Understanding Abyssinian Immigrants in the U.S.: Socio-Cultural Background and Contemporary Experiences‪.‬

Introduction In the last two decades, the United States of America (U.S.A.) experienced a massive increase in the number of new immigrants (Gonzalez, 2001). In the year 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau showed there were 28 million foreign-born U.S. residents, representing 10.4% of the total population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001). These immigrants came with their own languages, religions, cultural backgrounds, and various worldviews, which made adapting to the American mainstream culture a challenge (Perkins, 2000; and Rong and Brown, 2001). Particularly, Black immigrants with Non-Western traditions face more challenges in the adaptation process. This article focuses on immigrants with African cultural backgrounds, specifically Abyssinians (Eritreans and Ethiopians), to gain an understanding of their intercultural experiences in American society. The reviewed literature shows that Abyssinian immigrants bring non-Western cultural backgrounds to the American mainstream, which makes assimilation into that mainstream a challenge. Data analysis from interviews is presented to help explain Abyssinians' daily intercultural experiences in U.S. environs and their reasons and methods for immigrating to the U.S.