Doctoral Dissertation Research: Techniques of Cultural Adaptation among Immigrant Children

长期以来，学者们一直专注于美国移民人口适应美国文化的方式，以及如何保持与其派遣社区的跨国联系，影响这一过程并塑造他们的身份。虽然移民学者很少研究宗教，但我们知道宗教在身份的形成和转变中具有重要意义。这项研究审查了宗教在土著移民子女的生活和习俗中的作用。该项目培训研究生如何进行严格的以宗教为基础的科学实地考察，旨在了解宗教在移民儿童文化适应中的作用，因为他们经历了美国身份形成过程的关键时期。该项目还将扩大代表性不足的群体对科学的参与。戴娜桑切斯，在欧文的加州大学的利奥查韦斯博士的监督下，将研究宗教和种族在移民身份的形成和他们对美国文化的适应中发挥的作用。研究人员探索了来自墨西哥瓦哈卡的圣安德烈斯索拉加的移民飞地，现在居住在加州的洛杉矶。这些年轻人既包括那些在儿童时期被带到美国的人，即所谓的1.5代，也包括在美国出生的第二代。这里的重点是这些年轻人在洛杉矶和索拉加都从事的为期一年的宗教仪式周期。本研究的问题框架是：什么样的角色做的移民生活在美国的儿童的宗教和文化习俗发挥在他们的种族，社区，国家和跨国身份的形成？ 他们参与墨西哥Solagueno社区的活动和做法如何影响他们的身份和属于美国及其父母家乡社区的观念？为了回答这些问题，将在洛杉矶和索拉加进行为期12个月的人种学研究。将在三个地点对参与者进行参与者观察和访谈。这项研究将有助于科学的学术讨论移民，特别是在移民适应和身份，仪式和移民宗教，跨国主义（包括1.5和第二代跨国主义）和土著移民领域。

Scholars have long focused on the ways immigrant populations in the United States have adapted to US culture and how maintaining transnational ties to their sending communities influence this process and shape their identities. Though it has seldom been studied by immigration scholars, we know religion to be significant in the formation and transformation of identities. This research examines the role of religion in the lives and practices of the children of indigenous immigrants. This project, which trains a graduate student in how to conduct rigorous empirically-grounded scientific fieldwork, seeks to understand the role of religion in the cultural adaptation of immigrant children, as they experience a key period for identity formation process in the United States. The project would also broaden the participation of an underrepresented group in the sciences. Daina Sanchez, under the supervision of Dr. Leo Chavez of the University of California at Irvine will examine the role that religion and ethnicity play in the formation of immigrant identities and their adaptation to US culture. The researcher explores an immigrant enclave from San Andrés Solaga in Oaxaca, Mexico now living in Los Angeles, California. These young people include both those brought to the US as children, the so-called 1.5 generation, and the US-born second generation. The focus here is the yearlong religious ritual cycle that these young people engage in both Los Angeles and Solaga. The questions framing this research are: what role do religious and cultural practices among the children of immigrants living in the United States play in the formation of their ethnic, community, national, and transnational identities? How does their participation in activities and practices that extend to the Solagueno community in Mexico affect their identities and notions of belonging to the United States and to their parents' home community? To answer these questions, ethnographic research will conducted in both Los Angeles and Solaga over a 12-month period. Participant observation and interviews will be conducted among participants at three sites. This study will contribute to scientific scholarly discussions migration, specifically in the areas of immigrant adaptation and identity, rituals and immigrant religion, transnationalism (including 1.5 and 2nd generation transnationalism), and indigenous migration.