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After Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast in 2005, thousands of Latinx immigrants arrived in the region to work in reconstruction, one case of the growing and global phenomenon of disaster migration. Drawing on newspaper content analysis, in-depth interviews with immigrant service providers, and archival materials from Mississippi for the years surrounding Hurricane Katrina (2003-2009), we ask what reception these disaster migrants encountered upon arrival and how that reception changed as they settled permanently in the state. We find that public discourse about immigrants became markedly more positive when disaster migrants arrived en masse, with the media and public characterizing immigrants as valuable, hard workers. Negative characterizations shifted to portray immigrants as drains on public resources. However, these changes were temporary. By 2009, public debate about immigrants reverted to pre-disaster trends with only one exception. Across our study period, we find a steady rise in claims that immigrants faced racism and discrimination. Our findings suggest that disasters may briefly transform the social and cultural bases of material inequalities but are unlikely to produce lasting change.
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Policy Learning and Policy Change: Katrina, Ike and Post-Disaster Housing
Hurricane Katrina has spawned a great deal of research on various issues, including problems and failures in disaster preparation, response and recovery. Less attention has been paid however, to scholarly analyses of policy learning and change with regard to post-disaster housing. The focus of this paper is to fill that gap by analyzing the extent of policy learning and policy changes adopted after Katrina, and by examining the response three years later to Hurricane Ike. We reviewed key legislation and used theoretical insights drawn from the policy literature as a framework for examining post-disaster policy changes and outcomes. We find that as a policy issue, post-disaster housing continues to be a ‘wicked’ and ‘messy’ policy problem, exacerbated by unrealistic expectations of governmental agencies, and characterized by a weak advocacy base. To this end, we offer some policy and planning considerations in our conclusion.
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- Award ID(s):
- 0726808
- PAR ID:
- 10057046
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- International journal of mass emergencies and disasters
- Volume:
- 29
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0280-7270
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 26-56
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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