Image source: Photograph by Yolande Pottie-Sherman
How does international migration fit within the narratives of rust, reinvention, and revolt that surround the Rust Belt?
Immigration represents a promising counternarrative for the American Rust Belt in the 21st century, a region which includes cities built on metals in southwest Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio as well as cities built on the automotive industry in southeast Michigan, northwest Ohio, and eastern Indiana. Funded through a Startup Grant from Memorial and a SSHRC Insight Development Grant, this project challenges the narrative of the Rust Belt advanced by many urbanists - as a region associated with loss, including of industry, population, and status. This research illustrates the rich, complex realities of international migration in this region, such as refugee resettlement and the internationalization of higher education.
