Ethnic Identity Formation and Social Relations between Newly Arriving Mexican Migrants and Puerto Rican Residents in New Haven, Connecticut

New England became a favored destination for Mexican immigrants throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Nontraditional receiving states like Connecticut saw their Mexican population increase by 180 percent. Mexican immigrants arriving in New England find a very different environment than immigrants coming to nontraditional gateways in southern and central states. In North Carolina, for example, Mexican immigrants usually represent the first Latino community in the area. In New Haven, by contrast, Mexican immigrants are entering a community in which Puerto Ricans have had a strong presence for decades. Are Mexican immigrants reconfiguring the existing Latino identity and race relations in New Haven? Under what circumstances do Puerto Ricans and Mexicans cooperate and what creates tension?

Sociologist Jacqueline Olvera will examine the impact of Mexican immigrants on New Haven’s urban neighborhoods and to what extent these newcomers are integrating into established Latino neighborhoods. Specifically, Olvera will analyze the events, circumstances, and beliefs that lead to conflict between Mexican migrants and Puerto Rican residents, how these groups build consensus, and what bearing legal status has on relations between the two groups. By concentrating on ethnic relations at the community level, Olvera seeks to investigate six specific themes that may bond or separate Mexican migrants and Puerto Rican residents: neighborhood, ethnic identity and language, legal status, class, migration history, and citizenship.

This award will enable Olvera to study Mexican-Puerto Rican relations in two New Haven neighborhoods: Fair Haven and The Hill. Although these communities have similar proportions of Mexican and Puerto Ricans, they diverge in terms of economic opportunity structure, civic infrastructure, and retail amenities—factors that may affect inter-group relations. Olvera will study how ongoing negotiations between Mexicans and Puerto Ricans shape, and in turn, are shaped by neighborhood transformations. Her research will build on ethnographic interviews, participant observation, and archival data. She will recruit study participants in Fair Haven and The Hill through previous research contacts and ethnic organizations in the area while interviewing community organization leaders and employers. She will also conduct intensive participant observations in churches, ethnic businesses, and public parks and collect demographic data and newspaper archives on Puerto Rican residents and Mexican immigrants. Olvera will document her findings in at least two articles in peer-reviewed social science journals.