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Abstract
As Latinos continue to grow in population and impact, both nationwide and in the U.S. South, so too must the appropriate and equitable provision of services. Healthcare service provision is particularly important to Latinos as research shows they face significant barriers to healthcare access and suffer from negative health outcomes as a result of such access disparities. While North Carolina metropolitan areas have been identified as pre-emerging immigrant gateways, in what ways are experiences and challenges in all new Latino destinations in North Carolina similar or different? Do new immigrant gateway destinations have similar or unifying issues in healthcare service, or might a continuum of experiences based on scale and place exist? This study addresses such a research inquiry by comparatively examining healthcare service provision across gateway North Carolina communities that fall at different points along the rural to urban continuum. Research questions are explored primarily through a qualitative-based methodological design utilizing key-informant interviews with healthcare providers. In addition to its focus on provider experience and perspective, the contribution of this study encourages discussion on expanding the contextual definition of Latino gateways to a broad and multi-scalar array of places including non-metropolitan areas. Additionally, this research expands upon place-based relationships between Latino health access and service provision networks by providing case studies from three North Carolina counties that have experienced rapid Latino population growth; Mecklenburg, Chatham, and Greene.