Date of Submission

Spring 2021

Academic Program

Sociology

Project Advisor 1

Yuval Elmelech

Project Advisor 2

Laura Ford

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Based on the experiences of twelve 1.5 generation Guyanese immigrants living in the United States, this thesis serves to understand the strategies that some immigrants may choose as they assimilate into the United States. This study highlights the acculturation preferences of Guyanese immigrants adjusting to the United States while challenging current assimilation theories. It specifically focuses on the understanding of cultural and social capital and how this ultimately influences the attitudes that these immigrants have towards socio-economic values like education/career choices. With an emphasis on language, food, and rituals/holidays, I propose a new way of defining culture and argue that this cohort of immigrants, regardless of where they live, find ways to connect and remain attached to their cultural values. Moreover, I argue that their social ties help us to understand their strategy for adjusting to the host society, a strategy that might be better understood as integration, rather than assimilation.

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Creative Commons License

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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