Over recent decades, the Southeast has become a new frontier for
Latin American migration to and within the United States, and North
Carolina has had one of the fastest growing Latino populations in
the nation. Here, Hannah Gill offers North Carolinians from all
walks of life a better understanding of their Latino neighbors,
bringing light instead of heat to local and national debates on
immigration.
Exploring the larger social forces behind demographic shifts, Gill
shows both how North Carolina communities are facing the challenges
and opportunities presented by these changes and how migrants
experience the economic and social realities of their new lives.
Latinos are no longer just visitors to the state but are part of
the inevitably changing, long-term makeup of its population. Today,
emerging migrant communities and the integration of Latino
populations remain salient issues as the U.S. Congress stands on
the verge of formulating comprehensive immigration reform for the
first time in nearly three decades. Gill makes connections between
hometowns and the increasing globalization of people, money,
technology, and culture by shedding light on the many diverse North
Carolina residents who are highly visible yet, as she shows,
invisible at the same time.