Latino Incorporation and Racialized Border Politics in the Heartland

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.