Identity, Trust, and Civic Engagement in Little Havana, Having Been Approved in Respect to Style and Intellectual Content, Is Referred to You for Judgment
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Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 6-9-2010 Placing Immigrant Incorporation: Identity, Trust, and Civic Engagement in Little aH vana Richard N. Gioioso Florida International University, [email protected] DOI: 10.25148/etd.FI10081205 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Human Geography Commons, Political Science Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons Recommended Citation Gioioso, Richard N., "Placing Immigrant Incorporation: Identity, Trust, and Civic Engagement in Little aH vana" (2010). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 263. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/263 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida PLACING IMMIGRANT INCORPORATION: IDENTITY, TRUST, AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN LITTLE HAVANA A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS by Richard N. Gioioso 2010 To: Dean Kenneth Furton College of Arts and Sciences This dissertation, written by Richard N. Gioioso, and entitled Placing Immigrant Incorporation: Identity, Trust, and Civic Engagement in Little Havana, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this dissertation and recommend that it be approved. ___________________________________ Damián J. Fernández ___________________________________ Gail M. Hollander ___________________________________ Alex Stepick ___________________________________ Patricia L. Price, Major Professor Date of Defense: June 9, 2010 The dissertation of Richard N. Gioioso is approved. ___________________________________ Dean Kenneth Furton College of Arts and Sciences ___________________________________ Interim Dean Kevin O’Shea University Graduate School Florida International University, 2010 ii DEDICATION I dedicate my dissertation to all those family members, friends, and colleagues that have accompanied me during the years I have spent in graduate school, especially David Jaramillo. Your help, support, advice, tolerance, intelligence, wisdom, joy, and patience have been invaluable to me through the ups and downs, and have made this dissertation possible. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many people to acknowledge and thank for their contributions to this dissertation. The research project team consisted of Dr. Daniel Arreola, Dr. Chris Lukinbeal, Dr. Timothy Ready, Dr. Maria de los Ángeles Torres, Frances Spiegel, and Michelle Zapiain. The members of my writing review group – Emily, Karen, Marcos, Tekla, and Tricia – have given me endless constructive criticism. Dr. Paulette Johnson and Holli Thometz of FIU’s Statistical Consulting have offered countless hours of statistical support and advice. With Amy Ritterbusch, my graduate research assistant companion and grad school buddy, I have survived crisis after crisis by seeking and finding a third space for reading, studying, writing, laughing, processing, and constantly checking-in. The members of my dissertation committee have been, over my years at FIU, a source of constant learning. Thanks to Dr. Damián Fernández, Dr. Gail Hollander, and Dr. Alex Stepick for the hours in class, meetings, conferences and presentations, and for keeping me and my career in mind. I especially thank my advisor, Dr. Patricia Price, for the tireless efforts she has made and help that she has given me in and out of the classroom. Her caring as both mentor and friend has never faltered, and because of her I have grown as a person and a scholar. Funding for the research project upon which this dissertation is based was provided by the National Science Foundation Human and Social Dynamics program under Award No. 433947. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. iv The financial support of a Florida International University Dissertation Year Fellowship in 2009 was integral to making a year of analysis and writing possible. v ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION PLACING IMMIGRANT INCORPORATION: IDENTITY, TRUST, AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN LITTLE HAVANA by Richard N. Gioioso Florida International University, 2010 Miami, Florida Professor Patricia L. Price, Major Professor Immigrant incorporation in the United States has been a topic of concern and debate since the founding of the nation. Scholars have studied many aspects of the phenomenon, including economic, political, social, and spatial. The most influential paradigm of immigrant incorporation in the US has been, and continues to be, assimilation, and the most important place in and scale at which incorporation occurs is the neighborhood. This dissertation captures both of these integral aspects of immigrant incorporation through its consideration of three dimensions of assimilation – identity, trust, and civic engagement – among Latin American immigrants and American-born Latinos in Little Havana, a predominantly immigrant neighborhood in Miami, Florida. Data discussed in the dissertation were gathered through surveys and interviews as part of a National Science Foundation-funded study carried out in 2005-2006. The combination of quantitative and qualitative data allows for a nuanced understanding of how immigrant incorporation is occurring locally during the first decade of the twentieth century. Findings reveal that overall Latin American immigrants and their American-born offspring appear to be becoming American with regard to their ethnic and racial identities vi quickly, evidenced through the salience and active employment of panethnic labels, while at the same time they are actively reshaping the identificational structure. The Latino population, however, is not monolithic and is cleaved by diversity within the group, including country of origin and socioeconomic status. These same factors impede group cohesion in terms of trust and its correlate, community. Nevertheless, the historically dominant ancestry group in Little Havana – Cubans – has been able to reach notable levels of trust and build and conserve a more solid sense of community than non-Cuban residents. With respect to civic engagement, neighborhood residents generally participate at rates lower than the overall US population and ethnic subpopulations. This is not the case for political engagement, however, where self-reported voting registration and turnout in Little Havana surpasses that of most benchmarked populations. The empirical evidence presented in this dissertation on the case of Latinos in Little Havana challenges the ways that identity, trust, and civic engagement are conceptualized and theorized, especially among immigrants to the US. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 1 Research Questions 4 Relevance and Impact of Dissertation Topic 6 Structure of the Dissertation 10 II. PLACING NEIGHBORHOOD AND LITTLE HAVANA IN SOCIAL SCIENCE 13 Introduction 14 Placing the Neighborhood 14 Origins of Neighborhood Studies 14 Operationalizing Neighborhood 16 The Neighborhood and Becoming American 22 Beyond the Chicago School 28 The Los Angeles School of Urbanism 31 Placing Little Havana 33 An Introduction to Little Havana 33 Bounding Little Havana 34 Defining Little Havana 40 Little Havana Today 45 Little Havana as Hub of Culture and Activity 49 Research Design, Methodology, and Data Analysis 52 Introduction 52 Research Design 54 Phase 1: Survey 54 Phase 2: In-depth Interviews 56 Data Analysis 57 III. BECOMING AMERICAN: PLACING ASSIMILATION, IDENTITY, TRUST, AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT 61 Introduction 63 Assimilation 64 Critiques of the Assimilation Paradigm 67 Alternative Approaches to the Assimilation Paradigm 71 Ethnic and Racial Identity 74 Ethnicity and Race in the United States 75 Theorizing Ethnicity and Race in the United States 77 Latino Ethnicity and Race in the United States 82 Trust 90 Introduction 90 Operationalizing Trust 93 viii Major Theories on the Formation of Trust 95 Major Findings on Trust 99 Civic Engagement 104 Introduction 104 Operationalizing Civic Engagement 106 The Socioeconomic Model of Political and Civic Engagement 108 Other Theories of Civic and Political Engagement 112 Immigrant Incorporation and Civic Engagement 115 IV. PLACING ETHNICITY AND RACE IN LITTLE HAVANA 120 Introduction 122 Changing Neighborhood Demographics 123 Primary Identifications 129 Panethnic Identifications 132 Panethnic Solidarity 141 Racial Identifications 143 Discussion 152 Conclusion 155 V. PLACING TRUST AND FORGING COMMUNITY IN LITTLE HAVANA 158 Introduction 160 Sociability 162 Trust Variables 169 Neighborhood Trust 170 Ethnic Trust 177 Neighborhood Trust and Community 185 Ethnic Trust and Community 193 Conclusion 199 VI. PLACING CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN LITTLE HAVANA 203 Introduction 205 Civic Engagement Variables 206 Neighborhood Civic Engagement 208 Associational Civic Engagement 215 Political Civic Engagement 221 Beyond the Numbers: Understanding Civic Engagement in Little Havana 226 Neighborhood Associations 227 Discussing Politics 238 Impediments to Participation