Mexican farmworkers and their families are settling in rural upstate New York communities in record numbers, but of the newcomers can't speak or understand English, and most are marginalized in their communities, finds a new Cornell University study.

It's striking how invisible these immigrants are in their communities," said Max Pfeffer, professor of development sociology at Cornell. "They're not even noticed. Yet if the communities don't do more to help the immigrants become an asset, the newcomers are bound to become an underclass, a burden to the communities and a breeding ground for crime and unemployment."