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Beyond the
Borderlands
Immigration
from Mexico was once considered a localized problem. In the last three
decades it has moved beyond the U.S.-Mexico borderlands to diverse
communities across the U.S., with the most striking transformations in
American suburbs and rural towns. These new locations of
immigrant settlement have generated new ways of thinking about
immigration, belonging and local identity. Beyond the Borderlands vividly
captures the difficulties of the early years of Mexican settlement in
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, a small farming village known as the
“Mushroom Capital of the World.” In an evocative and
highly readable account based on a ten-year ethnographic study in
Mexican and Pennsylvania, Beyond the Borderlands considers how feelings
of belonging and displacement are central concerns for communities that
have become new destinations of Mexican settlement.
Beyond the Borderlands traces
the process of migration and belonging, drawing on experiences of
Mexican settlers and their American neighbors. It
demonstrates that newcomers and long-term residents must each adjust to
the transformations brought on by immigration and the new community
that is emerging as a result. Beyond the Borderlands
completes the circle of migration, following Mexican families as they
return to their home community in Mexico for holidays and vacations,
and revealing the tenuous sense of belonging that Mexicans experience
as they journey home.
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