Perennial and Situational: A Study of Immigrant Identity Formation and Transformation

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the formation and transformation of Latino identities as well as the political implications of these transformations. I argue that upon arrival, shift from a defined stance in terms of their identity. Namely, they are likely feel strongly identified with their country of origin and far less identified as Americans. Conversely, their identification towards a pan-ethnic or Latino identity is likely seen as more flexible. Using mix-methods approach I find that as immigrants immerse in and by the host society, they go through a transition phase and they begin to experience what I call receptive and unreceptive agents of categorization. To deal with those agents immigrants find a comforting zone in embracing a situational identity (i.e Latino). Finally, after living in the U.S. long enough, immigrants are better able to deal with these agents and a return to their country of origin identity can be observed which I call perennial identity. In addition to ethnographic interviews I use a unique repeated cross-sectional sample survey, taking advantage of the numerous individual observations within a specific cohort and time period, I employ a hierarchical age period cohort analysis (HAPC) in the form of cross-classified models in which observations across the different surveys are nested within time periods and cohorts. By combining cross-sections from studies taken over five decades,I am better able to estimate APC effects than prior studies, which tend to be limited to a either a single cohort or a single period. The empirical findings suggest trends that support the dynamics of a dynamic process of identity formation and transformation in which identities unfold as perennial or situtational