The heartland of America is experiencing unprecedented demographic changes as more Latino newcomers move to rural communities. Our goal is to understand the factors that contribute to the integration and economic contributions of Latino newcomers to the Midwest, using a sustainable livelihood strategies model to focus especially on the roles of identity, acculturation, social capital, and context of reception. Several preliminary analyses presented in this paper will inform the development of a large-scale household survey of newcomers to examine their settlement patterns and asset accumulation strategies. These analyses are designed to identify factors that facilitate the integration of newcomers, focusing on the immigrants themselves and the resources that they bring to the integration process, using two approaches. The first uses 2000 Census data to explore the impact of acculturation, social capital, and an aspect of context of reception, community climate, on income generation. The second uses focus groups to engage men and women newcomers from communities in three regions of Missouri in an exploration of the context of reception

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