Global Connections and Local ReceptionsEdition 1

“Through its close study of immigration in an area of the United States that had until recent years largely been insulated from newcomers, this book opens a window onto a phenomenon that is both deeply local and entirely global. Profoundly insightful on both levels, it deserves to be read by scholars, activists, and human beings everywhere who seek to understand the potential for conflict and for constructive change in communities receiving new immigrants today.”—Jennifer Gordon, Fordham Law School, author of Suburban Sweatshops

“Scholars in a number of disciplines (sociology, anthropology, law, Appalachian studies, southern studies Latino studies, labor studies) would find this book useful in both their research and courses.”—Donald E. Davis, coeditor of Voices from the Nueva Frontera: Latino Immigration in Dalton, Georgia

“Scholars working on policy questions, demographic concerns, cultural studies, political economy, and ‘new destination’ will all find this book extremely useful.”—Altha J. Cravey, author of Women and Work in Mexico’s Maquiladoras

In recent decades, Latino immigration has transformed communities and cultures throughout the southeastern United States-and become the focus of a sometimes furious national debate. Global Connections and Local Receptions is one of the first books to provide an in-depth consideration of this profound demographic and social development.

Examining Latino migration at the local, state, national, and binational levels, this book includes studies of southeastern locales and a statewide overview of Tennessee. Leading migration scholar Alejandro Portes offers a national analysis while Raúl Delgado Wise provides a Mexican perspective on the migration issue and its policy implications for both the United States and Mexico.

This collection contains a broad base of contributions from legal scholars, sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, and political scientists. Readers will find demographic data charting trends in immigration, descriptions of organizing and of individual experiences, a quantitative comparison of new and old destinations, a critical history of U.S. immigration policy in recent decades, a report on access to housing and efforts to enact anti-immigrant laws, an assessment of how mass outmigration currently affects the national economy and communities in Mexico, analysis of the way dominant ideology frames “black–brown” relationships in southern labor markets, and a concluding essay with detailed recommendations for making U.S. immigration policy just and humane.

“Recommended to anyone interested in the new wave of immigration into the United States.”—The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society