Full Citation
Title: The White Caribbean Home: A Study of Venezuelan, Cuban, and Puerto Rican Migrants in the Suburbs of Houston, TX - ProQuest
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2023
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Abstract: Since the beginning of the new millennium, social scientists have found that, much like the general population, Latin American and Caribbean migrants have been settling in greater numbers in Southern and Mid-Western cities and towns. This “new settlement” literature has focused on how race and racism, along with ethnic identities and tensions, have generated new opportunities and challenges for migrants in new settlement areas or emerging gateways. However, a handful of studies have accounted for how racial inequality outside and within the Latin American and Caribbean favors white or lightskinned Latinx. Likewise, few studies have looked at how differences in nationality and ethnicity shape migrant experiences in new destinations with a long-standing history of Hispanic migration. To address the shortcomings of these fields of study, I address three main empirical questions: 1) What is the residential distribution of Venezuelan, Cuban, and Puerto Rican migrants, and what can that this tells us about their residential mobility and neighborhood preferences?, 2) What are the effects, if any, these new migrant groups have on neighborhood characteristics?, and 3) How do these migrants understand and describe the factors that affect their reception and experiences in a new migrant destination versus an established migrant destination? I answer these research questions using statistical, visual, and ethnographic analysis of the neighborhoods, communities and homes of foreign-born Puerto Rican, Venezuelan and Cuban migrants in the suburbs of Houston, TX. Houston is not a traditional migrant destination for any of these three groups: U.S.-bound Puerto Rican migration has traditionally been associated with the Northeast and Chicago, while Cuban and Venezuelan migration has generally gravitated towards South Florida. I found that Puerto Rican and Venezuelan migrants were fairing better than Mexicans and Cubans. In turn, the influx of Cubans had started to change the neighborhood composition in downtown Houston. These changes could be explained by racial and class inequality within the migrant waves, and the position migrants maintained in the social hierarchies of Houston.
Url: https://www.proquest.com/docview/2806787779?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true
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Authors: Diaz, Mario Mercado
Institution: Rutger's University
Department: Sociology
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Publisher Location: New Brunswick, New Jersey
Pages: 1-236
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Migration and Immigration
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