Identities among Immigrants in Utah County
Lakip, Nicole; Staples, Kathryn; Ayoso, Bryce; Masters, Amber; Dufur, Mikaela
Abstract
Immigration has been a controversial topic in the United States since the first immigrants voyaged to the Americas. Throughout the United States’ history, there have been heated debates on what is acceptable as immigration and what is not. Identity is a big factor that comes into play when analyzing the lives of immigrants. How do immigrants form their identities? Is identity changeable? Does where you live affect your identity? While there have been many studies on immigration, there are very few studies that focus on the construct of the identities of these immigrants. Many variables can be attributed to the formation of an identity. What variables actually help individuals construct their identity? We explore whether or not other peoples’ views of the participants actually affect their identity. With so many other factors of where an immigrant can construct their cultural identification. Our questions include: how do immigrants identify themselves? What factors affect how immigrants identify themselves? What factors are most important? Because we draw our data from working immigrants living in Utah County, our research will serve as a pilot study for future research on identity among immigrants in the U.S.