The Valley of South Texas is a region of puzzling contradictions.
Despite a booming economy fueled by free trade and rapid population
growth, the Valley typically experiences high unemployment and low
per capita income. The region has the highest rate of drug seizures
in the United States, yet its violent crime rate is well below
national and state averages. The Valley's colonias are home to the
poorest residents in the nation, but their rates of home ownership
and intact two-parent families are among the highest in the country
for low-income residential areas. What explains these apparently
irreconcilable facts?
Since 1982, faculty and students associated with the Borderlife
Research Project at the University of Texas-Pan American have
interviewed thousands of Valley residents to investigate and
describe the cultural and social life along the South
Texas-Northern Mexico border. In this book, Borderlife researchers
clarify why Valley culture presents so many apparent contradictions
as they delve into issues that are "on the edge of the law"--
traditional health care and other cultural beliefs and practices,
displaced and undocumented workers, immigration enforcement, drug
smuggling, property crime, criminal justice, and school dropout
rates. The researchers' findings make it plain that while these
issues present major challenges for the governments of the United
States and Mexico, their effects and contradictions are especially
acute on the border, where residents must daily negotiate between
two very different economies; health care, school, and criminal
justice systems; and worldviews.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!