Objective. This paper presents a case study of an emerging Mexican immigrant community in a small city of the U.S. historic South. Within the bounds of the case, the paper shows how new destinations of immigration are established in the post-IRCA era. Methods. Using ethnographic and Census data, the authors examine immigrant community demographic and labor market characteristics. The authors analyze survey data on the trajectories and time line that newcomer men and women have followed to form a permanent settlement in an atypical location. Results. The results indicate the rapid and sizable growth of a Mexican immigrant settlement and the incorporation of its members into local industrial labor markets. Origins, trajectories, and timing of arrival are differentiated for men and women. Men have arrived first, some of them as secondary migrants, leaving the traditional Mexican Southwestern homeland. Women and children have come next, some of them directly from Mexico. Conclusions. Findings suggest that a new array of post-IRCA destinations are rising as a consequence of the secondary migrations of amnestied Mexicans. Permanent settlement is a feature of these new destinations as family reunification is taking place in such nontraditional receiving areas.

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