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The New Immigrant Whiteness examines representations of post-1980s migration from the former USSR to the United States as responses to the global extension of neoliberalism and as contributions to studies of immigration and whiteness. The book analyzes representations of the new diaspora in reality TV shows, parental memoirs of transnational adoption, fiction about irregular migration, and interviews with highly skilled and marriage immigrants. A study of post-Soviet immigrants’ participation in these diverse forms of US migration highlights the importance of legal status for accessing segmented US citizenship rights and complements the prevailing emphasis on the significance of collective group characteristics for immigrant adaptation and transnationalism. The book traces the emergence of discourses that associate the post-USSR diaspora with the upwardly mobile and assimilationist trajectories of early twentieth-century European immigrants toward a pan-European whiteness, and extend this notion to residents of the former USSR who participate in marriage and adoptive migration. The New Immigrant Whiteness also examines representations that place the post-Soviet diaspora in dialogue with Latina/o and Asian American migration to set an agenda for comparative work that displaces immigrant whiteness from its centrality as a US founding mythology despite significant domestic and global changes. The book is unique in its focus on migration from the former USSR, its internal diversity, and its relationship to other US migrant groups. It is also unique in combining the methodologies of various fields, including literary and cultural studies, social sciences, and media studies.

This book examines the complex ways in which Latino immigrants root themselves in new places while navigating the terrain of US social hierarchies and relationships with African American neighbors. In particular, the study looks at neighborhood change in South Los Angeles, which has shifted from predominantly African American to Latino. The authors ask the following questions: How did Latino immigrants and their children make a new home for themselves in South L.A.? What kinds of relations did they develop with African Americans, and how did this change over time? And what are the consequences for civic engagement and for cross-racial community organizing? The book draws on a multiyear, mixed-method project conducted by a team of ten researchers, and it is based on nearly two hundred audio-recorded, transcribed interviews, which were conducted in homes, garages, parks, offices, and urban gardens (one hundred with Latino residents, twenty-five with Black residents, twenty-nine interviews with civic leaders, and another forty-four with Latino and Black men at public parks and community gardens), as well as new databases charting historical demographic change. Taken together, this book provides both an intimate, close-up window into how people experience urban life and race on the streets, in schools, and in homes, and it scopes out to consider change over time, providing a broader view of new civic collaborations and political projects, race and place identities. The picture that emerges challenges traditional views of assimilation, identity formation, and urban politics and emphasizes a perspective highlighting immigrant homemaking, racial-identity transformation, and the production of Black/Brown collaborations in politics and placemaking.