Date

5-9-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Immigration is a hot button issue in US society, and has been for a while now. Starting with the wave of Irish immigrants in 1815, immigrants were not necessarily greeted with open arms (History.com Editors. 2018). Throughout history, excluding immigrants and treating them poorly became a pattern. This includes the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the quota system placed into action in 1924 (History.com Editors. 2018). Immigrants have always been resisted by American society and treated accordingly.

This resistance against immigrants has only grown since the 2016 Presidential election. Immigrants and their families have been stereotyped as uneducated and who “steal American jobs”. In reality, the children of immigrants face unique challenges that other children may not face, and they do so while obtaining their education. Whether it is the pressure of assimilating,

culture, family, learning a new language, or even discrimination, children of immigrants face these challenges head on while balancing their life in school.

While there are plenty of studies on immigration, there are very few that focus on the education of the children of immigrants. In order to investigate the pressures that are unique to these children, I examined the current literature which was available and then studied the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study directed by Alejandro Portes and Rubén G. Rumbaut. I examined the longitudinal panel study for indications of pressure from parents, culture, discrimination, and finances. In my examination and analysis, I found that there are a lot of parental and cultural pressures placed on the children of immigrants, and that discrimination, was not as big of a factor as suspected.

Department

Political Science and Sociology

Thesis Comittee

Dr. Walter F. Carroll, Thesis Advisor

Dr. Rachel Navarre, Thesis Advisor

Dr. Meghan Murphy, Committee Member

Dr. Melinda Tarsi, Committee Member

Copyright and Permissions

Original document was submitted as an Honors Program requirement. Copyright is held by the author.

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