Belonging in charlotte: multiscalar differences in local immigration politics and policies |
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| Authors: | Owen Furuseth Heather Smith Paul Mcdaniel |
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| Affiliation: | 1. University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina;2. American Immigration Council, Washington, D.C. |
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| Abstract: | In the context of Charlotte, North Carolina's, emergence as a “globalizing” pre‐emergent immigrant gateway, this paper focuses on a complex and multiscalar set of governmental policies and community‐development dynamics that are shaping localized response to Hispanic/Latino immigration. Specifically, we explore how these policies and dynamics play out spatially in the context of two Charlotte neighborhoods, both of which have similar historical roots and have become magnets for Latino settlement, yet display divergent contemporary place‐making paths. Our exploration reveals the ways in which contexts of receptivity and spaces of both exclusion and inclusion are created by the socio‐spatial components of public policy and the localized response to that policy at the intraurban level. Reinforcing the importance of space and place in the construction of receptivity contexts, the compared stories of Eastside and South Charlotte reveal that neighborhoods are never the product of one transformational force but of many—no matter how they may be perceived in the public imaginary. |
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| Keywords: | immigrant receptivity place‐making twenty‐first century immigrant gateway contested place identity Charlotte North Carolina |
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