Integrating Hispanic Immigrant Youth: Perspectives From White and Black Americans in Emerging Hispanic Communities and Schools

Acculturation is bidirectional and includes not only the process of Hispanics adaptation to US culture(s) but also the process of US cultural adaptations to Hispanics. This study examines the acculturation of non-Hispanic students, parents, and teachers in emerging Hispanic communities to Hispanic immigrant youth. The authors utilize focus-group data from the Southern Immigrant Academic Adaptation (SIAA) study - a multi-site, high school-based study conducted in North Carolina. They held 34 focus groups with 139 participants from two rural and two urban high schools. In each high school, at least five focus groups were conducted to include non-Hispanics: (1) black students, (2) black parents, (3) white students, (4) white parents, and (5) high school teachers. In each high school, the authors identified different modes of incorporation or receiving-community acculturation that included varying degrees of accommodation of heritage cultures and languages as well as cultural exchanges ranging from inclusionary to exclusionary.