Newly arrived from Cuba, Angelica, Dora, Marina, and Damaris attempted to negotiate new surroundings and immigrant identities, building a sense of home for themselves and their families. Data from qualitative interviews, classroom observations, and focus group conversations revealed hopes that by acquiring English language skills, they would improve their quality of life in their new country. Struggles included personal factors situated in their pasts in Cuba and their new surrounds in the Miami Cuban exile enclave, contexts that were further complicated by uncertain expectations of new lives in Miami and the overwhelming task of learning a new language at a local adult education center.
Evaluates the extent to which the relationship between black immigrants' individual-level socioeconomic status characteristics and suburban outcomes conforms to the tenets of the spatial assimilation model. Results reveal that black immigrants' suburban outcomes vary depending upon the racial/ethnic background and nativity status of the reference group. While both black Caribbean and African immigrants are less likely to reside in the suburbs than native-born white households, they are more likely to do so than native-born black Americans, even when controlling for differences in income, education, and homeownership.
