Seoul-Ful South, or the Death of the Sunbelt

Marko Maunula, Clayton State University
Dave Anderson, Louisiana Tech University

The paper argues that scholarly speaking, the concept of the Sun Belt South has outlived its usefulness. While the term made perfect journalistic and scholarly sense for decades, the Sun Belt South is rapidly replaced by the Global American South. Today the South and the West is home to two thirds of all immigrants in the United States. Southern states are witnessing a massive influx of immigrant, from laborers to business executives. Foreign labor and global corporations are leaving their imprint on the southern culture and economy with breakneck speed. Immigrants are increasingly replacing incoming northerners as the South’s most noticeable cultural influencers. Southern cities in particular are today looking for their economic and cultural connections from abroad rather than north of the Mason-Dixon line. The paper pulls from demographic data, cultural studies, and observable realities around the South, from cities to suburbs and even rural regions.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 122. Perspectives on Regional Development in the U.S. South