Two Decades of Research on Mexican Migration to a New (‎Non - Metropolitan) Destination in the United States: Lessons from the Field

Journal title MONDI MIGRANTI
Author/s Víctor Zúñiga, Rubén Hernández-León
Publishing Year 2017 Issue 2017/1 Language Italian
Pages 22 P. 7-28 File size 224 KB
DOI 10.3280/MM2017-001001
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This article synthesizes two decades of research on Mexican migration to Dalton, a small city located in Georgia, Usa. The analysis focuses on the lessons learned from our sociological fieldwork and places them in the context of the study of the rise of new destinations of Mexican and Latin American migration to the United States. The article first characterizes the inductive, interactionist and constructivist theoretical and methodological approaches used. With these analytical tools, the social process of immigration in small and mid-size towns has been studied as a web of interactions between immigrants and established residents as protagonists and not just victims of large structural forces. This approach has allowed to discover different and unexpected interactions, including alliances, cooperation, fractures, tensions, conflicts, adjustments, accommodations, and changing social boundaries between immigrants and natives. The article concludes with a brief analysis of the Mexican second generation, The lessons of two decades of research in Dalton serve as an invitation to further investigate the arrival of migrants to non-metropolitan destinations in other countries.

Keywords: International migration, Mexico, United States, new destinations, integration of migrants, Georgia.

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Víctor Zúñiga, Rubén Hernández-León, Due decenni di ricerca sulla migrazione messicana in una nuova destinazione non-metropolitana: riflessioni di campo dagli Stati Uniti in "MONDI MIGRANTI" 1/2017, pp 7-28, DOI: 10.3280/MM2017-001001