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Towards Sociocultural Recognition and Integration of Latin American Immigrants in Los Angeles Through the Analysis of Social-Discursive Significations

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Abstract

This research investigates the experiences of Latin American immigrants in the United States and their perception of reality. It analyses the social-discursive significations of the Latin American immigrant community related to its recognition and integration in the city of Los Angeles and its society. To achieve these goals, I employed an interdisciplinary perspective that combined and integrated empirical, qualitative, and phenomenological approaches coming from discourse analysis and social psychology. For this purpose, I created a focus group (five participants) and carried out six interviews with immigrants from different Latin American countries to cover the diversity of experiences of their communities. In particular, I was interested in their perception on how their communities were acknowledged and perceived in Los Angeles and how this perception affected and/or determined their integration. The results of this study suggest that the integration model of the immigrants interviewed is assimilationist in nature, and in order to reverse this situation, “recognition” should be the watchword of the current migration policies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    US Census Bureau. American Fact Finder. Annual Estimates of the Resident Population by Sex, Age, Race, and Hispanic Origin for the United States and States: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2015. Retrieved September 20, 2016, from https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk

  2. 2.

    Pew Research Center (2016a). Hispanic Population and Origin in Select US Metropolitan Areas, 2014. Retrieved September 20, 2016, from http://www.pewhispanic.org/interactives/hispanic-population-in-select-u-s-metropolitan-areas/

  3. 3.

    Pew Research Center (2016b).

  4. 4.

    For DACA and DACA “Extended”, cf. Verea, 2014; Hooker, McHugh & Mathay, 2015.

  5. 5.

    3.6 million undocumented adult immigrants who are eligible

  6. 6.

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE ERO Immigration Arrest Climb Nearly 40%. Retrieved May 17, 2017, from https://www.ice.gov/features/100-days

  7. 7.

    Proposition 187 in California –“Save Our State– (1984), LA Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA (1996), USA Patriotic Act (2001) and Arizona SB 1070 (2010).

  8. 8.

    For ethical reasons and to safeguard anonymity of our narrators, their names have been changed.

  9. 9.

    Personal translation

  10. 10.

    FG means that the segments correspond to the discourses extracted from the elaborated focus groups.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT, México) Fellowship for postdoctoral Researchers.

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  1. Instituto Politécnico Nacional. SEPI-ESIA-TEC, Mexico City, México

    Ricardo Medina Audelo

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  1. Ricardo Medina Audelo
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Correspondence to Ricardo Medina Audelo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain

    Eleonora Esposito

  2. Language Department, Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins, Santiago, Chile

    Carolina Pérez-Arredondo

  3. Merlin Research, Santiago, Chile

    José Manuel Ferreiro

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Medina Audelo, R. (2019). Towards Sociocultural Recognition and Integration of Latin American Immigrants in Los Angeles Through the Analysis of Social-Discursive Significations. In: Esposito, E., Pérez-Arredondo, C., Ferreiro, J. (eds) Discourses from Latin America and the Caribbean. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93623-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93623-9_7

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