Mexicans as Model Minorities in the New Latino Diaspora

Rapid Mexican immigration has challenged host communities to make sense of immigrants' place in New Latino Diaspora towns. We describe one town in which residents often characterize Mexican immigrants as model minorities with respect to work and civic life but not with respect to education. We trace how this stereotype is deployed, accepted, and rejected both by long‐standing residents and by Mexican newcomers themselves. [Mexican immigration, social identification, ethnic contrasts, minority students]