Conceptual and Methodological Approaches to Navigating Immigrant Ecologies

This book compiles a series of empirical and conceptual chapters based on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory as the framework for understanding the overlapping and intersecting contexts that influence different populations of migrants in the United States and Canada. According to Bronfenbrenner’s model, individuals engage in activities and relationships that directly impact them, including families, schools, and jobs (microsystems), the interrelations among microsystems like family-school (mesosystems), contexts that have an impact on the individual through indirect influences (exosystems), and the overarching cultural milieus in which members share values, beliefs, and lifestyles (macrosystems). Within this edited volume, family, school, work, media, policies, culture, and sociohistorical contexts are examined to understand their influence on immigrant groups. This edited volume also considers immigrants across development and ethnic groups to provide a comprehensive resource on the issues that currently affect immigrant groups.

Dr. Hui Chu is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Purdue University Northwest in Westville, Indiana. She received her baccalaureate in Psychology with a minor in Applied Developmental Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. At the University of Kentucky, Lexington, U.S., she received her Masters of Science and Ph.D. in Social and Developmental Psychology. Her research focuses on immigrants’ experiences including perceived discrimination, ethnic identity development, acculturation and how factors such as social support (peers and teachers) affect outcomes such mental, physical and educational outcomes. Specifically, she has worked with Latino, Asian, and Jamaican populations to identify these risky and buffering factors and further examining immigrant parents’ and children’s experiences within the classroom and family contexts.  Her other area of research examines individual differences in people’s perceptions of immigrants and immigration and examines differences in prejudicial attitudes towards either authorized immigrants or unauthorized immigrants. Dr. Chu has published in Child Development, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, the International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, and Gender Roles in Immigrant Families. She is a reviewer for Child Development and a couple of developmental textbooks for Sage Publications. She has also reviewed for several conferences and grants including the Society for Research in Child Development and the National Conference of Undergraduate Research.

Dr. Barbara Thelamour is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Swarthmore College. She received her PhD from Michigan State University in Educational Psychology, and her B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Spanish at Emory University. Her mixed-methods research focuses on the socialization process and identity development of Black immigrant youth, particularly in relation to Black American culture as the receiving culture. In her second line of research, the emphasis is on the educational experiences and outcomes of immigrants and other students of color. Her work has focused on adolescents and emerging adults. Across these research endeavors, she has highlighted how relationships with others, particularly parents, peers, and teachers, facilitate or hinder these identity, acculturation, and learning processes. Thelamour has published in the Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, the Journal of Black Psychology, the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, and Urban Education. She has also reviewed for several conferences, including the American Psychological Association, National Multicultural Conference and Summit, the Society for Research in Child Development, and the American Education Research Association meetings.