New Immigrant Destinations in Global Context

Jamie WindersDepartment of Geography

Syracuse University

Ten States with the Largest Latino Populations, 2000 Ten States with the Fastest Growth in Latino Population, 1990-2000

From Andrew Wainer. 2004. The New Latino South and the Challenge to Public Education: Strategies for Educators and Policymakers in Emerging Immigrant Communities. Tomas Rivera Policy Institute.

2010: 48% of Dalton’s 33,000 residents were

Hispanic.

2010: 26% of Mayfield’s 10,349

residents were Hispanic.

2001 novel set in Latino community in Nashville, TN

Where should the study of new immigrant destinations go?

New immigrant destinations in global context

New Immigrant Destinations (NIDs) in Global Context

• (1) How NIDs have been defined within and beyond the U.S.

• (2) NIDs in various geographic contexts

• (3) What attention to NIDs in a global context gets us and requires

What constitutes NID?

• (1) No clear consensus on definition

Singer’s 2004 typologyFormer gateways

Continuous gatewaysPost-World War II gateways

Emerging gatewaysRe-emerging gatewaysPre-emerging gateways

Massey and Capoferro 2008: NID states if 100% or greater Hispanic population growth, 1990 to

2000

Shihadeh and Barranco 2013: NID counties if less than 10% Hispanic in 1990

Lichter and Johnson 2009: “high-growth area” if rapid Hispanic population growth in 1990s and

less than 10% Hispanic in 1990

NID characteristics

• (1) Speed of settlement, not size of population

• (2) Lack of institutional infrastructure

• (3) Lack of “established ethnic resources” for immigrants (Atiles and Bohon 2003)

• (4) Missing link between immigrants and local past• But…• Impacts?

• Cape Verde’s Chinese population grew five-fold, mid-1990s to 2003 (Haugen and Carlin 2005)

• In mid-western town, Hispanic population grew by 5,000%, 1990 to 2006 (McConnell and Miraftab 2008)

• In rural Arkansas, local schools grew from 3% Hispanic in 1992 to 50% by 2001 (Erwin 2003)

How the history of one immigrant group shapes the present reception of

another?

NIDs in the U.S.

• (1) NIDs within the U.S.•States, counties, communities

• (2) Strong focus on American South

• (3) Rural, urban, and suburban

“perhaps the most significant trend in U.S. population

redistribution over the past quarter century” (Lichter and Johnson

2009, 497)

“a social, political, economic, and cultural revolution” (Striffler

2007, 676)

“a golden opportunity to build our empirical and theoretical understanding of immigrant assimilation” by watching it

unfold in new contexts (Waters and Jimenez 2005, 122)

NIDs in Europe

• (1) NIDs as countries

• (2) “new,” emerging, immature, or young immigration

• (3) Missing colonial ties• Ukrainian and Moldovan immigrants in Portugal• Latin Americans in Ireland vs. Spain (Marrow 2012)

““one of the most striking demographic

developments in recent European

history” (Azzolini et al. 2012, 47)

Parallel with NIDs in US and history of

racial binary

NIDs in the “Developing World”

• (1) Political shifts, as much as economic opportunities, produce NIDs• Changing geopolitical dynamics (Chinese workers in Israel)• Changing political regimes (Rwandan immigrants in South Africa)• Border tightening elsewhere (Nigerian immigrants in China)

• (2) Growing trend of South-South migration geographies• Role of contract labor, EPZs, labor recruitment

C.f. US story of NIDs

Different context and structure of reception

NIDs in a comparative context?

• Helen Marrow’s research in rural North Carolina• Hispanic newcomers arriving in

1990s• Past histories of internal

tensions have indirect impact on immigrants• Some Hispanic newcomers

experience upward mobility

• Ruth McAreavey’s research in rural Northern Ireland• Polish immigrants arriving after

2004• Past histories of internal

tensions have direct impact on immigrants• Most Polish immigrants

experience downward mobility

Conclusion• (1) Approaching NIDs in a global context

makes new kinds of questions apparent• Diasporas• Worker experiences

• (2) How much can the concept of “new immigrant destination” stretch?

• (3) A literature focused only on the U.S. potentially misses the bigger picture.

Requires “stretching”

Implications of this stretching?