New Orleans: a re-emerging Latino destination city

Hurricane Katrina altered both New Orleans' cultural and physical landscapes. Currently New Orleans' Latino population is estimated to have increased nearly twofold since the city flooded in August 2005. Unlike many cities that began receiving Latino migrants during the mid-1990s, New Orleans has a sporadic history of Hispanic migration dating back to Spanish colonial rule in the late eighteenth century. Despite the somewhat hostile reception recent Latino migrants have experienced, the new wave of immigrants presents interesting possibilities for the reconstruction of ethnic and racial boundaries in New Orleans, together with an opportunity to develop a more inclusive view of Katrina-era Latino migrants. However, the paper cautions that the undocumented status of many recent Latino arrivals creates an obstacle in their journey toward acceptance. Using data from a survey of Latino workers in the city, the research explores possibilities for incorporating these new residents and the implications of succeeding or failing. Discussion focuses on the cultural significance of the ancestry of the new arrivals and how the nation's 'broken' immigration system is not only imposing hardships on many of the immigrants themselves but is also changing housing consumption patterns and limiting immigrants' potential to reinvest in the communities like New Orleans.