Refugees and the transforming landscapes of small cities in the US

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over the past thirty years, immigrants in the US have been settling outside of gateway cities, going instead to a number of other new locations across the country. While much of the extant literature has focused on economic and family-based migration, in this paper I look at a different subgroup, officially resettled refugees. I explore the rationales that lie behind such a trend by examining placement data and a number of interviews with key figures in the US resettlement system at multiple levels. In particular, I examine the idea of refugees as an instrument of urban revitalization for smaller cities as well as the opportunities and challenges that their arrival has presented for these sites. I contextualize the arrival of refugees in smaller cities in the US within the current moment of rising racism, xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment across the country, as well as a resettlement program undergoing radical changes..