The Latino Migration Experience in North Carolina: New Roots in the Old North State (review)

In the past decade, a new body of scholarship has emerged—expressed mostly in articles and anthologies—to help document and interpret the varied experiences of migration and settlement by Latina/o communities in the Southeast United States, a region also referred to as the U.S. South. The Latino Migration Experience in North Carolina: New Roots in the Old North State by anthropologist Hannah Gill is one of the first full-length books and represents a recent development from this growing literature. Reflecting her research from 2003 to 2009, the purpose of the book, as the author highlights in the preface, is to provide an introduction for "mainstream audiences" who are unfamiliar and "interested in gaining a better understanding of Latino migration experiences" (x). As such, she effectively accomplishes her goal and does so in three ways.

In chapter 1, Gill focuses primarily on Alamance County to highlight how the politics of immigration enforcement, including anti-immigrant sentiment, have been reflected at the local level in response to the increased presence of Latina/o families. She gives particular attention to Alamance County's now controversial 287(g) Program, which passed in October 2006 and "gives local officers the authority to enforce immigration laws outside of their normal duties" (37). Although locally supported on the premise that the 287(g) Program would focus on persons who commit a serious crime, the "overwhelming majority of those arrested," according to the author, "were immigrants who had been taken into custody for traffic violations, such as driving without a valid license" through the use of roadblocks and other actions (42). Unfortunately, as the author shows, such policies affect the entire community, from the workplace to the local school system. As checkpoints increased, for example, travel delays became a common occurrence and "began to affect local industries as well as individuals' employment" (44). In another example, Gill describes how one county medical director for a local health clinic was targeted for "treating undocumented patients and not revealing their real names to employers in notes excusing work absences" (50). In the end, what these conditions do create is a climate of polarization, one in which Latina/o families "face repeated challenges to their legitimacy as state residents" (56). Behind these policies, according to the author, are a perceived loss of identity and a lack of understanding about why people migrate.

The author continues her narrative in chapters 2 and 3 by providing a brief overview of the history of immigration to North Carolina and then analyzing the social, economic, and political factors that have influenced the unprecedented migration and settlement of Latinas/os in the state since the late twentieth century. Initial labor recruitment has been a key component in this process, particularly in the agricultural and meat/poultry processing industries that define many counties of the state. Gill notes, for example, that hog production in North Carolina now ranks second in the nation, only after Iowa. And third, she engages the reader by providing glimpses into how Latina/o individuals have created lives for themselves in the midst of this demographic change. In chapter 4, for example, she portrays the lives of three immigrants to show how the Latinas/os have enriched the cultural diversity in North Carolina. In chapter 5, she examines, through the lives of four individuals, the important role of Latina/o youth in shaping the future of the state.

What makes this book worthwhile are the varied perspectives and issues interwoven throughout the narrative, drawing from approximately fifty-one oral history interviews the author conducted over a three-year period. These voices are comprised of Latina/o community members living in the state and representing different countries of origin, such as Mexico, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic, as well as immigration status. Non-Latino residents interviewed in this study include "employers of Latino migrants, teachers, local and...