Race-ing Fargo

Book excerpt: "This book traces the history of refugee resettlement to Fargo, ND, from 1980 to the present, showing how culture, political economy, and institutional transformations collectively contribute to the racialization of white cities like Fargo in ways that complicate their demographics and the space they hold in an American imaginary of the idyllic and homogenous small town. Through participant observation, discourse analysis, multi-sited ethnography, and interviews, Erickson compares citizenship practices among two social service institutions (refugee resettlement and welfare) and two groups of refugees (Bosnians and Southern Sudanese). Through the comparative study of white, secular Muslim Bosnians and black Christian Southern Sudanese, the book demonstrates how cross-cultural and transnational understandings of race, ethnicity, class, religion shape daily citizenship practices and belonging."--