Date of Award
Fall 10-16-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
November 2025
Department
Comparative Studies Program
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
Carter Koppelman
Thesis/Dissertation Co-Chair
Michael Harris
Abstract
The problem of the 21st century is not simply that of the “color line,” but rather of how diverse groups of Blacks (Americans and immigrants alike) experience the “color line.” This interview-based dissertation project addresses this problem by examining how thirty-eight first-, 1.5-, and second-generation middle-class Haitian immigrants engage with and reconcile the color line in their lives. This dissertation finds that these immigrants “performatively assimilate” to access privileged middle- and upper-class spaces. Through strategies of strategic ethnicity, code switching, and signifying Haitian exceptionalism, they are able to achieve stable and fulfilling careers and financial security. This dissertation proposes a new framework for examining assimilation patterns of marginalized groups and examines the lives of Haitians through this framework. Performative assimilation is defined as the ongoing emotional labor that marginalized groups must perform to achieve provisional and temporary access to privileged spaces. While the mechanisms and strategies of assimilation may change, the need to engage in performative assimilation does not. Performative assimilation, as a framework, provides tools to examine the assimilation of marginalized groups through an intersectional lens, showing how race, migration status, gender, and class combine to create particular experiences and practices of assimilation. Without this intersectional lens, we are at risk of universalizing one group’s experiences. This case of middle-class Haitians tells us that not all Haitians, let alone all immigrants or marginalized groups, have the same experience of assimilation. By calling attention to the contingent and ongoing practices of accessing dominant spaces in the US, performative assimilation provides tools necessary to holistically and intersectionally examine those experiences. This dissertation shows how concepts developed by other scholars, including strategic ethnicities, codeswitching, and Haitian exceptionalism, are deployed as strategies and mechanisms of performative assimilation that enable middle-class Haitians to access privileged spaces. This study demonstrates that despite the best efforts of middle-class Haitians, they remain only provisionally accepted in privileged middle- and upper-class white spaces.
Recommended Citation
Boisvert, Jodie, "INVITED BUT NOT WELCOME: ASSIMILATION, EMOTIONAL LABOR, AND THE LIMITS OF BELONGING FOR MIDDLE-CLASS HAITIANS" (2025). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 181.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general/181