Description
- Abstract:
- Two important social transformations have occurred since the 1960's: The rise of the black middle class and the influx of immigrants from Latin, America, Asia and Africa. The cultural and economic outcomes for first and second-generation West Indian immigrants are often linked to the culture and neighborhoods of the black poor/underclass. However, we understand little about the ways in which the black middle class is a potential pathway of integration for today's immigrants. This dissertation investigates the social identities and residential patterns of select black immigrants in the middle class, Haitians and Jamaicans, and compares them to the African American middle class in Queens and Long Island, New York. I draw from the literature on social inequality and immigrant incorporation in order to analyze the ways in which blacks in the middle class are forming their racial and class identities and how this process differs across space. This dissertation uses qualitative interviews, participant observations and census data in order to unpack the cultural lives of black ethnics and the socioeconomic landscape of their neighborhoods. Findings demonstrate that ethnicity, generation and space matter in the identity formation of black middle class ethnics. The African American middle class has a place specific culture of mobility, which is partially adopted by the Haitian and Jamaican middle class. The racial and class identity convergence between these groups provides key evidence that the African American middle class is a potential pathway of socio-cultural and economic integration for today's immigrants. These findings demonstrate that the segmented assimilation theoretical framework should incorporate the black middle class into its paradigm. This research speaks to the sociological debates on the socioeconomic incorporation of today's immigrants and the racial and ethnic relations between new and old minorities.
- Notes:
- Thesis (Ph.D. -- Brown University (2013)
Access Conditions
- Rights
- In Copyright
- Restrictions on Use
- All rights reserved. Collection is open to the Brown community for research.
Citation
Clerge, Orly,
"Black Identities Revisited: New and Old African Americans in Middle Class New York"
(2013).
Sociology Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0FT8JCZ
