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Title: Industrial Restructuring in Rural America: Immigrant Household Industry Participation Before and During COVID-19 - ProQuest
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2024
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Abstract: Rural areas have experienced dramatic economic and demographic change over the past half-century. Since the 1970s, globalization trends have moved manufacturing industries away from rural areas and sometimes outsourced their labor to other countries, while agricultural industries have increasingly used technological advances that have lessened the need for workers (Flora et al. 2015). Industrial restructuring patterns that became notable in the 1990’s also moved many “newer” jobs in specialized and high-paying industries away from rural areas (Center on Rural Innovation 2022; Muro 2020). Concurrently, these trends have led to shrinking economic opportunities within much of rural America and high levels of out-migration among native-born rural residents (Flora et al. 2015). Despite these trends, an increase in foreign-born in-migration to these areas started in the 1990s and continues today (e.g., Farmer and Moon 2009; Lichter and Johnson 2009). More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic created widespread disruptions to employment in the U.S., but little attention has been given to how these disruptions have affected rural areas or the immigrant workers who live there. This two-article dissertation uses American Community Survey data to provide a descriptive picture of industrial prevalence by nativity status in both urban and rural areas five years before COVID-19, and Current Population Survey data to investigate the onset of COVID- 19 and its implications for rural workers (U.S.- and foreign-born) participating in Retail and Hospitality industries and Professional industries. In addition to providing a novel analysis of rural immigrant labor by industry, I find evidence of regional shifts in rural workers’ participation in retail and hospitality work by nativity status during the COVID-19 years. Moreover, this research highlights the enduring importance of race/ethnicity for rural labor opportunities. These findings extend the literature on rural immigrant well-being by examining labor and industry trends across spatial contexts and build on existing industrial restructuring and segmented assimilation theories.
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Authors: Sparkman, Rachel M
Institution: Florida State University
Department: Sociology
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Pages: 1-214
Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS CPS
Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Land Use/Urban Organization, Migration and Immigration, Population Mobility and Spatial Demography, Poverty and Welfare
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