Policing Poultry: State and Market Interplay and its Ramifications in the Rural South

Abstract

This study uses qualitative data from 31 interviews and 8 months of observation to describe state and market powers in a town that is reliant on both poultry processing and the immigrant population that the industry drew to the region. The pressures in question manifest as traffic stops enacted on the immigrant population, difficult business practices for immigrants, and persistent difficulties in community visibility. This is all driven and validated by state-produced legislature and rhetoric. The project aims to challenge popular notions of revitalization, which often replicate the same simplifying logic used by state and market to extract profit and encourage legibility. Finally, it proposes the lens of legitimacy to understand inclusion and exclusion in the context of rural immigrant communities.