Abstract
This article examines how the interplay among context of reception and interior enforcement and policeability policies and practices shapes Latino incorporation into Perry, a rural new destination community in Iowa. Analysis, based on ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews with a diverse sample of Latinos, foregrounds how the racialized dimensions of place affect incorporation, social interaction, and the ability of new populations to develop a sense of belonging. The stories Latinos share about everyday life in Perry reveal that Latinos and non-Latinos tend to live in “separate worlds” within community, differing in how and when they circulate in local space, with few instances of sustained and meaningful interaction. A climate of fear, competition, and distrust discourages the formation of networks and relations of solidarity within and across ethnoracial groups. Latinos report a sense of being welcome as laborers, but rejected as neighbors with their particular sociohistorical and cultural manifestations.
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