Dominican Family Networks and United States Immigration Policy: A Case Study

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the acculturative process of one Dominican family, focusing on the adaptation of extended families to United States immigration policy, and the implications these adaptations may hold for the traditional Dominican family. It is the contention of this paper that the definition of “family” according to United States immigration regulations does not reflect the cooperating kin group which is the “family” in Dominican culture and this gives rise to the need for a variety of extra-legal immigrant adaptive strategies