Understanding the factors that have contributed to the maintenance of a Jamaican identity despite assimilation pressures faced by Jamaican immigrants living in the United States of America

This paper is an exploratory study of 29 Jamaican immigrants in one major region of Pennsylvania. It seeks to bring a theoretical perspective to inderstanding the factors that have contributed to the maintenace of their ethnic identity despite assimilation pressure. The paper has three goals. First, to explore what motivated Caribbean immigrants, mainly Jamaicans, to migrate to the United States, and to better understand how immigration has impacted their lives. Second, to explore their ethnic identification after living in America and the factors that contributed to its maintenance. Third, to explore how the process of assimilation in the United States impacted the immigrants' identity.