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The Life, Culture And Economic Impact Of Latino Immigrants In North Carolina

WUNC | By Anita Rao,
Frank Stasio
Published January 27, 2015 at 12:02 PM EST

A conversation about the life, culture and economic impact of Latino immigrants in North Carolina.La entrevista completa en español con tres limpiadoras Latinas que son parte de The Housecleaner Project hablando sobre sus vidas.

In the last two decades, international migration to North Carolina has increased dramatically and more than half of the state’s foreign-born population is Latino. 

According to the Migration Policy Institute, as of 2013, North Carolina was home to more than 390,000 immigrants of Latino origin. This influx of new immigrants shapes the economy and culture in profound ways. Host FrankStasiotalks to Stephen Appold, professor atUNC-ChapelHill’sKenan-FlaglerBusiness School, about his research showing the overall economic impact of immigrants. 

Stasiocontinues the conversation with three Latina women from Durham who earn their livings ashousecleaners. The stories of Elizabeth,AraceliandMarilu are documented by students from Duke University as part of a photography project,The Housecleaner Project. 

  Stasioalso discusses the history of Latino migration in North Carolina and examines some of the linguistic, sociological and psychological challenges faced by Latino immigrants withLilianaParedes, linguist and director of the Spanish Language Program at Duke University; Yuri Ramirez, a doctoral candidate in history at Duke University; and Luke Smith, psychiatrist and executive director of El Futuro, a behavioral health treatment organization for Spanish-speaking individuals. 

The Life, Culture And Economic Impact Of Latino Immigrants In North Carolina

The Housecleaner Project from Duke University documents the daily lives of women who earn their livings as housecleaners. A woman featured here cleans a bathroom in a Durham house.
The Housecleaner Project /
The Housecleaner Project from Duke University documents the daily lives of women who earn their livings as housecleaners. A woman featured here cleans a bathroom in a Durham house.
The women featured in this project scrub, vacuum and mop to earn a living. Many of these women have been in the area for more than a decade.
The Housecleaner Project /
The women featured in this project scrub, vacuum and mop to earn a living. Many of these women have been in the area for more than a decade.
Lilia, a Durham housecleaner, makes breakfast with her son.
The Housecleaner Project /
Lilia, a Durham housecleaner, makes breakfast with her son.

Copyright 2015 North Carolina Public Radio
Anita Rao
Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
See stories by Anita Rao
Frank Stasio
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
See stories by Frank Stasio