Cultural assimilation among Palestinian immigrants in New Mexico

This is an ethnographic research project that was done among a group of Palestinian-American businessmen in Smallville , New Mexico, in the southwestern United States. The research question that guided both the theory and data collection methods is: How and why do Palestinian-Americans maintain or negotiate the boundaries of their immigrant group in Smallville, NM? How is this related to the process of their cultural assimilation into the life of Smallville? The fieldwork that was behind this study took place between July 11th and August 13th, 2005. In this study I gave a brief historical preview of the Palestinian immigration to the United States. I provided an ethnographic text describing the current Palestinian community in a small town in New Mexico. I concluded that Palestinian-Americans are today in a transnational situation, enabling them to both live and work in two, and sometimes more than two, countries including their country of origin, Palestine.