Latinos in the New South: Transformations of Place

Over the past decade, Latinos have emerged as one of the fastest-growing ethnic populations in the American South. In a region where culture and class relations have for hundreds of years been constructed along black-white divides and experience absorbing culturally or linguistically foreign immigrants has been limited, today a 'New South' is taking shape. This book presents a contemporary and multi-disciplinary examination of the impacts and responses to Latino immigration across the Southeastern United States. The rapid and large-scale movement of Latinos into the region has challenged old precepts and forced Southerners to confront the impacts of globalization and transnationalism in their daily lives. Drawing on theoretical perspectives as well as empirical research, this text provides insights into the Latino experience in both urban and rural locales. Each chapter is centered on the nexus between the immigrants' experiences in settling and adapting to new lives in the American South and the construction of transformed social, economic, political and cultural spaces.