Beyond the Gateway: Immigrants in a Changing America

(Paperback)

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A small but growing number of immigrants today are moving into new settlement areas, such as Winchester, Va., Greensboro, N.C., and Salt Lake City, Utah, that lack a tradition of accepting newcomers. Just as the process is difficult and distressing for the immigrants, it is likewise a significant cause of stress for the regions in which they settle. Long homogeneous communities experience overnight changes in their populations and in the demands placed on schools, housing, law enforcement, social services, and other aspects of infrastructure. Institutions have not been well prepared to cope. Local governments have not had any significant experience with newcomers and nongovernmental organizations have been overburdened or simply nonexistent. There has been a substantial amount of discussion about these new settlement areas during the past decade, but relatively little systematic examination of the effects of immigration or the policy and programmatic responses to it. Beyond the Gateway is the first effort to bridge the gaps in communication not only between the immigrants and the institutions with which they interact, but also among diverse communities across the United States dealing with the same stresses but ignorant of each others' responses, whether successes or failures.

Reviews

Migration and integration is a complex issue, but this book rewards the reader by its clear and focused analysis. Very knowledgeable and very readable. -- Barbara John, Humboldt University, Berlin
Beyond the Gateway makes a highly significant contribution to immigration scholarship. Gozdziak and Martin have pulled together a rich collection of essays into a unique collection. Focusing on carefully selected new areas of settlement, this volume offers a wealth of information on immigrants' integration in new areas. It is a much-needed collection that will be of interest to a broad audience of academics, policy makers, and analysts. -- Cecilia Menjvar, Dorothy L. Meier Chair in Social Inequities, UCLA
Through a combination of policy considerations, theoretical discussion, and case studies, Beyond the Gateway assesses the ways that immigration into new U.S. destinations has reshaped rural, urban, and suburban landscapes. In their aim of recognizing practices that receiving communities and immigrant groups had developed to work together more effectively, Gozdziak and Martin have assembled a skilled team of social scientists who bring diverse methods and perspectives to bear on new immigrant destinations, weaving together ethnography, demography, and political science in their analyses. Edited with an eye toward interest and readability, this book will provide scholars and community leaders alike with the analytical and practical tools we need to understand how new immigration and new immigrants are likely to change a nation, enhance a future, and challenge minds. -- David Griffith, East Carolina University
Despite popular and scholarly interest, social science research simply cannot keep up with the pace by which immigrants are finding their way to new communities across the United States. This book is a welcome addition to the burgeoning literature on immigrants in new destinations. Rich case studies of immigrant settlement and a critical review of public and private integration strategies in North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Utah, and Minnesotaby no means 'the usual suspects' provide insightful commentary on one of the most important issues many communities across the country now face. -- Audrey Singer, The Brookings Institution

Author Bio

Elzbieta M. Gozdziak is director of research at the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) at Georgetown University and co-editor of the peer-reviewed journal International Migration. Susan F. Martin is executive director of the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) and Director of the Certificate Program in Refugee and Humanitarian Emergencies at Georgetown University.