Doctorate in Social Sciences, University of Guadalajara
We're happy to share the news that Yarimis Méndez Pupo has successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on recent Cuban migration to Miami at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico. Yarimis was appointed a Visiting Scholar at FIU's Cuban Research Institute during the summer of 2020, but could not travel to Miami because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Yarimis' dissertation was entitled "The Experience of Labor Incorporation of Cubans Who Migrated to Miami, Florida, between the years 1995 and 2017: A Study of the New Cuban Migrant Wave from the Perspective of Migrant Transnationalism and a Gender Approach." Her main research goals were to assess the immigrants' expectations and motivations, their incorporation into the local labor market, and their transnational links to their homeland. Her research was based on the analysis of fifteen semi-structured interviews with recent Cuban immigrants, as well as participant observation in the Cuban-American community of Miami in October 2019. She concluded that the most recent Cuban émigrés, many of whom are highly qualified and educated, have largely experienced upward social mobility in the United States, although many initially faced major obstacles to their economic integration, such as language barriers and gender discrimination.
Yarimis' dissertation committee was chaired by Dr. Ofelia Woo González, a Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Guadalajara, and included Drs. Alejandra Lizardi González, a Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Guadalajara, and Jorge Duany, Director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.
Yarimis Méndez Pupo earned her Ph.D. in social sciences at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico. She holds a master’s degree in communication from the University of Guadalajara and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Havana.
