Advocacy and Social Service Delivery to New Destination Latino Immigrant Communities in the Trump Era: Integration and Adaptation

Latino immigrants to the United States have typically congregated in well-established, co-ethnic “haven” communities which provide them with various forms of assistance and support. Until the 1990s, the vast majority of Latino immigrants to the United States were concentrated in traditional havens such as Arizona and cities such as New York.  More recently, the settlement patterns of Latin American immigrants has experienced significant shifts.  Historical patterns of concentration have changed as Latino communities have sprung up on the outer rings of major cities, medium-sized towns where industrial growth is on the upswing and in metropolitan areas that have little prior experience with immigrants. This has been especially apparent in non-traditional gateways like Georgia, where immigrant communities have spread out in southern agricultural areas, within the immigrant-heavy suburbs of Atlanta, and in northern cities where economic opportunities are abundant in the textile and poultry industries.

Whereas the existing literature has done much to document the movement away from “haven” communities to new destinations, scholarship has yet to catalogue the extent to which immigrants are receiving both the social services and advocacy they require in these new destinations.  The lack of social service utilization within the literature is striking since Latino immigrants are reliant on a host of human services and their ability to access resources is correlated with successful community integration. Moreover as the current political climate calls for greater mobilization and civic engagement, the dearth of knowledge surrounding Latino advocacy in new destinations represents a significant gap in Latino immigrant scholarship and must be addressed.

 Overall, this study draws from over 400 qualitative interviews and organizational observations conducted in one of these new destinations, the state of Georgia. It evaluates policies and practices within the nonprofit and public sectors to accommodate Latino immigrants with services and advocacy in their adopted homes.  Principally it addresses the following questions: (1) Are Latinos developing an organizational infrastructure to provide human services and effective advocacy for incoming migrants (2) Are non-ethnic nonprofits that predate the Latino community adapting their services and programming to the needs of a changing demographic? (3) Does the composition of nonprofits and the services disseminated change by region (urban, suburban and rural)? (4) And how have nonprofits in new destinations adapted or acclimated to challenges they face from the Trump Administration in such areas as funding and enforcement?

Drawing from research conducted in three distinct new destination areas (suburban, rural and urban) and including interviews with nonprofits and government officials in each of these key regions, this study fills the yawning gap in social service dissemination literature for Latinos and provides a clear lens into the organizational and political mechanisms driving service delivery and advocacy.

More importantly, it also gives a current snapshot of how social service and advocacy organizations are adapting in real time as they meet the challenges associated with the Trump Administration and more stringent rules at the state and county level.