Central American Immigrants to Los Angeles NATURE OF THE STUDY Background of t

Portes and Rumbaut (1990) have noted that individuals from the Central American countries, especially from Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras are a major part of the contemporary immigration influx to the United States in general, and in particular to the city of Los Angeles, California. However, despite their large numbers, the authors report that Central American immigrants have been rather invisible within the system, not receiving the kinds of assistance that other earlier refugee groups have received.

The Central American immigrant population is one that suffers from a wide variety of social problems and represents the poorest population of all minority populations in California (Davis, 1993). The poverty rates for this group are twice as high as those for other minority groups such as blacks.

The rates of both medical symptoms and mental disorders are much higher than those of the general population (Williams & Berry, 1991) and the services provided to them are said to generally be inadequate. Moreover, because of their often illegal status, there is a reluctance on the part of many Central American immigrants to seek out and utilize provided services (Gong-Guy, Cravens & Patterson, 1991).

Within Central American immigrant groups, women are said to have an especially difficult time, often because they are single mothers responsible for both earning a living and raising young children.

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muggled them in, ethnic conflict with other groups (e.g. Koreans, Samoans, etc.); and the acculturation difficulties associated with learning a new language and functioning in a very different culture. Acculturation Level Among Central American Immigrants According to Williams and Berry (1991), difficulties with acculturation can lead to stress as a result of the changes that must be made as one moves residence from a native culture into a different culture. Signs of acculturation stress include feelings of marginality and alienation, heightened psychosomatic symptoms, and identity confusion. In their study of acculturation, Rogler, Cortes and Malgady (1991) noted that determining the contribution of this variable to the mental health status of Central American immigrant groups is difficult. First, the determination is difficult because most studies of acculturation include a wide variety of Hispanic groups in a single sample. Thus, the stressful effects of acculturation on any one Hispanic ethnic group is difficult to parcel out from the overall findings. Second, (in part as a result of the heterogeneous sample procedure) findings of acculturation studies are mixed. For example, Rogler et al. (1991) reviewed thirty st

Category: Psychology - C