Nadia Yamel Flores-Yeffal

By utilizing manipulative tactics, such as persuasion techniques and strategies through social media sites, moral entrepreneurs can maintain and/or increase their scope of influence. In this article, we propose another tactic utilized by moral entrepreneurs, a concept we refer to as shifting morals. The complexity of moral entrepreneurs’ life experiences provides them with an endless set of social and moral norms that they can use to tweak their own ideals to encompass other moral framing networks to gain more followers and thus increase their influence. We examine theoretical literature, while also providing examples that resulted from content analysis from media websites to illustrate our proposed concept of shifting morals. We conclude that the shifting morals tactic is another tool moral entrepreneurs use to increase their influence in society to enact social change.

Background: As climate research continues to highlight the global shifts in temperature and precipitation, more research is needed to understand how climate anomalies impact human health outcomes. In this paper, we analyze one of the paths through which climate anomalies affect health (in particular, child’s health) within one of poorest countries in the world (Honduras). Methods: Using the GPS location of the household, we link information on child health and house amenities from the Honduras Demographic Health Survey 2011–2012 dataset (a nationally representative sample) with climate data (1981–2012) from the Climate Research Unit (CRU TS3.21). We use generalized estimating equations for binary logistic models and spatial association to analyze these data. Results: We show that 1) areas experiencing significant temperature anomalies are also the ones with the worst child respiratory problems and 2) in households with poor amenities – such as access to sanitation and clean water, children tend to have a high incidence of respiratory diseases and diarrhea . Conclusions: We conclude that, as climate change increases the incidence of climate anomalies, tackling in advance those household environmental factors responsible for poor child health outcomes (better sanitation and clean cooking fuel) can prevent a further deterioration of children’s health in Honduras.

This study explores whether being a member of a migration-trust network (MTN; social structures that immigrants create to manage the challenges of undocumented status) affects the acquisition of English language proficiency among undocumented heads of household who migrate to the United States from Mexico. The analysis shows that human capital accumulation and interactions with non-Hispanic white Americans are important to learning English in this migrant population. But it also suggests that membership in an MTN can inhibit the acquisition of English language proficiency. I use Mexican Migration Project data and other accumulated research to argue that being undocumented and participating in MTNs can deter migrants from assimilating into American mainstream society: a lack of legal status among many first-generation Mexican immigrants pushes them toward survival strategies that rely on MTNs.

This study explored the proliferation of stressors that contribute to depression in grandparents who are caregivers of an adult child with a long-term illness and their grandchildren. The data were drawn from Wave 4 of the Cape Area Panel Study in South Africa and subjected to linear regression analysis to predict depression in these older adults. We found evidence that the combination of primary and secondary care leads to a proliferation of stressors as these older adults experienced higher levels of depression, lower income, and greater food insecurity. Providing financial help to others and declining health also contributed to an increase in depression.

Although Salvadoran emigration to the United States is one of the most important migratory flows emanating from Latin America, there is insufficient information about the predictors of first unauthorized migration from El Salvador to the United States. In this study, we use data from the Latin American Migration Project–El Salvador (LAMP-ELS4) to perform an event history analysis to discern the factors that influenced the likelihood that a Salvadoran household head would take a first unauthorized trip to the United States between 1965 and 2007. We take into account a series of demographic, social capital, human capital, and physical capital characteristics of the Salvadoran household head; demographic and social context variables in the place of origin; as well as economic and border security factors at the place of destination. Our findings suggest that an increase in the Salvadoran civil violence index and a personal economic crisis increased the likelihood of first-time unauthorized migration. Salvadorans who were less likely to take a first unauthorized trip were business owners, those employed in skilled occupations, and persons with more years of experience in the labor force. Contextual variables in the United States, such as a high unemployment rate and an increase in the Border Patrol budget, deterred the decision to take a first unauthorized trip. Finally, social capital had no effect on the decision to migrate; this means that for unauthorized Salvadoran migrants, having contacts in the United States is not the main driver to start a migration journey to the United States. We suggest as policy recommendations that the United States should award Salvadorans more work-related visas or asylum protection. For those Salvadorans whose Temporary Protected Status (TPS) has ended, the United States should allow them to apply for permanent residency. The decision not to continue to extend TPS to Salvadorans will only increase the number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States. The United States needs to revise its current immigration policies, which make it a very difficult and/or extremely lengthy process for Salvadorans and other immigrants to regularize their current immigration status in the United States. Furthermore, because of our research findings, we recommend that the Salvadoran government — to discourage out-migration — invest in high-skilled job training and also offer training and credit opportunities to its population to encourage business ventures.

This project explores the influence of discursive interactions on driving moral panics by drawing on the theoretical strands of the public sphere and the white racial frame. We apply the framework of the Latino cyber-moral panic to understand online public discourse surrounding the criminalization of undocumented immigrants in the United States. With an ethnographic approach, we find the Internet becomes a cyber public sphere where user’s interactions reinforce and are reinforced by a white racial frame; this then contributes to the spread of a moral panic, and ultimately reinforces systemic racism. We argue that social media sites and their discursive tools, such as hashtags, comments, and ‘likes,’ help to efficiently and continuously target Latino and undocumented immigrants. By weaving communication literature and critical race scholarship, we conceptualize the Internet as a powerful mechanism for the spread of white supremacy and systemic racism.