Latinos in the New South ― Transformations of Place

Latinos have emerged as one of the fastest-growing ethnic populations in the American South. A 'New South' is taking shape in a region where culture and class relations have traditionally been constructed along black-white divides and experience absorbing culturally or linguistically foreign immigrants has been limited. This book presents a multidisciplinary examination of the impacts and responses across the Southeastern United States to contemporary Latino immigration. 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, the work provides insights into the Latino experience in both urban and rural locales. Each chapter is centred 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.

Heather Smith is an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte). She is also a Senior Researcher with the Vancouver, Canada-based Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Integration in the Metropolis (RIIM). Owen Furuseth is Associate Provost for Metropolitan Studies and Extended Academic Programs at UNC Charlotte. Smith and Furuseth are co-directing research programs examining Latino immigrant experiences in the state of North Carolina and the Charlotte metropolitan region specifically.