Existing paradigms of immigrant incorporation fruitfully describe immigrants’ upward or downward mobility across generations. Yet we know very little about intragenerational change. Drawing on a case in which upwardly mobile Latino immigrants see their gains reversed, I model what I call intragenerational reverse incorporation. In doing so, I theorize how incorporation gains can be undone through institutional closure and shifts in reception attitudes spurred by securitization and intensified immigration enforcement. Drawing on data gathered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, I show how these changes both marginalized and racialized Latino immigrants, who in turn internalized and politicized their new status.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AbregoL. J.2011. “Legal Consciousness of Undocumented Latinos: Fear and Stigma as Barriers to Claims-Making for First- and 1.5-Generation Immigrants.” Law & Society Review45(2):337–70.
2.
AhearL. 1995. “Latino Community Coming into Focus.” News and Record, July 4, section A1.
3.
AlbaR.1985. Italian Americans: Into the Twilight of Ethnicity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
4.
AlbaR.NeeV.. 2003. Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
5.
ArmentaA.2012. “From Sheriff’s Deputies to Immigration Officers: Screening Immigrant Status in a Tennessee Jail.” Law and Policy34(2):191–210.
6.
BallA.1998. “UNCG Welcomes Immigrants; UNCG Holds Family Day to Introduce Immigrants to College Life.” News and Record, B2.
BauerM.ReynoldsS.. 2009. Under Siege: Life for Low-Income Latinos in the South. Montgomery, AL: Southern Poverty Law Center.
9.
BellD.BlanchflowerD.. 2011. “Young People and the Great Recession.” Oxford Review of Economic Policy27(2):241–67.
10.
BloemraadI.2006. Becoming a Citizen: Incorporating Immigrants and Refugees in the United States and Canada. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
11.
BorjasG.1999. “The Economic Analysis of Immigration.” In Handbook of Labor Economics, vol. 3, edited by AshenfelterO.CardD., 1697–1760. North-Holland, Netherlands: Elsevier Science.
12.
BrownH.2013. “Race, Legality, and the Social Policy Consequences of Anti-Immigration Mobilization.” American Sociological Review78(2):290–314.
13.
BrownH.JonesJ. A.. 2015. “Rethinking Panethnicity and the Race-Immigration Divide.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity1(1):181–91.
14.
BuggsS.PaikA.PriceJ.. 1998. “The Land of Full Employment.” News and Observer, July 26, p. A1.
15.
CainkarL.2009. Homeland Insecurity: The Arab American and Muslim Experience after 9/11. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
16.
CalavitaK.1996. “The New Politics of Immigration: ‘Balanced-Budget Conservatism’ and the Symbolism of Proposition 187.” Social Problems43(3):284–305.
17.
CameronD.2017. “How Sanctuary Cities Work, and How Trump’s Executive Order Might Affect Them.” The Washington Post, January 25.
CappsR.RosenblumM.RodriguezC.ChishtiM.. 2011. Delegation and Divergence: A Study of 287(g) State and Local Immigration Enforcement. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute.
20.
ColemanM.2012. “The ‘Local’ Migration State: The Site-Specific Devolution of Immigration Enforcement in the U.S. South.” Law & Policy34(2):159–90.
21.
CraverR. 2006. “Bank Gives Gift to Center; Money Goes toward Forsyth Tech’s Goal.” Winston-Salem Journal, November 14, Section D, p. 1.
22.
CraveyA. J.ValdiviaG.. 2011. “Carolina del Norte: An Introduction” Southeastern Geographer51(6):213–26.
23.
DenningS. R. 2009. “The Impact of North Carolina Driver’s License Requirements and the REAL ID Act of 2005 on Unauthorized Immigrants.” Popular Government74(3): Spring/Summer Online Supplement.
24.
DeSipioL.2011. “Immigrant Incorporation in an Era of Weak Civic Institutions: Immigrant Civic and Political Participation in the United States.” American Behavioral Scientist55(9):1189–1213.
25.
EvansT.HarrisJ.. 2004. “Street-Level Bureaucracy, Social Work and the (Exaggerated) Death of Discretion.” British Journal of Social Work34(6):871–95.
26.
FreemanG. P.2004. “Immigrant Incorporation in Western Democracies.” International Migration Review38(3):945–69.
27.
FriedbergR. M.2000. “You Can’t Take It with You? Immigrant Assimilation and the Portability of Human Capital.” Journal of Labor Economics18(2):221–51.
GansH.1992. “Second-Generation Decline: Scenarios for the Economic and Ethnic Futures of the Post-1965 American Immigrants.” Ethnic and Racial Studies15:173–92.
30.
GillH. E.2010. The Latino Migration Experience in North Carolina: New Roots in the Old North State. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
31.
GiulianoP.SpilimbergoA.. 2009. “Growing Up in a Recession: Beliefs and the Macroeconomy.” NBER Working Paper 15321. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. http://www.nber.org/papers/w15321.
32.
GleesonS.GonzalesR.. 2011. “When Do Papers Matter? An Institutional Analysis of Undocumented Life in the United States.” International Migration50(4):1–19.
33.
Golash-BozaT.Hondagneu-SoteloP.. 2013. “Latino Immigrant Men and the Deportation Crisis: A Gendered Racial Removal Program.” Latino Studies11(3):271–92.
34.
GonzalesR.2011. “Learning to Be Illegal: Undocumented Youth and Shifting Legal Contexts in the Transition to Adulthood.” American Sociological Review76(4):602–19.
35.
GruskyD.WeedenK.. 2006. “Does the Sociological Approach to Studying Mobility Have a Future?” In Mobility and Inequality: Frontiers of Research in Sociology and Economics, edited by MorganS. L.GruskyD. B.FieldsG. S., 85–108. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
36.
HarrisD. R.SimJ. J.. 2002. “Who Is Multiracial? Assessing the Complexity of Lived Race.” American Sociological Review67(4):614–27.
HopkinsD.2010. “Politicized Places: Explaining Where and When Immigrants Provoke Local Opposition.” American Political Science Review104:40–60.
39.
KochharR.SuroR.TafoyaS.. 2005. The New Latino South: The Context and Consequences of Rapid Population Growth. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.
40.
KoopmansR.StathamP.GiugniM.PassyF.. 2005. Contested Citizenship: Immigration and Cultural Diversity in Europe. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
41.
LacyE.2009. “Cultural Enclaves and Transnational Ties: Mexican Immigration and Settlement in South Carolina.” In Latino Immigrants and the Transformation of the U.S. South, edited by OdemM. E.LacyE.. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
42.
LeDuffC. 2000. “At a Slaughterhouse, Some Things Never Die.” New York Times, June 16, p. 16.
43.
LeeT.2008. “From Shared Demographic Categories to Common Political Destinies? Immigration and the Link from Racial Identity to Group Politics.” DuBois Review4:433–56.
44.
LeeJ.ZhouM., eds. 2004. Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity and Ethnicity. New York: Routledge.
45.
LightI. H.1972. Ethnic Enterprise in America: Business and Welfare among Chinese, Japanese, and Blacks. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
46.
LuthraR. R.2013. “Explaining Ethnic Inequality in the German Labor Market: Labor Market Institutions, Context of Reception, and Boundaries.” European Sociological Review29(5):1095–1107.
47.
MahlerS. J.SiemiatyckiM.DeSipioL.. 2011. “Immigrant Incorporation in an Era of Weak Civic Institutions: Immigrant Civic and Political Participation in the United States.” American Behavioral Scientist55:1189–1213.
48.
MarrowH. 2009. “Immigrant Bureaucratic Incorporation: The Dual Roles of Professional Missions and Government Policies.” American Sociological Review74:756–76.
49.
MarrowH. 2011. New Destination Dreaming: Immigration, Race, and Legal Status in the Rural American South. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
MasseyD. S.1981. “Dimensions of the New Immigration to the United States and the Prospects for Assimilation.” Annual Review of Sociology7(1):57–85.
52.
MasseyD. 1995. “The New Immigration and Ethnicity in the United States.” Population and Development Review21(3):631–52.
53.
MasseyD. 2008. New Faces in New Places: The Changing Geography of American Immigration. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
54.
MasseyD.PrenK. A.. 2012. “Origins of the New Latino Underclass.” Race and Social Problems4(1):5–17.
55.
MasseyD.SánchezM.. 2010. Brokered Boundaries: Creating Immigrant Identity in Anti-Immigrant Times. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
56.
McDanielS.GazsoA.UmS.. 2013. “Generationing Relations in Challenging Times: Americans and Canadians in Mid-Life in the Great Recession.” Current Sociology61(3):301–21.
57.
MettlerS.SossJ.. 2004. “The Consequences of Public Policy for Democratic Citizenship: Bridging Policy Studies and Mass Politics.” Perspectives on Politics2(1):55–73.
58.
MitchellM. 2007. “Man Charged with Second-Degree Murder in Wreck; He Had Also Been Charged with Driving while Impaired; One Man Killed.” Winston-Salem Journal, November 28, p. B1.
59.
MohlR. A.2003. “Globalization, Latinization, and the Nuevo New South.” Journal of American Ethnic History22(4):31–66.
60.
MurrayR. B.GiovagnoliM.. 2010. DHS Progress Report: The Challenge of Reform. Washington, DC: Immigration Policy Center.
61.
MusanteG. 1998. “Immigrant Success Story Lends a Hand to Newcomers.” News and Observer, August 9, p. B1.
62.
NaberN.2008. “Introduction.” In Race and Arab Americans before and after 9/11: From Invisible Citizens to Visible Subjects, edited by AmaneyJ.NadineN.. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
63.
NagataD.KimJ.NguyenT.. 2015. “Processing Cultural Trauma: Intergenerational Effects of the Japanese American Incarceration.” Journal of Social Issues71(2):356–70.
64.
National Immigration Law Center. 2012. Racial Profiling after HB56: Stories from the Alabama Hotline. Los Angeles, CA: National Immigration Law Service.
65.
NeckermanK. M.CarterP.LeeJ.. 1999. “Segmented Assimilation and Minority Cultures of Mobility.” Ethnic and Racial Studies22(6):945–65.
66.
NgaiM.2004. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
67.
NguyenM. T.GillH.. 2010. The 287(g) Program: The Costs and Consequences of Local Immigration Enforcement in North Carolina Communities. The Latino Migration Project: The Institute for the Study of the Americas. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
68.
OkamotoD.EbertK.. 2010. “Beyond the Ballot: Immigrant Collective Action in Gateways and New Destinations in the United States.” Social Problems75(4):529–58.
69.
ParkR. E.1914. “Racial Assimilation in Secondary Groups with Particular Reference to the Negro.” American Journal of Sociology19(5):606–23.
70.
PerlmannJ.WaldingerR.. 1997. “Second Generation Decline? Children of Immigrants, Past and Present – A Reconsideration.” International Migration Review31(4):893–922.
71.
PortesA.BöröczJ.. 1989. “Contemporary Immigration: Theoretical Perspectives on Its Determinants and Modes of Incorporation.” International Migration Review23(3):606–30.
72.
PortesA.Fernández-KellyP.. 2008. “No Margin for Error: Educational and Occupational Achievement among Disadvantaged Children of Immigrants.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science620(1):12–36.
73.
PortesA.RumbautR.. 1990/2006. Immigrant America: A Portrait. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
74.
PortesA.ZhouM.. 1993. “The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and Its Variants.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science530:74–96.
75.
RamakrishnanS. K.EspenshadeT. J.. 2001. “Immigrant Incorporation and Political Participation in the United States.” International Migration Review35(3):870–909.
76.
ReitzJ.1998. Warmth of the Welcome: The Social Causes of Economic Success for Immigrants in Different Nations and Cities. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
77.
RibasV.2016. On the Line: Slaughterhouse Lives and the Making of the New South. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
78.
RichB. L.MirandaM.. 2005. “Intergroup Relations: Conflict and Accommodation between Newcomers and Established Residents. The Sociopolitical Dynamics of Mexican Immigration in Lexington, Kentucky, 1997 to 2002: An Ambivalent Community Responds.” In New Destinations: Mexican Immigration in the United States, edited by ZúñigaV.Hernández-LeónR.. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
79.
RidgleyJ.2008. “Cities of Refuge: Immigration Enforcement, Police, and the Insurgent Genealogies of Citizenship in U.S. Sanctuary Cities.” Urban Geography29(1):53–77.
80.
RumbautR. G. 2008. “Undocumented Immigration and Rates of Crime and Imprisonment: Popular Myths and Empirical Realities.” SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1877365.
81.
SanchezG.MasuokaN.. 2010. “Brown-Utility Heuristic? The Presence and Contributing Factors of Latino Linked Fate.” Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences32(4):519–31.
82.
SandersJ. M.NeeV.. 1996. “Immigrant Self-Employment: The Family as Social Capital and the Value of Human Capital.” American Sociological Review61(2):231–49.
83.
SimonP.2003. “France and the Unknown Second Generation: Preliminary Results on Social Mobility.” International Migration Review37(4):1091–1119.
84.
SmithB. E.1998. “The Postmodern South: Racial Transformations and the Global Economy.” In Cultural Diversity in the US South: Anthropological Contributions to a Region in Transition, edited by HillC.BeaverP., 164–78. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
85.
SmithH. A.FurusethO. J.. 2008. “The ‘Nuevo South’: Latino Place Making and Community Building in the Middle-Ring Suburbs of Charlotte.” In Twenty-First Century Gateways, edited by SingerA.HardwickS. W.BrettellC. B., 281–308. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
86.
Staff and Wire Report. 2007. “Boonville Textile Plant Damaged in Fire.” Winston-Salem Journal, September 20, p. 2.
87.
StepickA.StepickC. D.. 2009. “Diverse Contexts of Reception and Feelings of Belonging.” Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research10(3).
88.
SturialeJ. 2002. “Opening Doors: Southern Community Bank Makes It Its Business to Pull In Hispanic Customers.” Winston-Salem Journal, November 24, Section D, p. 1.
89.
Suarez-OrozcoC.Suarez-OrozcoM. M.. 2001. Children of Immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
90.
TellesE. E.OrtizV.. 2008. Generations of Exclusion: Mexican Americans, Assimilation, and Race. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
91.
Toussaint-ComeauM.2006. “The Occupational Assimilation of Hispanic Immigrants in the U.S.: Evidence from Panel Data.” International Migration Review40(3):508–36.
92.
TursiF.1994. Winston-Salem: A History. Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair Publisher.
93.
US Census Bureau. 2014a. “State and County QuickFacts. Data Derived from Population Estimates, American Community Survey, 1990.” Washington, DC: US Census Bureau.
94.
US Census Bureau. 2014b. “State and County QuickFacts. Data derived from Population Estimates, American Community Survey, 2010.” Washington, DC: US Census Bureau.
95.
VarsanyiM.LewisP.ProvineD. M.DeckerS.. 2012. “A Multilayered Jurisdictional Patchwork: Immigration Federalism in the United States.” Law & Policy34(2):138–58.
WatersM. C.2001. Black Identities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
98.
WatersM. C.JiménezT.. 2005. “Assessing Immigrant Assimilation: New Empirical and Theoretical Challenges.” Annual Review of Sociology31:105–25.
99.
WatersM. C.TranV. C.KasinitzP.MollenkopfJ. H.. 2010. “Segmented Assimilation Revisited: Types of Acculturation and Socioeconomic Mobility in Young Adulthood.” Ethnic and Racial Studies33(7):1168–93.
100.
WeissmanD.2008. “Written Statement for a Joint Hearing on the “Public Safety and Civil Rights Implications of State and Local Enforcement of Federal Immigration Laws.” April 2. Washington, DC: US House of Representatives.
101.
WindersJ.2007. “Bringing Back the (B)order: Post-9/11 Politics of Immigration, Borders, and Belonging in the Contemporary US South.” Antipode39(5):920–42.
102.
XieY.GreenmanE.. 2011. “The Social Context of Assimilation: Testing Implications of Segmented Assimilation Theory.” Social Science Research40(3):965–84.
103.
ZhouM.1997. “Segmented Assimilation: Issues, Controversies, and Recent Research on the New Second Generation.” International Migration Review31(4):975–1008.
104.
ZhouM.BankstonC.. 1994. “Social Capital and the Adaptation of the Second Generation: The Case of Vietnamese Youth in New Orleans.” International Migration Review28:821–45.
105.
ZhouM.BankstonC.. 1999. Growing Up American: How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United States. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
