CAREER: Rural Transformation and Latino Transnational Migration and Settlement in the U.S. South

在过去的十年里，随着拉美裔跨国移民向美国东南部转移，以及更多家庭的“永久”定居，出现了一种“新的地理位置”。这种增长很大程度上发生在农村地区，这些地区从历史上的混血社区迅速转变为多民族社区。北卡罗来纳州是过去十年来美国所有州中拉丁裔增长率最高的州，它为分析“早期”移民和定居过程提供了独特的机会。项目研究目标包括：1)确定关键的微观和宏观因素如何影响拉美裔在南方农村的移民和定居；2)解释拉美裔在南方农村的移徙和定居如何改变原籍社区和目的地社区的经济、社会、种族/族裔关系；3)分析拉美裔人随时间和空间建立的跨国网络和关系，将他们与原籍地、美国门户城市和南方新的农村家园社区联系起来；4)确定建立包括拉美裔人在内的新的社区和经济发展举措的最有效方法。这个多地点项目的地理焦点包括北卡罗来纳州东部的三个农村社区、东部的邻近城市和(墨西哥)米却肯州火地岛地区与北卡罗来纳州东部有很强跨国联系的一个城镇。该项目将采取理论上的折衷方法，包括多层次分析、性别分析、群体间关系和跨国范式。这项研究将采用“混合方法”，包括：1)对北卡罗来纳州农村社区的拉丁裔家庭和非拉丁裔居民进行定性访谈；2)对北卡罗来纳州东部的非拉丁裔居民对拉丁裔移民和定居的态度和看法进行定量调查；以及3)与墨西哥移民项目合作进行“米却卡罗利纳”跨国案例研究。通过一个研究、教育和外展的综合计划，该项目寻求对不断增长的关于拉美裔移民新地理的学术文献做出重大贡献，特别是在南部农村地区；制定迫切需要的课程，将移徙研究纳入欧洲联盟的各种学术方案；指导和支持专门从事移徙的少数族裔研究生；并提供外联服务，以改进针对拉美裔社区的倡议的服务提供。

Over the past decade a "new geography" of Latino transnational immigration has emerged with a shift towards the southeastern U.S. and more "permanent" settlement of families. Much of this growth has occurred in rural areas that have transformed rapidly from historically biracial to multi-ethnic communities. North Carolina, with the highest Latino growth rate among all U.S. states over the past decade, provides a unique opportunity to analyze "early stage" migration and settlement processes. Project research objectives include: 1) Identify how key micro and macro factors have shaped the migration and settlement of Latinos in the rural South; 2) Explain how Latino migration and settlement in the rural South has restructured economic, social and racial/ethnic relations in both origin and destination communities; 3) Analyze the transnational networks and relations Latinos construct over time and space linking them to homeland place of origin, U.S. gateway cities and new rural home communities in the South; and 4) Identify the most effective approaches to building new community and economic development initiatives that incorporate Latinos. The geographic focus of this multi-sited project includes three rural eastern N.C. communities, neighboring cities of the east and a town in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacan (Mexico) with strong transnational ties to eastern N.C. This project will take a theoretically eclectic approach including multi-level analysis, gender analysis, inter-group relations and transnational paradigms. The research will employ a "mixed method" approach including: 1) Qualitative Interviews with Latino Families and Non-Latino residents in N.C. Rural Communities and with Key Informants; 2) Quantitative eastern N.C. Survey of Non-Latino Resident Attitudes and Perceptions of Latino Migration and Settlement; and 3) "Michoacarolina" Transnational Case Study in collaboration with the Mexican Migration Project (MMP).Through an integrated program of research, education and outreach, this project seeks to make a significant contribution to the growing academic literature on the new geography of Latino migration, particularly to rural areas in the South; to develop urgently needed curricula that will integrate migration studies into various ECU academic programs; to mentor and support minority graduate students specializing in migration; and to provide outreach that will improve service delivery for initiatives targeting Latino communities.