Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Multiculturalism -- Iowa -- Postville; Jews -- Iowa -- Postville; Postville (Iowa) -- Ethnic relations; Iowa -- Postville;

Abstract

For this paper the author researched Iowa's immigration history and modern day Postville, a small town that represents a tossed salad of cultural, religious, and linguistic diversities. The author analyzed the current effect of immigration as well as the process of integration and assimilation into the small town through the eyes of its immigrants. The major emphasis is placed on Postville located in northeast Iowa. For 150 years Postville was an all-white, all-Christian farming community of 1,000 souls, most of European ancestry. Today the population of Postville has doubled and of the 2,000 people who reside in Postville almost one quarter are Jewish, and Hispanics, Russians, and other ethnicities make up another 300 people. Within the last decade this small town has undergone considerable social and cultural changes.

With this research project the author explored how communication between different cultures in small Iowa town has affected the life of the immigrants; the researcher wanted to learn the pros and cons that people see in being an immigrant, what struggles they face living in another culture, and how they maintain their home traditions, culture, and native language.

Year of Submission

2003

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Communication Studies

First Advisor

Melissa L. Beall, Chair

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this graduate research paper and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

2003

Object Description

1 PDF file (99 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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