Doctoral Dissertation Research: An Ethnographic Investigation of the Impact of Migration on the Psychosocial Well-Being of Youth

俄勒冈州立大学博士候选人杰米·佩茨（Jamie Petts）将在肯尼斯·梅斯（Kenneth Maes）博士的指导下进行研究，研究移民影响青年社会心理健康的过程。这项研究的重点是一群被收养的埃塞俄比亚出生的青年，他们移民到美国，因为前所未有的埃塞俄比亚青年移民到美国或被父母收养。尽管被收养的青年和移民青年有着共同的国籍，但他们的移民前情况、移民机制和移民后情况可能非常不同。研究人员的目标是在社会网络和跨国政治经济的背景下理解移民，这些社会网络和政治经济塑造了移民过程。该项目将在美国太平洋西北地区进行为期12个月的人种学实地考察。研究人员将结合生物文化人类学理论和创新方法，包括生活史访谈、参与式观察和半结构化访谈，以青年为目标，在政治经济背景下塑造他们的利基、关系和愿望。收养的人类学主要集中在亲属关系和身份上。这项关于儿童发展的生物生态文化研究可以揭示跨国移民和被收养青年发展知识和技能、人际关系、抱负以及当地和全球社会等级意识的日常生活。此外，这项研究将有助于更全面地了解被收养儿童和移民儿童所面临的挑战，研究结果可用于制定旨在支持生活在美国的埃塞俄比亚青年和家庭福祉的公共政策。该项目还有助于培养一名研究生。

Oregon State University doctoral candidate Jamie Petts, supervised by Dr. Kenneth Maes, will undertake research to study the processes through which migration impacts the psychosocial well-being of youth. The study is focused on a group of adopted Ethiopian-born youth who have migrated to the United States, as an unprecedented number of Ethiopian youth migrate to or are adopted by parents in the U.S. Though adopted and migrant youth share a common national origin, their pre-migration situations, mechanisms of migration, and post-migration situations may be very different. The researcher's goal is to understand migration within the context of the social networks and the transnational political-economies that shape the migration process. The project will involve 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The researcher will bring together biocultural anthropological theories and innovative methods, including life history interviews, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews to target the agency of youth in shaping their niches, relationships, and aspirations, within political-economic context. The anthropology of adoption has focused largely on kinship and identity. This bioecocultural study of child development can shed light on the daily routines in which transnational migrant and adopted youth develop knowledge and skills, relationships, aspirations, and a sense of local and global social hierarchies. Moreover, this study will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges adopted and migrant children face and the results may be used to inform public policy aimed at supporting the well-being of Ethiopian youth and families living in the U.S. This project also contributes to the training of a graduate student.