lllegality and the Production of Affluence
When
Please join us for our Spring 2026 Colloquium series!
SGDE Professor Lise Nelson will present on her new book, Illegality and the Production of Affluence (UC Press 2025)
Abstract: Over the last three decades, domestic amenity or “lifestyle” migration has stimulated a process of rural gentrification across the United States, shifting landscapes of production to landscapes of consumption—from Jackson Hole, Wyoming to Highlands, North Carolina. I investigate an under-appreciated dimension of rural gentrification: the recruitment of low-wage, mostly undocumented Latine immigrant workers essential to building and maintaining gentrifying landscapes and lifestyles. My presentation focuses on the emergence and consolidation of immigrant-based labor regimes in two case study communities between the late 1990s and late 2000s, Steamboat Springs, CO and Rabun County, GA, drilling down into qualitative data that illustrate how and why employers in gentrification-linked sectors recruited what was an unfamiliar labor force in both places. I trace how, over time, employers transformed their fundamental business model to reach new levels of profitability predicated on access to racially marked, “illegal” workers. I also discuss how these labor regimes shaped life and work for immigrant newcomers navigating rural landscapes of affluence.
This talk is free to attend and takes place in room S107 of the ENR2 building on Friday, February 20, 2026 from 3:30-5pm. All are welcome!
ZOOM LINK: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/86024581230