Can Immigrants Save the Rust Belt? Struggling Cities, Immigration, and Revitalization
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Can Immigrants Save the Rust Belt? Struggling Cities, Immigration, and Revitalization DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Emily Anne Shrider Graduate Program in Sociology The Ohio State University 2017 Dissertation Committee: Rachel Dwyer, Advisor Reanne Frank Dana Haynie Copyright by Emily Anne Shrider 2017 Abstract Since the mid-1900s, former industrial strongholds in the Midwestern and Northeastern United States—the Rust Belt—have struggled with population loss and economic declines stemming from deindustrialization. These cities have tried a number of revitalization strategies, which have been largely (though not completely) unsuccessful. The latest attempt in several of these cities is immigrant-driven revitalization, where the cities try to create a positive context of reception in an attempt to attract immigrants who could restore their populations, rebuild their neighborhoods, and restart their economies. This dissertation focuses on the challenges these cities face in implementing these strategies. I focus on three main challenges: 1) the difficulty inherent in trying to create a positive context of reception; 2) the difficulty inherent in providing services to a small, diverse, and disadvantaged (in this case, disproportionately refugee) population; and 3) difficulties created by decentralization and federalization. Using a combination of data from municipal codes, newspaper archives, the Census, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and Immigrations and Customs enforcement, the empirical chapters focus on these three challenges. Chapter 2 considers how official policymaking efforts—policies that are codified in the city’s municipal code—affect the context of reception in 16 Rust Belt cities. I consider both whether cities are passing new policies with the intent of changing their context of reception, and ii whether they have existing policies on the books that could affect immigrant experiences. I find that with the exception of two cities—Chicago and Detroit—these cities are not passing new immigration laws, and that they all maintain existing laws that can both positively and negatively affect the context of reception. If these cities are trying to attract immigrants as a revitalization strategy, most of them are not doing it through changes to their municipal codes. They also are maintaining policies that could undermine their efforts. Chapter 3 examines the effect of decentralization and federalism on social services in 6 Rust Belt cities, and considers how the characteristics of the Rust Belt’s immigrant populations affects the provision of those services. After considering educational services and the services provided to refugees, I find that decentralization makes it more difficult for the city government to provide services, and that much of these cities’ immigrant service provisions are handled by the civil society. Chapter 4 focuses on the effects of decentralization and federalization on immigration enforcement. While some of these cities, particularly Dayton, have made efforts to reduce their participation in immigration enforcement, changes to the immigration enforcement structure have essentially federalized person-to-person policing interactions, making it very hard for local police to actually limit their participation in enforcement. This makes it much more difficult for local governments and law enforcement agencies to engage in pro-immigrant policymaking that could help with their immigrant-driven revitalization strategies. iii I conclude with a discussion of how the results of the 2016 Presidential election have affected both local immigration policymaking and immigrant-driven revitalization strategies. iv Acknowledgments I grew up in a literal village, where the role of the community in raising a child was quite obvious. Just as children do not grow up on their own, academics do not complete dissertations without significant support. The following people and organizations provided the essential assistance, encouragement, and guidance that allowed me to complete this project. The Department of Sociology at Ohio State has been my academic home for nearly a decade now. It is where I’ve grown up intellectually, and has been as important in shaping me as any other community of which I’ve been a part. Talking with and being around brilliant researchers and scholars from the department, and listening to high- quality speakers from outside the department has fed my intellectual curiosity, and has made me a better researcher and social thinker. The Criminal Justice Research Center has also provided valuable support and opportunities. A few key faculty members have been particularly supportive. This includes the members of my committee, Dana Haynie and Reanne Frank, who’ve helped me through more rounds on the job market than they likely anticipated, and who’ve provided valuable feedback on this project. I’m very appreciative of their support. I also thank Ruth Peterson and Vinnie Roscigno, who have been very supportive of my research and helpful in the job search as well. v I could not have completed this research without the resources provided by public libraries. Many of the newspapers I used in my analyses were not available through the resources we have at Ohio State, and so I depended on local libraries to provide access to those papers. Libraries also provided quiet places to work that were not quite as isolated as my home or office. The Columbus Metropolitan Library, the Old Worthington Library, the Findlay-Hancock County Public Library, the Monroe County (NY) Library System, the State Library of Ohio, and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh all provided such resources and were thus crucial in completing this research. I am so grateful to the communities that support these fine institutions. In addition, special thanks go to the reference librarian at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, who offered perhaps the best perspective on research when she said that “no matter how big your research problems seem, they are nothing compared to the challenge of global climate change.” She was right. I also owe thanks to the friends and family that have supported me while I’ve been in grad school. My parents, Deb and Wes Shrider, my sister, Betsy, my brother, Nathan, their spouses—Robert and Samantha—and my dear grandma, Dolores Shrider, have been especially supportive. They watched my dog, Watson, while I was out of town or needed to be super productive. They gave me a place to live when my apartment crumbled around me. They encouraged me to never give up, and they never missed an opportunity to remind me that I was supposed to be writing. My friends provided a welcome distraction, along with ample encouragement, and for that I owe special thanks to Julie Brewer, the gloriously entertaining Reverend vi Gretchen Deeg, Laura DeMarco, Scott Duxbury, Lindsey Ibañez, Jen Mendoza, Dave Ramey, and Tate Steidley. I owe particularly special thanks to Lindsey, Tate and Dave, who always provided an excellent sounding board for research ideas, and who forced me to actually finish some projects. This is particularly true of Dave. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with him, and look forward to the projects we have coming up. Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to my mentor, advisor, and friend, Rachel Dwyer. She has the patience of Job, and without her support, I would have dropped out years ago. Her guidance and encouragement, in both the professional and personal spheres, have meant the world to me. I cannot express adequately how much I value her, so I will instead provide an extended manure metaphor, courtesy of Don Quixote’s squire, Sancho Panza: “Yes, some of your good sense is bound to stick on to me,” Sancho replied. “Soil that left to itself would be poor and sterile gives good yields when you manure it and you till it. What I’m trying to say is that being with you is the manure that’s been spread over the barren soil of my poor wits, and the tilling is all this time I’ve been with you, serving you, so I’m hoping to give wonderful yields that won’t be unworthy to be piled up beside the paths of good breeding that you’ve trodden over this feeble understanding of mine.” a Thank you for nurturing me. ________________________ a Cervantes. 2001. Don Quixote. John Rutherford, translator. New York, NY: Penguin Books. Page 558. vii Vita May 2004 .......................................................Riverdale High School May 2008 .......................................................B.A. Literature/Sociology, Ohio Northern University December 2011 ..............................................M.A. Sociology, The Ohio State University 2008 to present ..............................................Graduate Teaching/Research Associate, Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University Publications Shrider, Emily A. 2017. “Looking Back to Move Forward: Classical Urban Theories Can Explain Current Rural Phenomena.” City & Community 16(2): 136-138. Tumin, Dmitry, Jessica Horan, Emily A. Shrider, Sakima A. Smith, Joseph D. Tobias, Don Hayes Jr., and Randi E. Foraker. 2017. “County Socioeconomic Characteristics and Heart Transplant Outcomes in the United States.” American Heart Journal 190: 104- 112. viii Nau, Michael, Emily A. Shrider, Joseph D. Tobias, Don Hayes Jr., and Dmitry Tumin. 2016. “High Local Unemployment Rates Limit Work after Lung Transplantation.” The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation