America Letters as Witnesses and Agents of Change. Norwegian-American Immigrant Epistles

America Letters as Witnesses and Agents of Change. Norwegian-American Immigrant Epistles. The letters written by immigrants to their family and friends in the homeland are pieces of a mosaic that provides a wider picture of the personal stories of migration. The analysis of migration has too often focused on statistics, on the mass of people who have emigrated to the New World. However, America letters represent genuine and simple stories of individuals and reflect, in a personal manner, the way immigrants experienced the migration, as well as the way they tried to adapt to a new culture. America letters reveal the enthusiasm, courage and sense of adventure of the immigrants, but also the difficulties, disillusionment, their struggle to belong, even the despair they went through. This paper argues that America letters are witnesses of change, since the immigrants described the challenges of adjustment and acculturation in the letters they sent home, but also agents of change, as they greatly influenced the Norwegian emigration to America. Norway’s coast and valleys were teeming in the nineteenth century with accounts of the conditions in the New World as they were described in the letters sent home by the immigrants. These immigrant letters contain the testimonials of those who had chosen to emigrate and were passed on from family to family, parish to parish, village to village, convincing more and more people to leave the homeland for America. Keywords: Norwegian emigration to America, Norwegian-American, immigrant letters, America letters, immigrant experience, evolution of mass migration, personal stories of migration

The Immigrant Waves from Latin American to Canada: A Look at Immigration and Census Statistics

In the last decades, migration from Latin America to Canada has become a topic of interest for Canadian scholars, policy decision-makers that look after the well-being of this population as well as for community members themselves. The nature of Latino immigration to Canada is continuously changing, and so does how the integration of these immigrants to Canada is interpreted and problematized. Using yearly immigration statistics and 2016 Census data, the author looks at the 1965-2015 and 1981-2016 periods and explores the five major Latin American immigrant waves previously identified by Canadian scholars: the Eurolatino or Lead of the 1960s, the Andean and Coup of the 1970s, the Central American of the 1980s, and the Technological-Professional which started in the mid-1990s. A sixth additional Sustaining Latino immigrant wave is also identified. Immigrant waves are the product of particular historical international developments as well as changes in Canada's immigration policy. The paper briefly also examines the historical moments of Latino immigration to Canada, the socio-demographic composition of national immigrant inflows related to these immigrant waves, and reflects on how the immigrant selection process has affected immigration integration outcomes and community formation.

Reconceptualization of National Spaces: A Close Reading of Bharati Mukherjee’s selected novels with Gloria Anzaldúa´s Nueva Conciencia Mestiza

In 1997, Bharati Mukherjee, a renowned diaspora woman writer, stated in an interview, “I am an American, not an Asian American.” Since then, she has been virulently attacked for defining herself as an American by the writers of her original homeland and her diaspora compatriots. However, with this statement, Mukherjee challenged the diaspora writing and took a solid move to redefine the diaspora through her life and novels. Her novels also considered her autobiographical notes, demonstrate a new diaspora identity that is fluid and transforming. Her latest diaspora writing has challenged the quintessential diaspora identity, gender structure, definition of home, and host land. The paper will do a close reading of her four novels, The Tiger’s Daughters (1971), wife (1975), Jasmine (1989), and Desirable Daughters (2002), to see the transition from being a Bengali Indian expatriate in Canada, Asian American to American Immigrant. In the paper, her four novels are divided into two phases- expatriate and immigrant, which show different writing styles, different psychology behind the narration, and transition in her definition of the nation. This discussion will employ the theory of Nueva Conciencia Mestiza given by Gloria Anzaldúa to comprehend the reconceptualization of national spaces from the perspective of diaspora women.

Psychometric Analysis of the Arabic Translation of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support

BackgroundSocial support has been related to postpartum depression (PPD) among immigrant women. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) has been translated to Arabic (MSPSS-AW) but not validated among postpartum women.PurposeTo further replicate and refine the already existing MSPSS-AW to determine: (a) reliability and construct validity of the MSPSS-AW in immigrant Arab American postpartum women, and (b) relationship of dimensions of social support and PPD.MethodsUsing a cross-sectional design, 115 Arab American immigrant postpartum women completed demographic questionnaire, MSPSS-AW, and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale.ResultsConfirmatory factor analysis replicated three- factor model for social support (Family, Friends, and Husband). Internal consistency reliability coefficients for the three subscales ranged from .65 to .79. The MSPSS-AW subscales were related to PPD symptoms controlling for years of education, anxiety, and depression during pregnancy.ConclusionThe MSPSS-AW is reliable and valid for use with immigrant Arab American postpartum women.

The Association Between Fatalism and Mammography Use in Korean American Immigrant Women

Fatalism is reported as a salient cultural belief that influences cancer screening disparities in racial and ethnic minority groups. Previous studies provide a range of measures and descriptions of cancer fatalism, but no studies to our knowledge have analyzed how fatalistic views cluster together within subgroups to form distinct profiles, and how these profiles can be predicted. This study identified subgroups of Korean American immigrants with similar fatalistic beliefs toward cancer and examined the influence of fatalism, health belief variables, and health literacy on mammography use. A cross-sectional survey design was used to obtain a convenience sample of 240 Korean American immigrant women in Los Angeles, California. Latent class analysis was used to identify unobserved subgroups of fatalism. Hierarchical logistic regression models were used to identify predisposing, enabling, and need factors associated with recent mammography use. The latent class analysis model identified three cancer fatalism subgroups: high fatalism (17.8%), moderate fatalism (36.7%), and low fatalism (45.5%). Women in the high fatalism subgroup were more likely to have had a mammogram within the past 2 years than women in the low fatalism subgroup. Regression analysis revealed three facilitators of recent mammogram use: level of fatalism, perceived barriers to mammogram, and family history of cancer. Although cultural beliefs can have a powerful influence on health-seeking behavior, it is important to weigh individual and contextual factors that may weaken or mediate the relationship between fatalism and engaging in preventive care such as having a mammogram.

Symptoms of PTSD and Depression among Central American Immigrant Youth

The aim of this paper is to explore the mental health challenges that Central American immigrant youth face before and after arriving in the United States. This population is hard to reach, marginalized, and disproportionately exposed to trauma from a young age. This paper investigates the mental health stressors experienced by Central American immigrant youth and asylum seekers, including unaccompanied minors, surveyed in the U.S. in 2017. This mixed methods study uses qualitative data from interviews along with close-ended questions and the validated PHQ-8 Questionnaire and the Child PTSD Symptom Scale (CPSS). These new migrants face numerous challenges to mental health, increased psychopathological risk exacerbated by high levels of violence and low state-capacity in their countries of origin, restrictive immigration policies, the fear of deportation for themselves and their family members, and the pressure to integrate once in the U.S. We find that Central American youth have seen improvements in their self-reported mental health after migrating to the U.S., but remain at risk of further trauma exposure, depression, and PTSD. We find that they exhibit a disproportionate likelihood of having lived through traumatizing experiences that put them at higher risk for psychological distress and disorders that may create obstacles to integration. These can, in turn, create new stressors that exacerbate PTSD, depression, and anxiety. These conditions can be minimized through programs that aid immigrant integration and mental health.