Local import statements in Python

I think putting the import statement as close to the fragment that uses it helps readability by making its dependencies more clear. Will Python cache this? Should I care? Is this a bad idea?

def Process():
    import StringIO
    file_handle=StringIO.StringIO('hello world')
    #do more stuff

for i in xrange(10): Process()

A little more justification: it's for methods which use arcane bits of the library, but when I refactor the method into another file, I don't realize I missed the external dependency until I get a runtime error.