Open Access

Alma J. Durán-Merk

• This communication describes in detail the findings of the doctoral thesis entitled "In Our Sphere of Life". Dimensions of Social Incorporation in a Stratified Society: The Case of the German-Speaking Immigrants in Yucatán and their Descendants (Universität Augsburg, 2013). This is the first systematic study of elite and non-elite germanophone migrants and their descendants carried out in México; it includes a total of 607 persons. The study weaves ethnographical and historical methods, compiling information in four countries – México, Germany, Austria and the United States – in order to recover data about the four dimensions of social incorporation it examines: structural, social, cultural, and identificational. Analyzing not only individual immigrants but also families through several decades, it pays special attention to the processes by which the individuals maintained or modified their cultural practices, values, representations and discourses while acquiring new ones.