Award Date

5-15-2026

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Sociology

First Committee Member

Robert Futrell

Second Committee Member

Cassaundra Rodriguez

Third Committee Member

Michael Borer

Fourth Committee Member

Michael Green

Number of Pages

177

Abstract

This project examines how Latinx individuals construct meanings of home and belonging in a Southern Nevada micropolitan city. Nevada is considered a new “Hispanic settlement state” and “New Immigrant Destination” as the state has experienced significant Latinx population growth since the 1990s. This research addresses an empirical gap by centering Nevada in understanding Latinxs lived experiences through the taken-for-granted concept of “home” and a theoretical gap by advancing New Destinations research where moral order, economy, and region influence ethnic incorporation.

Drawing on 32 in-depth semi-structured interviews with current and former Latinx residents and supplemented by participant observation, the study analyzes how individuals across generations negotiate belonging and placemaking in a predominantly white, Mormon-majority city, pseudonymously named “Yucca City.” Chapter 4 demonstrates that experiences of home are stratified by generation. First-generation immigrants often identify Yucca City as home due to stability, employment, and safety. Second-generation residents articulate the same ideas yet are dissatisfied as there are not many social and economic opportunities which are then compounded by experiences of marginalization. Chapter 5 reveals that belonging and exclusion is not a fixed or uniform feeling for all generations. Feelings of attachment and exclusion coexist for current residents and former residents who did not feel belonging still have emotional, familial, and symbolic ties to the city. Chapter 6 looks at Latinx placemaking in the city as permanent, microinstitutional, and temporal. Participants make permanent claims through religious institutions, neighborhoods and micro spaces in white institutions. They also make temporary claims through Casino work, city events, and leisure spaces.

Altogether, these findings show that belonging in new immigrant destinations is negotiated by generation, moral order, and local economic structures. This project contributes to scholarship on Latinx sociology and immigration by demonstrating how understanding home, belonging, and placemaking highlights ethnic incorporation. It also shows how Latinx immigrants in new spatial contexts resist exclusion through belonging making.

Keywords

Belonging; Ethnic Incorporation; Home; Latinx; New Immigrant Destinations

Disciplines

Migration Studies | Social and Behavioral Sciences | Sociology

File Format

PDF

File Size

1141 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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