Latino immigrant youth perceptions of receptivity in an emerging immigrant gateway in the US Southeast

Abstract

This article explores how Latino immigrant youth perceive their receptivity or degree of welcome into society, specifically in the context of Charlotte, North Carolina, an emerging immigrant gateway in the US Southeast. While some policies and Latino youth experiences resonate outside Charlotte and North Carolina, there are place-based nuances that should be acknowledged. Drawing on interviews with 36 Latino immigrant youth, this paper centers the voices of immigrants themselves and how they define and perceive their receptivity. Participants viewed Charlotte as less receptive than California but more receptive than Arizona (states that participants repeatedly mentioned as opposing sides of the receptivity continuum), and rural or suburban Southern communities. They based their receptivity assessments on how long Latinos have been in Charlotte, the number of Latinos, the visibility of and interactions with other Latinos, support infrastructure for Latino immigrant youth, in-state tuition policy, and daily interactions with White and African American US-born residents. Responses from Latino immigrant youth furthers our understanding of how receptivity is experience, conceptualized, and measured. Results also challenge the concept of the “New South” and ask us to think critically about what the “New South” means.