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Interviewing Iranian Immigrant Parents and Adolescents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Patricia J. Higgins
Patricia J. Higgins*
Affiliation:
Plattsburgh State University, Plattsburgh, New York
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Extract

Among the newest developments in the ethnography of Iran is research on Iranians living outside of Iran. The large post-revolutionary Iranian diaspora raises many interesting issues and questions, including to what extent Iranian culture can be maintained abroad and how effectively displaced Iranians can function within host societies. Several features of the Iranian diaspora also make this population attractive for testing general theories concerning migration and adaptation. In addition, the conditions that led to the Iranian diaspora of the last 25 years also made it difficult for anthropologists to carry out research in Iran, enhancing the attractiveness of studying Iranian populations outside of Iran.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 4: Special Issue: Ethnographic Fieldwork in Iran , December 2004 , pp. 695 - 706
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 The International Society for Iranian Studies

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References

1 My research was supported by the National Science Foundation, Grant #BNS-8920612, and carried out with the assistance of Ms. Nahid Azad, Marriage and Family Counselor. Thanks are due to the many Iranian parents, adolescents, and community members who participated in the study, and to the educational personnel who generously cooperated with the research. For results of this research, see Higgins, Patricia J., “Intergenerational Stress: Parents and Adolescents in Iranian Immigrant Families,” Beyond Boundaries: Selected Papers on Refugees and Immigrants, Volume V, ed. Baxter, Diane and Krulfeld, Ruth (Arlington, 1997): 189–213Google Scholar; Higgins, Patricia J., “Adolescent Ethnic Identities: Iranians in the U.S.,” DANESH Bulletin 1.2 (1997): 10–14Google Scholar; and Patricia J. Higgins, Immigrant Minorities, Ethnicity, and Education. Final Performance Report, 1/1/90–12/31/92. National Science Foundation Grant No. BNS-8920612, 1995.

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14 Ansari, “Community in Process,” 88; Ansari, Making of the Iranian Community.

15 Lipson, “Health and Adjustment of Iranian Immigrants,” 12.

16 Although the same research is reported in Ansari's 1992 publication Making of the Iranian Community as in his 1977 publication “Community in Process” the numbers reported for the sample differ slightly.

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18 BiParva, “Ethnic Organizations,” 397.

19 Kelley, “Irangeles,” 367.

20 Ansari, “Community in Process,” 89; Ansari, Making of the Iranian Community, 159; BiParva, “Ethnic Organizations,” 379; Lipson, “Health and Adjustment of Iranian Immigrants,” 13, 28.

21 Ansari, “Community in Process,” 89; Ansari, Making of the Iranian Community, 159; BiParva, “Ethnic Organizations,” 387.

22 Ansari, “Community in Process,” 90.

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26 Higgins, Patricia J., “The Conflict of Acculturation and Enculturation in Suburban Elementary Schools of Tehran,” Journal of Research and Development in Education 9.4 (1976): 102–112Google Scholar.

27 For a demographic analysis based on the 1980 Census, see Bozorgmehr, Mehdi and Sabagh, Georges, “High Status Immigrants: A Statistical Profile of Iranians in the United States,” Iranian Studies 21 (1988): 5–36CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

28 Ansari, “Community in Process,” 88; Ansari, Making of the Iranian Community, 157.

29 Ansari, “Community in Process,” 88; Ansari, Making of the Iranian Community.