eBook

Village of Immigrants

Gordon, Diana R

2015,2020

Overview

Greenport, New York, a village on the North Fork of Long Island, has become an exemplar of a little-noted national trend-immigrants spreading beyond the big coastal cities, driving much of rural population growth nationally. InVillage of Immigrants,Diana R. Gordon illustrates how small-town America has been revitalized by the arrival of these immigrants in Greenport, where she lives.Greenport today boasts a population that is one-third Hispanic. Gordon contends that these immigrants have effectively saved the town's economy by taking low-skill jobs, increasing the tax base, filling local schools, and patronizing local businesses. Greenport's seaside beauty still attracts summer tourists, but it is only with the support of the local Latino workforce that elegant restaurants and bed-and-breakfasts are able to serve these visitors. For Gordon the picture is complex, because the wave of immigrants also presents the town with challenges to its services and institutions. Gordon's portraits of local immigrants capture the positive and the negative, with a cast of characters ranging from a Guatemalan mother of three, including one child who is profoundly disabled, to a Colombian house painter with a successful business who cannot become licensed because he remains undocumented.Village of Immigrantsweaves together these people's stories, fears, and dreams to reveal an environment plagued by threats of deportation, debts owed tocoyotes, low wages, and the other bleak realities that shape the immigrant experience-even in the charming seaport town of Greenport.A timely contribution to the national dialogue on immigration, Gordon's book shows the pivotal role the American small town plays in the ongoing American immigrant story-as well as how this booming population is shaping and reviving rural communities.

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Subject: american immigrant story / Biography / Business / colombian immigrants / community / coyotes and migration / cultural change in america / deportation / Diana R. Gordon / Economic conditions / Emigration & Immigration / Ethnic relations / families / Greenport / Greenport (N.Y.) / Greenport (N.Y.) -- Biography / Greenport (N.Y.) -- Economic conditions / Greenport (N.Y.) -- Ethnic relations / guatemalan families / Hispanic Americans / Hispanic Americans -- New York (State) -- Greenport -- Biography / Hispanic Americans -- New York (State) -- Greenport -- Social conditions / hispanic communities / hispanics / HISTORY / HISTORY / World / Immigrants / Immigrants -- New York (State) -- Greenport -- Biography / Immigrants -- New York (State) -- Greenport -- Social conditions / immigration / immigration and economy / immigration policy / immigration, latinos, hispanics, deportation, wages, community, rural, families, small town america, greenport, long island immigration, population growth, latino immigrants, hispanic communities, guatemalan families, low wage jobs, migrant labor, coyotes and migration, immigration policy, rural diversity, cultural change in america, rural revitalization, american immigrant story, Diana R. Gordon, immigration and economy, service demands, colombian immigrants / latino immigrants / latinos / long island immigration / low wage jobs / Middle Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA) / migrant labor / New York (State) / Political Science / POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Economic Policy / population growth / rural / rural diversity / rural revitalization / service demands / small town america / Social change / Social change -- New York (State) -- Greenport / Social conditions / SOCIAL SCIENCE / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Emigration & Immigration / SOCIAL SCIENCE / General / Social sciences / Sociology / State & Local / United States / wages / Working class / Working class -- New York (State) -- Greenport -- Biography / Working class -- New York (State) -- Greenport -- Social conditions
• ISBN: 0813575923, 9780813575926, 0813575907, 9780813575902, 0813599202, 9780813599205