Suchergebnisse

"Assimilation has been a contentious issues for most immigrant groups in the United States. The host society is assumed to lire immigrants and their descendants away from their ancestral heritage. Yet, in their quest for a "better" life, few immigrants intentionally forsake heir ethnic identity; most try to hold onto their culture by transplanting their traditional institutions and recreating new communities in America. Armenian-Americans are no exception. Armenian-Americans have been generally overlooked by census enumerators, survey analysts, and social scientists because of their small numbers and relative dispersion throughout the United States. They remain a little-studied group that has been called a "hidden minority." Armenian Americans fills this significant gapages Based on the results of an extensive mail questionnaire survey, in-depth interviews, and participant observation of communal gatherings, this book analyzed the individual and collective struggles of Armenian-Americans to perpetuate their Armenian legacy while actively seeking new pathways to the American Dream. This volume shows how men and women of Armenian descent become distanced from their ethnic origins with the passing of generations. Yet assimilation and maintenance of ethnic identity go hand-in-hand. The ascribed, unconscious, compulsive Armenianness of the immigrant generation is transformed into a voluntary, rational, situational Armenianness. The generational change is from being Armenian to feeling Armenian. The Armenian-American community has grown and prospered in this century. Greater tolerance of ethnic differences in the host society, the remarkable social mobility of many Armenian-Americans and the influx of large numbers of new immigrants from the Middle East and Soviet bloc in recent decades have contributed to this development. The future of this community, however, remains precarious as it strives to adjust to the ever changing social, economic, and political conditions affec"--Provided by publisher

AbstractThis article examines the state of Western Armenian language instruction in Armenian day schools within the United States to evaluate the state of language transmission and acquisition through the specific structure of private schools. In analyzing methodologies and modes of instruction, content development, resources, teacher training and student demographics, we aim to identify patterns that can pose a challenge to or serve as models for Armenian language instruction and, ultimately, the maintenance of Western Armenian, which UNESCO classified as an endangered language in 2010. To begin with, we offer an overview of the standardization of modern Western Armenian, first, in the late 1800s in Constantinople and subsequently, in the Middle East after World War II. Then, we examine Armenian immigration to the United States to understand the impact of language use as well as the establishment of educational and other institutions necessary for its prolonged existence. The move to establish Armenian day schools in the United States dates back to the 1960s. We trace the development of this movement and study the current state of language instruction, as well as current trends in student demographics, to ask how successful these institutions are in heritage language maintenance.

In nationalist Armenian American youth activism and expression, the practice of memory of woundedness and genocide is conceived as a form of resistance related to claiming a particular subjectivity and identity as diasporan Armenians and as a minority group in the United States. Armenian American youth position themselves in history as remnants and freedom fighters, demanding recognition of the Armenian genocide in a "struggle for justice" that simultaneously calls for their recognition as survivors in a context of perceived denial. The tradition of activism on which this dissertation focuses has tended toward anti-assimilationism and the assumption and display of woundedness as a means of obtaining perceptibility, for it is the distinction of woundedness on which Armenian American survivorship is legitimated. The Armenian genocide and its denial are often cited as the cause of the wound, producing survivorship as a specific position to the past. Youth experience and claim survivorship through historically significant diasporan institutions that structure commemoration services, cultural events, and political protests where practices of memory are encouraged as well as in U.S. political spaces including public schools where denial and ambiguity are personally perceived. This dissertation is based on eighteen months of field research in the Los Angeles region, one of the largest populations of diasporan Armenians.

Intro -- TABLE OF CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- PREFACE -- INTRODUCTION -- THREE STAGES OF IMMIGRANT ADAPTATION -- THE PERMANENCE OF ETHNICITY -- METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION -- ETHNICITY, ETHNIC GROUP, ETHNIC IDENTITY -- ASSIMILATION THEORY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE -- FILLING THE GAP BETWEEN PARADIGMS -- THE CONTEXT FOR THIS BOOK -- ORIGINS AND KINGDOMS -- FOREIGN DOMINATION -- IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES -- WORLDWIDE ARMENIAN POPULATION -- CULTURAL ASSIMILATION AND RETENTION -- STRUCTURAL ASSIMILATION AND RETENTION -- MARITAL ASSIMILATION -- IDENTIFICATIONAL ASSIMILATION AND RETENTION -- SUMMARY -- IDENTIFICATIONAL ASSIMILATION -- TYPES AND FORMS OF ETHNIC IDENTITY -- FLUIDITY OF ETHNIC IDENTITY -- THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF ETHNIC IDENTITY -- IMPLICATIONS FOR STUDYING ETHNIC IDENTITY -- RESEARCH ON INTERMARRIAGE -- METHODS AND RESEARCH DESIGN -- FINDINGS -- ETHNIC INTERMARRIAGE COMPARISONS -- INTERMARRIAGE: CAUSE OR CONSEQUENCE OF ASSIMILATION? -- ACCEPTANCE OF INTERMARRIAGE -- IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH -- DISCUSSION -- CULTURAL ASSIMILATION -- STRUCTURAL ASSIMILATION -- IDENTIFICATIONAL ASSIMILATION -- SUMMARIZING ETHNICITY IN LATER GENERATIONS -- DEMOGRAPHIC SNAPSHOT -- ASSIMILATION AND ETHNIC RETENTION -- ETHNIC IDENTITY AND PERSISTENCE OF ETHNICITY IN LATER GENERATIONS -- INTERMARRIAGE -- IMPLICATIONS.

Hypertension presents a significant health risk to both developed and developing countries, affecting approximately 78 million Americans of various ethnic backgrounds. Though a great deal of research about hypertension and minority groups has been published, no studies were located about hypertension in the Armenian American population, despite evidence of health disparities in this population. The purpose of the present study was to examine the differences in health promotion behavior between hypertensive and normotensive Armenian Americans. A quantitative approach was used to examine the relationship between hypertensive status and health promotion behavior. With a sample size of <em>n </em>= 204, this study found that while there was no significant difference in overall Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile scores, the normotensive group scored higher on physical activity and stress management. These differences remained significant even when controlling for body mass index. Additionally, the study found high smoking rates and elevated body mass index across both samples. These results suggest that interventions that target stress management and physical activity and use the cultural strengths of interpersonal relationships and spiritual growth may be the most effective. This information may be used as a foundation in future interventional studies and may create significant social change by decreasing hypertension among the Armenian American population and increasing awareness of risk factors and prevention.

"How has the distinctive Armenian-American community expressed its identity as an ethnic minority while 'assimilating' to life in the United States? This book examines the role of community leaders and influencers, including clergy, youth organizers, and partisan newspaper editors, in fostering not only a sense of Armenian identity but specific ethnic-partisan leanings within the group's population. Against the backdrop of key geopolitical events from the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide to the creation of an independent and then Soviet Armenia, it explores the rivalry between two major Armenian political parties, the Tashnags and the Ramgavars, and the relationship that existed between partisan leaders and their broader constituency. Rather than treating the partisan conflict as simply an impediment to Armenian unity, Benjamin Alexander examines the functional if accidental role that it played in keeping certain community institutions alive. He further analyses the two camps as representing two conflicting visions of how to be an ethnic group, drawing a comparison between the sociology-of-religion models of comfort religion and challenge religion. A detailed political and social history, this book integrates the Armenian experience into the broader and more familiar narratives of World War I, World War II, and the Cold War in the USA"--

This manuscript attempts to broaden scholarship on U.S. ethnic politics and group political incorporation by analyzing the emergence of novel political agents (ethnopolitical entrepreneurs) in evolving suburban spaces (ethnoburbs). The following chapters analyze these phenomena through a case study of the fascinating yet understudied Armenian community of Glendale, California. While Glendale's Armenian community possesses its own history and character, it also reflects dynamic circumstances occurring in a diverse array of other U.S. suburban communities today, such as those affecting the Chinese in Monterey Park, Vietnamese in Westminster, Filipinos in Daley City, Koreans in Irvine, and many others. These communities force immigration and urban studies scholars to reevaluate traditional assumptions about the urban settlement and political incorporation trajectories of newcomers and other co-ethnic community members. Based upon Glendale's Armenian community, this manuscript attempts to reorient the scholarship on group political incorporation by unpacking the increasingly important role of ethnopolitical entrepreneurs in contemporary American ethnoburbs. Despite their significance to the political incorporation of immigrants and other group members, ethnopolitical entrepreneurs remain strikingly absent from scholarship on political incorporation. Following the Hart-Celler Act (or Immigration and Neutrality Act) of 1965, immigrants from diverse locations throughout the world began coming to U.S. cities in record numbers. Historically, immigrants with scant resources inhabited city centers and formed ethnic enclaves; some more recent newcomers, however, have brought resources that enable able them to "leapfrog" city centers and settle immediately into wealthier suburban communities. Over time, chain migration has transformed several sleepy, Anglo suburbs into vibrant, multi-ethnic communities, where at least one ethnic group comprises a demographic majority. In these dynamic "ethnoburbs" the majority ethnic community's demographic concentration can enable it to influence local electoral politics. At times, this influence comes in the form of making claims and reallocating city resources on behalf of the community. But, increasingly, the community's influence involves co-ethnic community members (many who are themselves first-generation immigrants) running campaigns and obtaining political office as mayors, city councilmembers, and school board members. The activities of these agents invert many social scientific assumptions about when immigrant political incorporation takes place. While scholars typically assumed political incorporation followed legal and social incorporation, ethnopolitical entrepreneurs run campaigns (often in the native language of their co-ethnic constituents) that incorporate newcomers before they have acquired the English language and these campaigns begin before many have obtained citizenship. These relatively novel municipal agents therefore influence how many newcomers and pre-existing co-ethnic community members become incorporated into American political institutions. And their emergence reflects shifting loci of political incorporation in many places throughout the U.S. – from marginalized racial minorities in cities to prosperous multi-ethnic immigrants in suburbs.