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‘New Americans’ in a ‘New-South’ city? Immigrant and refugee politics in the Music City

2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 7; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14649360600715151

1470-1197

Jamie Winders,

Music History and Culture

Abstract Since the early 1990s, many cities and towns in the US South have witnessed dramatic transformations in their racial and ethnic composition. Although these changes largely reflect spectacular Latino population growth, refugee resettlements (including Kurdish, Sudanese, Somalian and Bosnian settlers) for the last two decades have also increased ethnic diversity across the region. In some southern American cities, the combination of Latino populations and refugee communities is transforming urban geographies of race, ethnicity and cultural belonging and, in the process, reworking the ways that such cities understand and approach issues of 'diversity'. This article examines these changes in a case study of Nashville, Tennessee—a refugee relocation site since the early 1980s and a popular destination for Latino/as since the mid-1990s. Through an analysis of the social spaces and institutional contexts within which Latino/as and refugees encounter each other, it shows how the presence of politically visible refugee communities and numerically large Latino communities within Nashville's overall 'international community' complicates immigrant and refugee politics. In doing so, it argues for increased critical attention to interactions between Latino and refugee organizations and communities and offers a framework to engage the new immigrant politics and identities emerging from encounters among 'New Americans' in 'New-South' cities. Les «néo-Américains» dans une ville de la région du «nouveau Sud»? Les politiques sur les immigrants et les réfugiés dans la Music City Plusieurs villes et villages de la région Sud des États-Unis ont subi depuis le début des années 1990 des transformations profondes qui ont bouleversé leur composition raciale et ethnique. Si ces changements s'expliquent surtout par la croissance spectaculaire de la population d'origine latino-américaine, la réinstallation des réfugiés (y compris les habitants d'origine kurde, soudanaise, somalienne et bosniaque) durant les deux dernières décennies a contribué aussi à la diversité ethnique dans la région. Dans certaines villes de la région Sud des États-Unis, le regroupement de populations latino-américaines et de communautés de réfugiés est en train de dessiner de nouvelles géographies urbaines sur le plan racial, ethnique et de l'appartenance culturelle qui contribue en même temps à la modification des perspectives que prennent ces villes pour comprendre et faire face aux questions entourant la «diversité». Cet article présente une étude de cas sur Nashville Tennessee visant à étudier ces changements. Cette ville est un site pour la relocalisation des réfugiés depuis le début des années 1980 et une destination de choix des Latinos-américains depuis le milieu des années 1990. [Agrave] partir d'une analyse des espaces sociaux et des contextes institutionnels dans lesquels les Latinos-américains et les réfugiés se côtoient, il est montré dans cet article comment la présence parmi la «communauté internationale» de Nashville de communautés de réfugiés politiquement visibles et de communautés latinos-américaines plus nombreuses complique davantage les politiques sur les immigrants et les réfugiés. Ce faisant, il plaide en faveur d'une étude critique et plus poussée sur les interactions entre les Latinos-américains et les organisations et communautés de réfugiés, et propose un cadre de travail pour aborder la question des politiques sur les nouveaux immigrants et des nouvelles identités qui naissent des rencontres entre les «néo-Américains» dans les villes du «nouveau Sud». Mots-clefs: réinstallation des réfugiés, villes de la région Sud des États-Unis, migration latino-amérique, ethnicité, race, géographie urbaine. ¿'Americanos Nuevos' en una ciudad del 'Nuevo Sur'? La política inmigrante y del refugiado en la Ciudad de Música Desde los primeros años de la década de los 90 se ha transformado de manera espectacular la composición racial y étnica de muchas ciudades en el Sur de los Estados Unidos. Aunque, principalmente, estos cambios reflejan un aumento espectacular en la población latina, el reasentamiento de refugiados (entre ellos kurdos, sudanés, somalíes y bosnios) en las últimas dos décadas también ha aumentado la diversidad étnica de la región. En algunas ciudades en el sur de los Estados Unidos, la combinación de poblaciones latinos y comunidades de refugiados está transformando las geografías urbanas de raza, etnicidad, y pertenencia cultural y, en el proceso, cambia la manera en que estas ciudades entienden y se dirigen a cuestiones de 'diversidad'. Este artículo examina estos cambios en un estudio de caso de Nashville, Tennessee—un sitio de reasiento de refugiados desde los principios de los años 80 y un destino popular para latinos desde mediados de los años 90. Por un análisis de los espacios sociales y los contextos institucionales en los que latinos y refugiados se encuentran los unos a los otros, indica cómo la presencia de comunidades de refugiados políticamente visibles y comunidades latinos grandes dentro de la 'comunidad internacional' general de Nashville va complicando la política inmigrante y la del refugiado. Al hacerlo, exige que se preste más atención crítica a las interacciones entre organizaciones y comunidades de latinos y refugiados y ofrece un marco para entrar en debates sobre las nuevas políticas e identidades inmigrantes que están saliendo de encuentros entre 'nuevos americanos' en ciudades del 'nuevo sur'. Palabras claves: Palabras claves: reasentamiento de refugiados, ciudades del sur de los Estados Unidos, migración latina, etnicidad, raza, geografía urbana. Keywords: refugee resettlementsouthern US citiesLatino migrationethnicityraceurban geography Acknowledgements I thank Rich Schein, John Paul Jones III, Susan Roberts, Mary Anglin, Brian Rich and Jennifer Hyndman for their input on this research. Ishan Ashutosh provided valuable assistance in the final stages of this article as well. I am particularly grateful for the helpful comments provided by editor Michael Brown and three anonymous reviewers. Earlier versions of this article were presented at the 2004 Urban History Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The insight of discussant Margo Anderson, as well as comments from audience members, greatly improved my arguments. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0302502, the Association of American Geographers and the Graduate School at the University of Kentucky. Notes 1 Particularly in rural areas, employer recruitment practices also strongly contributed to this new geography of Latino migration and settlement (Cravey 1997 Cravey, A.J. 1997. Latino labor and poultry production in rural North Carolina. Southeastern Geographer, 37: 295–300. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Johnson-Webb 2003 Johnson-Webb, K.D. 2003. Recruiting Hispanic Labor: Immigrants in Non-traditional Areas, New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing. [Google Scholar]; Kandel and Parrado 2004 Kandel, W. and Parrado, E.A. 2004. "Hispanics in the American South and the transformation of the poultry industry". In Hispanic Spaces, Latino Places: Community and Cultural Diversity in Contemporary America, Edited by: Arreola, D. 255–276. Austin: University of Texas Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). 2 The majority of interviews in this study were not tape recorded, both because fieldwork was conducted in an immediate post-9/11 context in the midst of growing anti-immigrant sentiment and because many participants, particularly those from governmental agencies, were not comfortable being recorded. For these reasons, I relied primarily on note taking during and after interviews and in this article, more frequently paraphrase interview content than quote extensively from interview transcripts. 3 A portion of the study not discussed here consisted of case studies of workplaces that had recently transitioned toward Latino labour and a multicultural workforce. 4 Wrap-up interviews and conversations concerning this article also took place in July 2005. 5 Operation Peter (or Pedro) Pan was the large-scale airlift of children from Cuba to the USA after Castro assumed power in Cuba in 1959. Coordinated by what would become Catholic Charities, a leading refugee resettlement agency in the USA, the Operation ran from 1960 to 1962 and included more than 14,000 Cuban children. Many children were eventually reunited with their families in the USA. 6 I include both paraphrases of interview conversations and exact quotations of participants, which I signal with quotation marks. 7 These numbers can be situated within Davidson County's overall population of just over half a million residents, 26 per cent of whom are African American. In Nashville's wider MSA, there are 1.25 million residents, 15 per cent of whom are African American. 8 Within the study, 74 per cent of participants were refugees (Cornfield et al., 2003 Cornfield, D.B., Arzubiaga, A., BeLue, R., Brooks, S.L., Brown, T.N., Miller, O., Perkins, D.D., Thoits, P.A. and Walker, L.S. (2003) Final Report of the Immigrant Community Assessment. Prepared under contract for the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee. [Google Scholar]), another indication of the institutional visibility of Nashville's relatively small refugee population. 9 < http://www.tnimmigrant.org/> (accessed 22 July 2005). 10 It should be noted that these organizations with a dual focus on immigrants and refugees are accompanied by several Latino organizations, including socially oriented non-profit organizations and two Hispanic chambers of commerce. 11 This orientation reflects the fact that like voluntary agencies (Nawyn 2005 Nawyn, S.J. 2005. Faithfully Providing Refuge: The Role of Religious Organizations in Refugee Assistance and Advocacy, San Diego: Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California. Working Paper 115 [Google Scholar]), the NNAC could only fund refugee-focused organizations (Ray and Morse 2004 Ray, B.K. and Morse, A. 2004. Building the New American Community: Newcomer Integration and Inclusion Experiences in Non-traditional Gateway Cities, Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute. sponsored by the Office of Refugee Resettlement [Google Scholar]). 12 The same exclusion was at work in relation to African-American community leaders, who were largely left out of NNAC activities, despite their experience with many overall goals of the initiative (Ray and Morse 2004 Ray, B.K. and Morse, A. 2004. Building the New American Community: Newcomer Integration and Inclusion Experiences in Non-traditional Gateway Cities, Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute. sponsored by the Office of Refugee Resettlement [Google Scholar]). 13 This situation reflects national trends. Since 1975, fewer than 80,000 refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean have been resettled in the USA; and of these 80,000, more than 50,000 were Cuban, < http://www.state.gov/g/prm/rls/fs/2004/28211pf.htm> (accessed 23 January 2004). 14 Rebecca Dameron and Arthur Murphy have documented a similar pattern in Atlanta, Georgia, where 'new immigrants have built an enclave economy based not on distinct ethnic groups, but on the "other" Atlanta used to differentiate those who do not fit into the categories of black and white' (1997: 55). What they note, however, as an economic entity is, at least in Nashville, also a spatial entity that stretches across parts of the city. 15 It should be noted that anti-immigrant sentiment toward Latino/as, according to many immigrant advocates in Nashville and other new urban immigrant destinations, is again growing.