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Village of Immigrants: Latinos in an Emerging America

By (author) Diana R. Gordon

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normal price: R 643.95

Price: R 579.95

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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. In Village of Immigrants, Diana R. Gordon illustrates how small-town America has been revitalized by the arrival of these immigrants in Greenport, where she lives. Â Greenport today boasts a population that is one-third Hispanic. Gordon contends that these immigrants have effectively saved the townâ€™s economy by taking low-skill jobs, increasing the tax base, filling local schools, and patronizing local businesses. Greenportâ€™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, becauseÂ the wave of immigrants also presents the town with challenges to its services and institutions. Gordonâ€™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 Immigrants weaves together these peopleâ€™s stories, fears, and dreams to reveal an environment plagued by threats of deportation, debts owed to coyotes, low wages, and the other bleak realities that shape the immigrant experience-even in the charming seaport town of Greenport. Â A timely contribution to the national dialogue on immigration, Gordonâ€™s book shows the pivotal role the American small town plays in the ongoing American immigrant story-as well as how this booming populationÂ is shaping and reviving rural communities.Â