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

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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.