Abdi M Kusow
Biographic Data
| ID | 80376 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Abdi M Kusow |
| GIVEN NAMES | Abdi M |
| FAMILY NAME | Kusow |
| SIGNATURE | KUSOW A M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Iowa State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9160-1228 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 226 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Migrants on the go: Toward a theory of spontaneous migration
In this study, I introduce spontaneous migration as a lens for conceptualizing unplanned exit and the ways migrants and refugees circumvent immigration control regimes in transit countries, unexpectedly appearing at borders and/or international airports outside formal channels. I argue that spontaneous migration reshapes contemporary international migration in ways not captured by existing theories. Focusing on unanticipated and increased geopoli…
Racialized and Geopolitically Charged Contexts of Reception in New Immigrant Destinations
We conceptualize racialized and geopolitical contexts of reception as a comprehensive framework for understanding the incorporation of recent immigrants in new destinations. Racialization is the fluid assignment of racial meanings to physical characteristics, religion, cultural presentation, and language. Geopolitics encompasses national boundaries, border security, regulation of border crossers, and populist-nativist anxieties about identity. We…
Somali Immigrants in Lewiston, Maine: An Application of Robert Park’s Race Relations Cycle
Over the past century, Robert Park’s assimilation theory, dubbed otherwise, a race relations cycle has simultaneously become the starting point for the articulation of ethnic group relations and the most controversial concept in America sociology. With few exceptions, however, the majority of the sociological reaction to Robert Park’s assimilation has remained primarily at abstract level, and Stanford Lyman’s comment more than half a century ago …
Attitudes toward Immigration as a Sense of Group Position
Research on prejudice has historically employed Blumer’s group position as a theoretical alternative to Allport’s group conflict in understanding prejudice against members of minority groups. Our purpose in this study is to extend the theoretical parameters of group position into the domain of immigration by defining prejudice in terms of non-immigrant Americans versus immigrants. We find cultural identity threat and subjective economic threat ar…
The Code of the Street Fights Back! Significant Associations with Arrest, Delinquency, and Violence Withstand Psychological Confounds
Since Anderson's now classic, Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City , an increasing number of researchers have found a significant association between the code of the street and antisocial behavior. Less researched, however, is the relationship between the code of the street and cognate psychological factors. Building on the hypothesis that the code of the street is simply a reflection of elements of the popu…
Indigenous leadership and the legacy of religious Jama’a: Pre- and post-colonial society in Baardheere, Southern Somalia
Political Moderation and Polarization in the Heartland: Economics, Rurality, and Social Identity in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election
The 2016 U.S. presidential election was a watershed event that signaled decreasing political moderation and increasing partisan polarization, authoritarianism, and ethno-nationalism. Iowa, located at the center of the American Heartland, swung to the political right more than any other state. Multivariate regression analysis of county-level data is used to determine the relative contribution of factors reputed to have caused voters to support Tru…
Socioeconomic Achievement Among Arab Immigrants in the USA: The Influence of Region of Origin and Gender
Somali Migration to Canada and Resistance to Racialization
Until about 1980, there were few Somalis living in Canada, but the majority of them were fairly well educated people who had migrated for economic purposes. The absence of race as a social fact of Somali culture, in a sense, becomes activated in the process of migration to North America. This chapter provides data on how Somalis regard themselves, then on how they think white Canadians define them, followed by a description of patterns of associa…
Adverse Childhood Experiences, Commitment Offense, and Race/Ethnicity: Are the Effects Crime-, Race-, and Ethnicity-Specific
Adverse childhood experiences are associated with an array of health, psychiatric, and behavioral problems including antisocial behavior. Criminologists have recently utilized adverse childhood experiences as an organizing research framework and shown that adverse childhood experiences are associated with delinquency, violence, and more chronic/severe criminal careers. However, much less is known about adverse childhood experiences vis-à-vis spec…
Conceptualizing American Attitudes toward Immigrants' Dual Loyalty
The social issue of immigrants' dual loyalty figures prominently in the 2016 U.S. presidential primaries, yet little is known about Americans' views on the subject. Drawing on data from a nationally representative telephone survey, the authors specifically explored nonimmigrant Americans' attitudes toward immigrants' dual loyalty. The results show that attitudes toward this dual loyalty are informed by multiple boundary-making processes, includin…
Socioeconomic Diversity Among African Immigrants in the United States: An Intra-African Immigrant Comparison
Stigma
The purpose of this entry is twofold. First, it provides a brief examination of the theoretical parameters of Goffman's 1963 Stig ma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identities . Second, it analyzes the extent to which Goffman's original formulation of stigma is still applicable given the changing social values and ethnic demographic composition of North American society.
S omalia
This entry provides a brief and critical analysis of the historical and social organization of Somali society. The entry specifically explores how the development of Somali nationalism and national identity ignored the existence of social diversity and inequality by imposing a hyper‐homogenized greater Somalia identity, and how this imposition led to the slow disintegration of Somalia.
Formula Narratives and the Making of Social Stratification and Inequality
Sociological research on inequality has increasingly moved beyond the examination of inequalities as they presumably exist to explore the generic narrative processes that perpetuate that inequality. Unfortunately, however, this research remains concentrated on either individual or ideological grand narratives and ignores the fact that the work narratives do, including the production and structuring of inequality, occurs at multiple levels: cultur…
Criminal epidemiology and the immigrant paradox: Intergenerational discontinuity in violence and antisocial behavior among immigrants
Stigma
The term stigma refers to a social or individual attribute that is devalued and discredited in a particular social context. As Goffman (1963) noted, however, this definition requires an important qualification, one that defines stigma in terms of “a language of relationship” that can link attributes to particular stereotypes, rather than a priori objectified attributes. The language of relationship between attributes and stereotypes is extremely …
Racial and religious contexts: Situational identities among Lebanese and Somali Muslim immigrants
This study addresses the racial and religious contexts of identity formation among Lebanese immigrants to the United States of America and Somali immigrants to Canada. Each enters with a different racial status: Lebanese as white; Somalis as black/visible minority. Ethnographic interviews explore the strategies of adaptation and identity development within these groups. Specifically, we compare and contrast the Lebanese and Somali experience thro…
Migration and Racial Formations Among Somali Immigrants in North America
Early writers on migrants in North America such as Bryce-Laporte (1972 Bryce-Laporte, R. 1972. ‘Black immigrants: the experience of invisibility and inequality’. Journal of Black Studies, 3(1): 29–56. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) lamented the lack of research on black immigrants, referring to them as invisible immigrants. Since then, both the volume of research on foreign-born blacks as well as their share of the overall black population in Nor…
Contesting Stigma: On Goffman's Assumptions of Normative Order
Goffman's classic analysis of stigma tacitly suggests that it has a conditional nature. An important shortcoming, however, is that his analysis proceeds from the existence of a normatively shared understanding of the criteria for and the distribution of stigma assignment. I use data from Somali immigrants to Canada to further that argument by showing that stigma as a social object cannot be created when its cultural and structural contexts are di…
Beyond Indigenous Authenticity: Reflections on the Insider/Outsider Debate in Immigration Research
The insider/outsider debate in field research has recently been identified as one of the more important areas of needed research in immigration scholarship. My fieldwork as a native ethnographer among Somali immigrants to Canada is used to further that argument by showing the insatiability of categories such as native ethnographers and that the insider/outsider roles are products of the particular situation in which a given fieldwork takes place …
Peace and Stability in Somalia: Problems and Prospects
No abstract
Contesting Stigma: On Goffman's Assumptions of Normative Order
Goffman's classic analysis of stigma tacitly suggests that it has a conditional nature. An important shortcoming, however, is that his analysis proceeds from the existence of a normatively shared understanding of the criteria for and the distribution of stigma assignment. I use data from Somali immigrants to Canada to further that argument by showing that stigma as a social object cannot be created when its cultural and structural contexts are di…
Racial and religious contexts: Situational identities among Lebanese and Somali Muslim immigrants
This study addresses the racial and religious contexts of identity formation among Lebanese immigrants to the United States of America and Somali immigrants to Canada. Each enters with a different racial status: Lebanese as white; Somalis as black/visible minority. Ethnographic interviews explore the strategies of adaptation and identity development within these groups. Specifically, we compare and contrast the Lebanese and Somali experience thro…
Beyond Indigenous Authenticity: Reflections on the Insider/Outsider Debate in Immigration Research
The insider/outsider debate in field research has recently been identified as one of the more important areas of needed research in immigration scholarship. My fieldwork as a native ethnographer among Somali immigrants to Canada is used to further that argument by showing the insatiability of categories such as native ethnographers and that the insider/outsider roles are products of the particular situation in which a given fieldwork takes place …
Migration and Racial Formations Among Somali Immigrants in North America
Early writers on migrants in North America such as Bryce-Laporte (1972 Bryce-Laporte, R. 1972. ‘Black immigrants: the experience of invisibility and inequality’. Journal of Black Studies, 3(1): 29–56. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) lamented the lack of research on black immigrants, referring to them as invisible immigrants. Since then, both the volume of research on foreign-born blacks as well as their share of the overall black population in Nor…
Political Moderation and Polarization in the Heartland: Economics, Rurality, and Social Identity in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election
The 2016 U.S. presidential election was a watershed event that signaled decreasing political moderation and increasing partisan polarization, authoritarianism, and ethno-nationalism. Iowa, located at the center of the American Heartland, swung to the political right more than any other state. Multivariate regression analysis of county-level data is used to determine the relative contribution of factors reputed to have caused voters to support Tru…
Criminal epidemiology and the immigrant paradox: Intergenerational discontinuity in violence and antisocial behavior among immigrants
Formula Narratives and the Making of Social Stratification and Inequality
Sociological research on inequality has increasingly moved beyond the examination of inequalities as they presumably exist to explore the generic narrative processes that perpetuate that inequality. Unfortunately, however, this research remains concentrated on either individual or ideological grand narratives and ignores the fact that the work narratives do, including the production and structuring of inequality, occurs at multiple levels: cultur…
Attitudes toward Immigration as a Sense of Group Position
Research on prejudice has historically employed Blumer’s group position as a theoretical alternative to Allport’s group conflict in understanding prejudice against members of minority groups. Our purpose in this study is to extend the theoretical parameters of group position into the domain of immigration by defining prejudice in terms of non-immigrant Americans versus immigrants. We find cultural identity threat and subjective economic threat ar…
Socioeconomic Diversity Among African Immigrants in the United States: An Intra-African Immigrant Comparison
Socioeconomic Achievement Among Arab Immigrants in the USA: The Influence of Region of Origin and Gender
Conceptualizing American Attitudes toward Immigrants' Dual Loyalty
The social issue of immigrants' dual loyalty figures prominently in the 2016 U.S. presidential primaries, yet little is known about Americans' views on the subject. Drawing on data from a nationally representative telephone survey, the authors specifically explored nonimmigrant Americans' attitudes toward immigrants' dual loyalty. The results show that attitudes toward this dual loyalty are informed by multiple boundary-making processes, includin…
Peace and Stability in Somalia: Problems and Prospects
No abstract
Beyond Indigenous Authenticity: Reflections on the Insider/Outsider Debate in Immigration Research
The insider/outsider debate in field research has recently been identified as one of the more important areas of needed research in immigration scholarship. My fieldwork as a native ethnographer among Somali immigrants to Canada is used to further that argument by showing the insatiability of categories such as native ethnographers and that the insider/outsider roles are products of the particular situation in which a given fieldwork takes place …
Contesting Stigma: On Goffman's Assumptions of Normative Order
Goffman's classic analysis of stigma tacitly suggests that it has a conditional nature. An important shortcoming, however, is that his analysis proceeds from the existence of a normatively shared understanding of the criteria for and the distribution of stigma assignment. I use data from Somali immigrants to Canada to further that argument by showing that stigma as a social object cannot be created when its cultural and structural contexts are di…
Migration and Racial Formations Among Somali Immigrants in North America
Early writers on migrants in North America such as Bryce-Laporte (1972 Bryce-Laporte, R. 1972. ‘Black immigrants: the experience of invisibility and inequality’. Journal of Black Studies, 3(1): 29–56. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) lamented the lack of research on black immigrants, referring to them as invisible immigrants. Since then, both the volume of research on foreign-born blacks as well as their share of the overall black population in Nor…
Stigma
The term stigma refers to a social or individual attribute that is devalued and discredited in a particular social context. As Goffman (1963) noted, however, this definition requires an important qualification, one that defines stigma in terms of “a language of relationship” that can link attributes to particular stereotypes, rather than a priori objectified attributes. The language of relationship between attributes and stereotypes is extremely …
Racial and religious contexts: Situational identities among Lebanese and Somali Muslim immigrants
This study addresses the racial and religious contexts of identity formation among Lebanese immigrants to the United States of America and Somali immigrants to Canada. Each enters with a different racial status: Lebanese as white; Somalis as black/visible minority. Ethnographic interviews explore the strategies of adaptation and identity development within these groups. Specifically, we compare and contrast the Lebanese and Somali experience thro…
Criminal epidemiology and the immigrant paradox: Intergenerational discontinuity in violence and antisocial behavior among immigrants
Stigma
The purpose of this entry is twofold. First, it provides a brief examination of the theoretical parameters of Goffman's 1963 Stig ma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identities . Second, it analyzes the extent to which Goffman's original formulation of stigma is still applicable given the changing social values and ethnic demographic composition of North American society.
S omalia
This entry provides a brief and critical analysis of the historical and social organization of Somali society. The entry specifically explores how the development of Somali nationalism and national identity ignored the existence of social diversity and inequality by imposing a hyper‐homogenized greater Somalia identity, and how this imposition led to the slow disintegration of Somalia.
Formula Narratives and the Making of Social Stratification and Inequality
Sociological research on inequality has increasingly moved beyond the examination of inequalities as they presumably exist to explore the generic narrative processes that perpetuate that inequality. Unfortunately, however, this research remains concentrated on either individual or ideological grand narratives and ignores the fact that the work narratives do, including the production and structuring of inequality, occurs at multiple levels: cultur…
Conceptualizing American Attitudes toward Immigrants' Dual Loyalty
The social issue of immigrants' dual loyalty figures prominently in the 2016 U.S. presidential primaries, yet little is known about Americans' views on the subject. Drawing on data from a nationally representative telephone survey, the authors specifically explored nonimmigrant Americans' attitudes toward immigrants' dual loyalty. The results show that attitudes toward this dual loyalty are informed by multiple boundary-making processes, includin…
Socioeconomic Diversity Among African Immigrants in the United States: An Intra-African Immigrant Comparison
Somali Migration to Canada and Resistance to Racialization
Until about 1980, there were few Somalis living in Canada, but the majority of them were fairly well educated people who had migrated for economic purposes. The absence of race as a social fact of Somali culture, in a sense, becomes activated in the process of migration to North America. This chapter provides data on how Somalis regard themselves, then on how they think white Canadians define them, followed by a description of patterns of associa…
Adverse Childhood Experiences, Commitment Offense, and Race/Ethnicity: Are the Effects Crime-, Race-, and Ethnicity-Specific
Adverse childhood experiences are associated with an array of health, psychiatric, and behavioral problems including antisocial behavior. Criminologists have recently utilized adverse childhood experiences as an organizing research framework and shown that adverse childhood experiences are associated with delinquency, violence, and more chronic/severe criminal careers. However, much less is known about adverse childhood experiences vis-à-vis spec…
Socioeconomic Achievement Among Arab Immigrants in the USA: The Influence of Region of Origin and Gender
Political Moderation and Polarization in the Heartland: Economics, Rurality, and Social Identity in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election
The 2016 U.S. presidential election was a watershed event that signaled decreasing political moderation and increasing partisan polarization, authoritarianism, and ethno-nationalism. Iowa, located at the center of the American Heartland, swung to the political right more than any other state. Multivariate regression analysis of county-level data is used to determine the relative contribution of factors reputed to have caused voters to support Tru…
The Code of the Street Fights Back! Significant Associations with Arrest, Delinquency, and Violence Withstand Psychological Confounds
Since Anderson's now classic, Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City , an increasing number of researchers have found a significant association between the code of the street and antisocial behavior. Less researched, however, is the relationship between the code of the street and cognate psychological factors. Building on the hypothesis that the code of the street is simply a reflection of elements of the popu…
Indigenous leadership and the legacy of religious Jama’a: Pre- and post-colonial society in Baardheere, Southern Somalia
Attitudes toward Immigration as a Sense of Group Position
Research on prejudice has historically employed Blumer’s group position as a theoretical alternative to Allport’s group conflict in understanding prejudice against members of minority groups. Our purpose in this study is to extend the theoretical parameters of group position into the domain of immigration by defining prejudice in terms of non-immigrant Americans versus immigrants. We find cultural identity threat and subjective economic threat ar…
Somali Immigrants in Lewiston, Maine: An Application of Robert Park’s Race Relations Cycle
Over the past century, Robert Park’s assimilation theory, dubbed otherwise, a race relations cycle has simultaneously become the starting point for the articulation of ethnic group relations and the most controversial concept in America sociology. With few exceptions, however, the majority of the sociological reaction to Robert Park’s assimilation has remained primarily at abstract level, and Stanford Lyman’s comment more than half a century ago …
Racialized and Geopolitically Charged Contexts of Reception in New Immigrant Destinations
We conceptualize racialized and geopolitical contexts of reception as a comprehensive framework for understanding the incorporation of recent immigrants in new destinations. Racialization is the fluid assignment of racial meanings to physical characteristics, religion, cultural presentation, and language. Geopolitics encompasses national boundaries, border security, regulation of border crossers, and populist-nativist anxieties about identity. We…
Migrants on the go: Toward a theory of spontaneous migration
In this study, I introduce spontaneous migration as a lens for conceptualizing unplanned exit and the ways migrants and refugees circumvent immigration control regimes in transit countries, unexpectedly appearing at borders and/or international airports outside formal channels. I argue that spontaneous migration reshapes contemporary international migration in ways not captured by existing theories. Focusing on unanticipated and increased geopoli…
Sociology (19 works) · Political science (18 works) · Immigration (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Economics (7 works) · Gender Studies (7 works) · Migration and Labor Dynamics (7 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works)