Immigrants from CARICOM countries: a narrative inquiry exploring the lived experience of Massachusetts legal permanent residents accessing state support services.

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20351613

Immigrants from Caribbean Common Market countries (CARICOM) struggle to achieve socio-economic assimilation once they migrate to the United States. CARICOM immigrants are considered racial/ethnic minorities in the United States. The research goal of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of policies that affect the integration of minority immigrants into American society. This study analyzed scholarly articles on the topic of immigrants' assimilation in the United States. It also explored and assessed the impact of migration and factors that might impede racial/ethnic minority immigrants from successfully integrating into American society. The research question concerns whether timely access to support services results in the successful integration of new immigrants into American society. This study used a qualitative narrative inquiry methodology involving in-depth interviews. The population of interest was adult immigrants between the age of 18 to 59 years old from Caribbean Community countries who came to the United States as legal permanent residents from 2013 through 2019, who reside in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and who access state support services. The study concluded that two main stumbling blocks to racial minority immigrants' upward economic mobility in the United States are a lack of work history and a lack of credit history. Timely access to services such as workforce development, skills training, and childcare removes barriers to upward economic mobility--Author's abstract