This thesis discusses the potential connections between hate crime and xenophobia in the United States during the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency. Drawing upon the academic debate on...Show moreThis thesis discusses the potential connections between hate crime and xenophobia in the United States during the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency. Drawing upon the academic debate on violence and the potential connections between different levels of violence, this thesis aims to contribute by researching the potential connections between a form of structural violence and a form direct violence. Through an analysis of White House documents and the FBI’s hate crime statistics, this study has sought to discuss the influence of Trump’s political xenophobia towards Arabs and Latinos on the number of hate crime incidents with either Arab or Latino victims. The case studies have illustrated that there is clear correlation between political xenophobia and hate crime towards Arabs and Latinos in the US, as the number of hate crimes towards these group increased after periods of clear xenophobic sentiment from the Trump administration. This thesis, therefore, argues in favor of a broader approach to the concept of violence, as acknowledging the true width of violence in societies is the only way to eradicate it.Show less
This work investigates an unexplored topic, that of the Latin American imaginary of students (Colombians and Mexicans) who follow postgraduate studies in Holland. Analyzing the stories requested of...Show moreThis work investigates an unexplored topic, that of the Latin American imaginary of students (Colombians and Mexicans) who follow postgraduate studies in Holland. Analyzing the stories requested of the students, the author evidences the components of the dynamics of self-representation, while describing essential elements of the context in which this phenomenon occurs: center-periphery, inclusion-exclusion, Latin America as Edenic vision and Holland as a Desired destination. In this sense, an important contribution is the description of the Netherlands and its functioning as a recipient country based on a critical interpretation of the stories of the interviewees. The image that emerges reveals the Dutch Academy as a space different from the one originally destined from the migrant imaginary. In the work on the dynamics of adaptation, it has also investigated the role played by the social spaces (e.g. student associations) of whose role and contribution in the construction of the feeling of community this work leaves record. Important is the fact that the student's reflection combines a topic of current debate -as the presence of international students- and a little-studied area: that of their cultural practices and their peculiar dynamics in the course of their adaptation process. At the same time, it records the way in which these processes, which take place in the West, generate modifications in the way of conceiving, seeing or projecting for the future of the students upon their return to Latin America. An innovative thesis not only in the subject but in the original application of the theoretical body and above all in the declared intention to participate, from the Academy, in the social debate.Show less
