Interrogating Integration: The Experiences of Brazilian Immigrants in South Florida

Authors

Renata R. Bozzetto, Florida International UniversityFollow

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Major/Program

Global and Sociocultural Studies

First Advisor's Name

Guillermo Grenier

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee chair

Second Advisor's Name

Vrushali Patil

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Third Advisor's Name

Qing Lai

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Fourth Advisor's Name

Percy Hintzen

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Fifth Advisor's Name

Okezi T. Otovo

Fifth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Keywords

immigration, integration, Brazilian immigrants, South Florida, settlement, critical race, translocation, transnationalism, civic engagement

Date of Defense

9-22-2022

Abstract

This research examines how, based on the experiences of Brazilian immigrants in South Florida, immigrant integration is conceptualized and practiced at the contemporary moment. Scholars have examined integration through different paradigms and remain deeply invested in exploring how immigrants become part of the societies in which they settle. Prevailing approaches continue to prioritize measures of integration that have been defined in relation to communities of settlement. This study expands the literature by centering the experiences of Brazilian immigrants, a rapidly growing but understudied immigrant community, to ask how and into what are immigrants integrating. Leveraging Brazilians’ unique placement within the Latinx community, including the fact that Brazilians self-identify as Latinx only under some circumstances, this study further explores the intersections of race, class, and ethnicity in shaping integration. In addition, by focusing on South Florida, an immigrant rich region, this study takes shape in a geography that foreshadows the effects of intensified migrations. I contextualized this study by situating immigrant integration and exclusion as oppositional but coexisting contemporary practices, and I relied on qualitative methods to document and analyze how Brazilians are settling and making a home in the United States. I argue that integration studies will benefit from a translocal approach, which considers integration not only through interlinked geographies, but across different networks of power. Such approach makes visible disparities in immigrant integration outcomes while also illuminating that becoming part of a society is not necessarily measured in terms of settlement communities. As such, this research contributes to international migration scholarship and critical race studies.

Identifier

FIDC010989

Recommended Citation

Bozzetto, Renata R., "Interrogating Integration: The Experiences of Brazilian Immigrants in South Florida" (2022). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 5229.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/5229