The Last Best Place?: Gender, Family, and Migration in the New West

by Leah Schmalzbauer

Southwest Montana is beautiful country, evoking mythologies of freedom and escape long associated with the West. Partly because of its burgeoning presence in popular culture, film, and literature, including William Kittredge's anthology The Last Best Place, the scarcely populated region has witnessed an influx of wealthy, white migrants over the last few decades. But another, largely invisible and unstudied type of migration is also present. Though Mexican migrants have worked on Montana's ranches and farms since the 1920s, increasing numbers of migrant families—both documented and undocumented—are moving to the area to support its growing construction and service sectors.

The Last Best Place? asks us to consider the multiple racial and class-related barriers that Mexican migrants must negotiate in the unique context of Montana's rural gentrification. These daily life struggles and inter-group power dynamics are deftly examined through extensive interviews and ethnography, as are the ways gender structures inequalities within migrant families and communities. But Leah Schmalzbauer's research extends even farther to highlight the power of place and demonstrate how Montana's geography and rurality intersect with race, class, gender, family, illegality, and transnationalism to affect migrants' well-being and aspirations. Though the New West is just one among many new destinations, it forces us to recognize that the geographic subjectivities and intricacies of these destinations must be taken into account to understand the full complexity of migrant life.

222 pages, Paperback

First published September 17, 2014

Reviews

[Tim Countryman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Because "whites" are building second homes in Big Sky, Mexican illegal immigrants are forced to move to Gallatin County to work. Local law enforcement, ignorant to the plight of illegal immigrants, use profiling to hassle the minority merely driving (illegally) to a job the "natives won't do." (Never mind uninsured, unlicensed driver's involved in multiple fatality accidents on HWY 191.) As well, public transportation is unsatisfactory. To make matters worse, illegal immigrants who work on ranches must live in "isolated desolate locations." The houses we called homes in Montana are "prisons" to the illegal worker. The real offense is brown skin illegal immigrants feel they "stand out", due to our predominate white population.

Educated in London and New England, 6 year sociology professor at MSU, Schmalzbauer (now back home at Amherst College, MA)is the authority on gender and migrant struggles in Montana (in her own mind.) Illegal immigrants feeling isolated and unappreciated in Montana has not made the list of important issues. There are Mexican immigrants who live and work here legally that love this place we call home and are accepted and treated the same as we treat any neighbor. Despite Leah Schmalzbauer's "expert opinion", Montana is still "The Last Best Place, and this is not her "New West."

[Steve Bruner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched, theoretically sound, and well written, this is an insightful account of migration to the Northern Rockies. Though written for an academic audience, The Last Best Place is accessible to a broad audience - not jargonny or pretentious. Schmalzbauer does a wonderful job weaving her own experience in with the stories of her respondents, which adds a delightfully personal element to the book. She makes the issue of Mexican migration more human. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the issue of migration on a deeper level than media sound bites and political posturing.