Ethno-Politics : The Consequences of Ethnic Discrimination for Latino Ethnic Identity Orientation and Ethno-Mobilization

Abstract: This compilation thesis is a study of Latino migrants and Latino minority members, mainly in USA, and also in Sweden. The three theoretical and the two empirical studies cover a long period and are grounded in ethnicity as an established study field. Its overarching research question is the following: What are the consequences of ethnic discrimination for the ethnic identity orientation of Latino migrants and Latino minority members? The concept of the author, ethnic hurts, is central to the subjective experience of discrimination against Latino people. The concepts from the ethnicity field, Study I were used in empirical Study II. The resulting theoretical model from Study II to explain the ethnic identity orientation of Mexican Americans was used as hypothesis in the study of ethnic identity changes of elderly Latinas and Latinos in Sweden in Study III. For historical and comparative reasons, Study IV looks at the role of racial, national, class, and ethnic inequalities in the debate on citizenship and national identity in post-colonial societies in Latin America, the homelands of the Latino migrants. This also has consequences in the meeting of Latino migrants with the American society. The final Study V examines the socio-genesis of ethno-politics by looking at ethno-mobilization both of persons with Latino background, and of persons with white mainly working-class background, as they respond to changes in American society. One of the main results is a typology of integration with the groups Traditional, Bi-cultural, Marginal and Assimilated among Latin migrants and minority members. Not only ethnic discrimination from society lies behind this diversity, but also ethnic experience here defined as the quality of the emotional relations with family and other representatives of the parental ethnic group. Evidence and illustrations draw from documentary and archival research, ethnographic data, and individual and group interviews.