Illegality and the Production of Affluence: Undocumented Labor and Gentrification in Rural America

Over several decades, the influx of wealthy, white ＂lifestyle＂ migrants has transformed the economic, social, and ecological fabric of many rural communities across the United States--from alpine towns of the Rockies to forest and lake communities of the Southeast--in a process akin to urban gentrification. Illegality and the Production of Affluence explores an underappreciated dimension of this process: its dependence on low-wage Latine immigrant workers, many undocumented, who build and maintain gentrified landscapes and lifestyles. Drawing on fine-grained qualitative data, Lise Nelson explores how employers recruited an unfamiliar workforce to places ＂off the map＂ of immigrant settlement. The book also reveals insights into how business practices and profitability shifted through the use of racialized, ＂illegal,＂ and highly precarious labor. Finally, the book investigates the disjuncture between Latine immigrants’ vital role in rural gentrifying economies and their social, civic, and racialized exclusion in the spaces of everyday life.

Lise Nelson is Associate Professor in the School of Geography, Development, and Environment at the University of Arizona.