Date of Award

1-1-2016

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Anthropology

First Advisor

Alejandro Ceron, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Bonnie Clark

Third Advisor

Orna Shaughnessy

Keywords

Colorado, Immigrants, Integration, Refugees

Abstract

This thesis research focuses on the integration experiences of refugees and immigrants in Greeley, Colorado and the corresponding actions and reactions of local Greeley members and leaders who are involved with this population. This thesis explains how the political, industrial and economic needs of the historical sugar beet and current meat packing industries shaped and are shaping the segregated landscape of Greeley. This in turn shapes the integration experiences for the refugees and immigrants and local members of Greeley. These industries historically recruited undocumented Mexican laborers to fill high turnover manual labor jobs. Now, the JBS meat packing plant is recruiting documented refugees and immigrants to fill these job positions left vacant due to an immigration raid at the plant in 2007. Being a secondary resettlement site, Greeley has no government sponsored integration programs leaving a social-service vacuum that is being met by the Global Refugee Center. The refugee and immigrant enclave is economically positioned between the two segregated halves of Greeley in which small businesses, cultural practices, and inter-ethnic networks form and flourish. The refugees and immigrants represented in this research are integrating through employment, housing, social bonds and social bridges though in complicated and incomplete ways.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Rebekah Natalie Marsh

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

221 p.

Discipline

Cultural Anthropology

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