Chapter 7: Immigrant Student Educational Experiences in an Emerging Latina/O Community in the Midwest

Historically, immigrants have gravitated towards and settled in “immigrant gateways” like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. However, over the last 25 years, Latino immigrant destinations have shifted to nontraditional places such as the Southeast, the Pacific Northwest, and rural locations in the Midwest (Singer, 2008), and other “emerging communities.” These areas have seen a large increase in the Latino population over the last 20 years, mostly from migration of people from other countries, but also from individuals moving from other parts of the United States.

Research on immigrants in traditional receiving communities has shown that successful adaptation is a function of the opportunities that immigrants encounter in the host society, barriers such as imposed racial and class constraints, levels of control, and support provided by existing ethnic groups, and the level of skills youth bring with them (Portes & Zhou, 1993; Zhou, 1997). While much of this literature reviews and debates the outcomes of acculturation or assimilation (Portes & Zhou, 1993), the aim of this chapter is to understand the microlevel processes of adaptation.