Mexican Enclaves in the U.S. Northeast: Immigrant and Migrant Mushroom Workers in Southern Chester County, Pennsylvania
Author: Garcia, Victor Q., Ph.D.
Date Published: 1997
Mexican farmworkers are not limiting themselves to farm areas in the U.S. Southwest. In fact, this has never been the case. Mexican laborers continue to venture into communities and work in agricultural industries found throughout the country. The relatively new Mexican enclaves in Southern Chester County, Pennsylvania, a major mushroom region of the country, will be examined in this research paper. The focus of this paper will be on two expanding enclaves, one in Kennett Square, and the other in nearby Toughkenamon. Mexican immigration, residential concentration, and housing and living conditions will be presented in the two cases. A brief demographic and socioeconomic profile of the immigrant and migrant populations will also be included. Additionally, the arrival of the Mexicans in these communities and others will be contextualized within other population changes in Southern Chester County, namely the settlement of White professionals immigrating from surrounding metropolitan areas and the exodus of Blacks.
Date Published: 1997
Mexican farmworkers are not limiting themselves to farm areas in the U.S. Southwest. In fact, this has never been the case. Mexican laborers continue to venture into communities and work in agricultural industries found throughout the country. The relatively new Mexican enclaves in Southern Chester County, Pennsylvania, a major mushroom region of the country, will be examined in this research paper. The focus of this paper will be on two expanding enclaves, one in Kennett Square, and the other in nearby Toughkenamon. Mexican immigration, residential concentration, and housing and living conditions will be presented in the two cases. A brief demographic and socioeconomic profile of the immigrant and migrant populations will also be included. Additionally, the arrival of the Mexicans in these communities and others will be contextualized within other population changes in Southern Chester County, namely the settlement of White professionals immigrating from surrounding metropolitan areas and the exodus of Blacks.
