A city-by-city look at a transforming U.S. population
Next America: Communities is a project of The Atlantic, supported by a grant from Emerson Collective. (More)
Not All Immigrant Labor Is Cheap Labor
There are problems with the narrative that visas are letting foreigners take Americans’ jobs at lower wages.
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Rebecca Cook / Reuters One Reason the Rust Belt Turned Red
A Republican-led battle to weaken labor unions may have helped Trump win in several Democratic bastions in the Midwest.
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Jose Luis Gonzalez / Reuters ‘He Can Build a Wall, but We’ll Just Build a Tunnel’
Immigrant laborers, who make up most of North Carolina’s urban construction workforce, aren’t afraid of Trump.
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Jim Mone / AP A Region That Sees Racism as a Threat to Its Economy
Minnesota’s Twin Cities, one of the most prosperous areas in the nation, is reckoning with its inequities.
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Jim Mone / AP America’s Real Refugee Problem
Minneapolis’ large Somali community made it through a grueling screening process in order to enter the country. Now, earning a living in the U.S. is proving difficult for younger generations.
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Alexia Fernández Campbell How America's Past Shapes Native Americans’ Present
A Minneapolis community seeks to counteract centuries of federal policies that have put its people at a disadvantage.
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Library of Congress The Problem With Only Letting In the 'Good' Immigrants
It’s difficult to determine who is “good” without making some troubling assumptions.
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Alexia Fernández Campbell Inequality in American Public Parks
A civil-rights movement unfolds in Minneapolis, the city with the most-celebrated urban green spaces in the country.
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Lucy Nicholson / Reuters The Truth About Undocumented Immigrants and Taxes
They’re contributing billions of dollars a year to Social Security, but may never reap any retirement benefits from it.
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Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters How to Get Americans to Talk About Race
Start with simple questions, and establish a baseline of trust.
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Courtesy of National Park Service, Maggie L. Walker ... The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street
Richmond was once the epicenter of black finance. What happened there explains the decline of black-owned banks across the country.
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Alexia Fernández Campbell Can a Private Company Teach Troubled Kids?
At the Richmond Alternative School in Virginia, 97 percent of students are black and 87 percent are poor, and the city just outsourced their education.
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Courtesy of the India Association of Virginia The Overlooked Consumer Group With Billions to Spend
While American companies fixate on Latino consumers, the growth of Asian American buying power is outpacing everyone else’s.
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Lucy Nicholson / Reuters Will Immigrants Today Assimilate Like Those of 100 Years Ago?
Two sociologists recently looked into whether the barriers facing people of color in the U.S. make it harder for most new arrivals to build wealth.
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Matt Sullivan / Reuters Many Americans Want Work, but They Don’t Want to Mow Lawns
At least not for what landscapers want to pay.
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Brian Snyder / Reuters The City That Embraced Its Decline
Once considered the fastest-shrinking city in America, Youngstown, Ohio, decided it would stop trying return to its former glory. The years since haven’t been easy—but they could have been a lot worse.
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Alexia Fernández Campbell / The Atlantic The Challenge of Keeping Black Families From Leaving the Midwest
As Rust Belt cities focus on attracting immigrants to boost their economy, some longtime African American residents fear that plans for revitalization will leave them out.
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Emily Jan / The Atlantic Why Isn’t Native American Food Hip?
American-Indian cooking has all the makings of a culinary trend, but it’s been limited by many diners’ unfamiliarity with its dishes and its loaded history.
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Alexia Fernández Campbell How a House Can Shape a Child’s Future
A new study from Cleveland looks at the correlations between living conditions and kindergarten readiness.
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Emily Jan / The Atlantic Why the Marijuana Business Is Appealing to Female Entrepreneurs
So much about selling legal cannabis remains to be worked out—including the industry’s gender norms.
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Jonathan Alcorn / Reuters The Supreme Court Has Left an Undocumented Workforce in Limbo
With its ruling in Texas v. United States, millions of immigrant workers and their employers face an uncertain future.
Next America: Communities is a project of The Atlantic, supported by a grant from Emerson Collective.