Cambio de Colores (2014 : 13th : Columbia, Mo.)
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Latinos in the Heartland: Growing Together in New Destination Areas : Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference: Columbia, Missouri, June 25-27, 2014. Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri.
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Item Latinos in the heartland : growing together in new destination areas : proceedings of the 13th annual conference, University of Missouri--Columbia, June 25-27, 2014(Cambio Center, 2015) Jeanetta, Stephen; Valdivia, Corinne; Cambio de Colores (13th : 2015 : Columbia, Mo.)Item Improving Relationships and Communication through Understanding One Another(Cambio Center, 2015) Bolton, Debra J.; Cambio de Colores (13th : 2015 : Columbia, Mo.)Have you ever heard these statements? "They're not like us." "They don't have our values." "We invited them, but they're not interested, so they don't come." "They just don't care about doing better." You may recognize these comparisons as judgment statements. Why are such statements made? Is there a lack of understanding? Do you recognize fear in any of the statements? Perhaps we fear what we do not understand. Do we interact with those we fear or do not understand? How do we break down barriers of fear and misunderstanding? First of all, a genuine desire to learn has to be come from within each individual. No one can demand, require, or force you to be interested in interacting with someone from different origins than your own. What if you wanted to reach out to someone from a different culture with educational materials or in a business prospect? With rapid population changes in the United States, as well as around the world, we have seen the importance of breaking down cultural barriers that impede interpersonal communication and trusting relationships. Yes, it seems easy enough to simply avoid anyone whom you think to be different, but it is not practical in education, service, business arenas, or in any cohesive community setting. Humans do not function in isolation. Isolation is rarely beneficial to healthful or peaceful outcomes. Since countries grow daily in ethnic and cultural diversity, now may be the time to learn some steps towards 'cultural pluralism'. Often called integration or multi-culturalism, cultural pluralism reflects individuals who are highly acculturated (adaptive) to more than one culture. Research and best practice suggest some preliminary actions for reaching families and individuals not living in mainstream cultures. Primarily, there must be an understanding of one's own cultural patterns and personal bias. This begins the steps toward the comprehension of other cultural customs and paves the way for cross-cultural communication. The purpose of this workshop is to bring participants closer to clearly defining and understanding cultural patterns, learning how cultural patterns can impede the communication process, and introducing ways to improve comfort levels in building cross-cultural relationships. Keywords: cross-cultural communication, cultural patterns, pluralism, integration, acculturationItem A Network for Economic Integration of Immigrants: Supporting Latino/as in Des Moines, IA(Cambio Center, 2015) Alcivar, Johnny G.; Cambio de Colores (13th : 2015 : Columbia, Mo.)Iowa has become a new gateway destination for Latinos/as, demonstrated by a five-fold increase in the Latino/a population in the state since the 1990s. The Latino/a population has become the largest minority group in Iowa and the state has benefited from the influx of this population given existing demographic trends that include brain drain, aging populations, and shrinking communities. This growth has led to the development of Latino/a entrepreneurship and businesses, creating commercial niches with high potential for economic development and revitalization in Iowan communities. However, the distribution of Latinos/as in the labor force remains concentrated in low-wage sectors of the economy. The lack of state and federal involve-ment to facilitate the economic integration of Latinos/as in the receiving communities partially explains this concentration. In order to overcome the public sector non-action status, the efforts to promote economic integration is shifting to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Using a context of reception framework, which refers to the existing modes of integration at the receiving locations, my research studies the formal nongovernmental actors that contribute to the integration of Latinos/as in the City of Des Moines. A qualitative approach was used to examine four overall research questions: 1) Who are the formal NGO stakeholders involved in the network of support for economic integration? 2) What are the NGOs currently doing to assist with the economic integration of the Latino/a population? 3) How do the NGOs perform with regards to provision of services and opportunities? and 4) Do the NGOs collaborate and form partnerships within the network? This paper focuses on the third question by examining the services provided to support economic integration. A segmented assimilation approach was used, focusing on the societal level of the reception context. By examining the existing network of support, which was influenced by the reception context, the study concluded that the societal mode of incorporation was not sufficient to contribute to producing a strong network of support. Recommendations include strengthening public sector involvement in a culturally sensitive way in the network of support for the Latino/a population; expanding jobs and mobility services and opportunities; and improving access to services by simplifying and expanding qualifications. A multistate conference about integration of immigrants Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference Latinos in the Heartland: Growing Together in New Destination Areas www.cambio.missouri.edu/Library/ Keywords: Latino, economic integration, nongovernmental organizations, multi-sector mobility, qualitative, new destinationsItem Explaining the Relations Between Acculturative Stress and Prosocial Behaviors in Latino Youth from the Midwest(Cambio Center, 2015) Davis, Alexandra N.; Carlo, Gustavo; Streit, Cara; Crockett, Lisa J.; Cambio de Colores (13th : 2015 : Columbia, Mo.)Stressful experiences may weaken coping mechanisms, lead to maladjustment in adolescents (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), and may also influence adolescents' relationships with their peers. Latino adolescents face unique forms of stress associated with their cultural orientation. One form of cultural stress that is salient to many Latino adolescents is acculturative stress. Acculturative stress is defined as stress that results from adapting to a new culture (Alegria & Woo, 2009). One specific behavioral outcome of acculturative stress is prosocial behaviors (i.e., actions intended to benefit another; Carlo & Randall, 2002). Acculturative stress may influence psychological processes that in turn influence the adolescents' social relationships. Specifically, adolescents who are experiencing acculturative stress may begin to feel more depressive symptoms and may gravitate towards more deviant peers. In previous research, acculturative stress has been positively linked with depressive symptoms in Latino adolescents (Crockett et al., 2007). Research has also shown that Latino adolescents become more at risk for deviant peer affiliation as they become more acculturated (Samaniego & Gonzales, 1999). This may be in part due to the increased pressure adolescents experience to engage in mainstream culture and distance themselves from their traditional cultures. There is also supportive evidence for the notion that deviant peer affiliation may have detrimental consequences for adolescents' social behaviors (see Carlo et al., 1999). In an effort to extend previous research, the current study examines how acculturative stress influences Latino adolescents' prosocial behaviors directly and indirectly via depressive symptoms and deviant peer affiliation. The current study uses data from the larger NSF funded Latino Youth Care Project. Participants include 89 Latino adolescents from Nebraska (mean age = 15.24 years; range = 14-18 years; 68.4% female). Participants completed measures of their acculturative stress (Multidimensional Acculturative Stress Inventory; Rodriguez et al., 2002), depressive symptoms (CES-D; Radloff, 1977), deviant peer affiliation (Dishion et al., 1991), and their tendencies to engage in three common types of prosocial behaviors (Prosocial Tendencies Measure-Revised; Carlo et al., 2003). The results demonstrated that acculturative stress was directly, negatively associated with public and anonymous prosocial behaviors. Acculturative stress was also positively associated with depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms, in turn, were positively associated with deviant peer affiliations. Deviant peer affiliations were not significantly associated with prosocial behaviors. There were marginal, negative effects, however, between deviant peer affiliations and compliant and anonymous prosocial behaviors. The discussion focuses on the influence of acculturative stress on prosocial behaviors via depressive symptoms and deviant peer affiliation and the impact of these results on future research and practice.Item Exploring Beginning Latino Farmers and Ranchers' Willingness to Become Involved in Community Activities in Rural Missouri(Cambio Center, 2015) Gonzalez, Eleazar U.; Jeanetta, Stephen C.; O?Brien, David J.; Cambio de Colores (13th : 2015 : Columbia, Mo.)In 2013, we conducted two workshop series, each consisting of 10 sessions, focused on how to improve financial capacity of agribusiness and to gain access to community resources. As part of the workshops, eighteen Latino farmers and ranchers in Southwest Missouri completed a survey that analyzed their disposition towards becoming involved in community activities over the upcoming six months. The willingness of the Latino farmers and ranchers to become involved in community activities was explored across five indicators: 1. to be more engaged in community leadership roles, 2. to form new connections in the community, 3. to display more tolerance when working with others, 4. to develop a community action plan, and 5. to implement a community project. A total of 140 answers to each indicator were collected from participants and were analyzed using symmetric responses, where 1 was coded as "not willing," 2 was coded as "reluctant," 3 as "neutral," 4 as "moderate willing," and 5 as "very willing." Participants' responses to each of those five indicators showed that many (46%, 43%, 51%, 53% and 48%) beginning farmers and ranchers were "very willing" to involve themselves with community projects and activities during the upcoming six months. The willingness of participants to become involved in community activities helped us to know their predisposition to integrate and assimilate into the communities where they lived. It is argued that Latino immigrants have trouble assimilating into mainstream US culture (Huntington, 2004), and those who do assimilate, belong to a cluster with the following characteristics: spatial concentration, high incomes, intermarriage, English fluency and high levels of embeddedness in Anglo-social contexts (South et al. 2005, Waters & Jimenez, 2005). The predisposition to participate in community activities is positively related with Waters and Jimenez's perception (2005) that US communities have evolved in absorbing new immigrants and continual immigrant replenishment makes assimilation less visible. Other factors influencing positive integration and assimilation may be attributed to the population size of that immigrant group in the community and the population size of the rural community where they immigrated. A multistate conference about integration of immigrants Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference Latinos in the Heartland: Growing Together in New Destination Areas www.cambio.missouri.edu/Library/ Key words: beginning Latino farmers and ranchers, immigrant integration, rural communities.