New arrivals from Mexico transform the Old South

RAW STORY
Published: Thursday August 3, 2006

The New York Times is set to report on Friday that a wave of Mexican immigrants is profoundly transforming the way of life in previously isolated rural Southern towns, RAW STORY has learned.

The Times cites as an example the town of Pearson, Georgia, where until recently everybody knew everybody else and there had been no significant influx since the Irish in the 1850's. Starting in the 1990's, hundreds of Mexican immigrants began settling in Pearson, attracted by agricultural work and manufacturing jobs. Today, the newcomers are proudly prepared to say, "This is our town now, too."

Altogether, hundreds of thousands of immigrants, most of them from Mexico, have settled in the South over the past decade. In Atkinson County, where Pearson is situated, Hispanics accounted for onloy three percent of the population in 1990. By 2004, they had become the largest minority group, accounting officially for 21 percent of the population -- perhaps as much as a third if illegal immigrants were included. Whites now amount to about 60 percent of the population and blacks 19 percent.

According to the Times, "The sudden shift is upending traditional Southern notions of race and class, leaving many whites and blacks grappling with unexpected feelings of dislocation, loss and anger as they adjust to their community's evolving ethnic identity."

The immigrants themselves are torn between identification with their adopted culture and a sense of never quite fitting in.