Yan Li
Immigrants’ Changing Ideologies of Race and Gender Inequalities
My dissertation, "Ideological Osmosis: Asian Immigrants’ Understanding of Race and Gender Inequalities," studies whether and how Asian immigrants to the United States acquire dominant ideologies of social inequalities in the forms of racial and gender stereotypes, perceptions of and rationales for existing inequalities, and policy attitudes. The dissertation has both a social psychological component and a sociological component. The social psychological component argues that social categorization and cultural values (individualism versus collectivism) are two bases of intergroup stereotypes and attitudes, especially in the immigrant’s case. The sociological component examines the effects of opportunity structure and interest structure on immigrants’ ideological outcomes: specifically, how motivation to migrate, length of stay in the host country, socioeconomic status before and after migration, and geographic location jointly determine the availability of and access to ethnic goods (e.g., ethnic media and cultural activities), co-ethnic networks, and exposure to racial/ethnic outgroups, which consequently affect how likely and at what rate immigrants acquire dominant or alternative ideologies in the host society. The dissertation consists of three studies: 1) an experimental survey examining the theoretical linkage between cultural orientation and racial and gender stereotypes, 2) a secondary data analysis using the MCSUI data to investigate the effects of structural constraints on racial and gender stereotypes and inequalities, and 3) an original survey of Chinese immigrants that incorporates cultural orientation, immigration history, structural locations and ideological profile of race and gender inequalities.