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，以及与其派遣社区保持跨国联系如何影响这一过程并塑造他们的身份。尽管移民学者很少对此进行研究，但我们知道宗教在身份的形成和转变中具有重要意义。这项研究考察了宗教在土著移民子女的生活和实践中的作用。这个项目培训研究生如何进行严格的、有经验的科学田野调查，试图了解宗教在移民儿童文化适应中的作用，因为他们正经历着美国身份形成过程的关键时期。该项目还将扩大在科学界任职人数不足的群体的参与。戴娜·桑切斯在加州大学欧文分校的利奥·查韦斯博士的指导下，将研究宗教和种族在移民身份形成和适应美国文化中所起的作用。这位研究人员探索了一块来自墨西哥瓦哈卡圣安德烈S索拉加的移民飞地，现在住在加利福尼亚州洛杉矶。这些年轻人既包括小时候被带到美国的所谓1.5代，也包括在美国出生的第二代。这里的焦点是这些年轻人在洛杉矶和索拉加参与的长达一年的宗教仪式周期。这项研究的框架问题是：居住在美国的移民子女的宗教和文化习俗在形成他们的种族、社区、国家和跨国身份认同方面发挥了什么作用？他们参加延伸到墨西哥索拉盖诺社区的活动和做法对他们的身份和归属于美国及其父母家乡社区的观念有何影响？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学术讨论移民问题，特别是在移民适应和身份、仪式和移民宗教、跨民族主义(包括1.5代和第二代跨民族主义)和土著移民等领域。

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.