间的差异。最后，她还将全年进行参与观察并采访社区和宗教领袖。参与者观察包括花时间参与尼日利亚的活动并融入社区。这种与社区的接近可以更好地了解他们的生活，并增加社区和研究人员之间的信任，这对于获取详细信息至关重要。 这项研究很重要，因为它将提高人们对一些移民如何以及为何成功建立自己的经济并为当地经济做出贡献的理解。该研究将为有关社会化和经济一体化的社会科学理论做出贡献。该研究还将对研究生的教育做出重大贡献。