Differential Returns?: Neighborhood Attainment among Hispanic and Non–Hispanic White New Legal Permanent Residents

Abstract

We use data from the New Immigrant Survey to examine patterns of residential attainment among Hispanic immigrants who recently became legal permanent residents (LPRs) relative to new LPR non-Hispanic white immigrants. We focus on whether these Hispanic and non-Hispanic white immigrants differ in their ability to transform human capital into residential advantage. Our results suggest that the answer depends on the neighborhood attribute in question. When predicting residence in tracts with relatively more non-Hispanic whites, the answer is yes, with evidence in support of the place stratification model of residential attainment. We find that non-Hispanic white immigrants have access to relatively whiter neighborhoods than their Hispanic immigrant counterparts, irrespective of differences in education levels. When assessing Hispanic immigrants' ability to enter socioeconomically advantaged neighborhoods, however, the differences we observe are mostly accounted for by compositional differences in sociodemographic and acculturation factors. Taken together, our findings suggest that Hispanic immigrants are more similar to their white immigrant counterparts when it comes to converting higher education into higher income neighborhoods than into increased residential integration with whites; although their exposure to more socioeconomically advantaged neighborhoods at all levels of education remains lower than that of their white immigrant counterparts.

Metropolitan racial residential segregation in the United States: A microlevel and cross-context analysis of Black, Latino, and Asian segregation

“…3 The role of nativity is of particular interest, as nativity could moderate the effect of socioeconomic status on residential mobility. For example, immigrant Latino households may be drawn to enclaves or conversely may be constrained by higher barriers to enter White neighborhoods (Akresh and Frank 2018;Charles 2000;South, Crowder, and Chavez 2005a). To add more demographic context, the majority of the Latino population is Mexican origin at 63%, with the second-largest portion of the population being of Puerto Rican origin at 9.2% (Ennis, Rios-Vargas, and Albert 2011).…”

Impacts of Multiscale Racial Concentration on Neighborhood Foreclosure Risk in Immigrant Gateway Metropolitan Areas

“…There is a need for separate analytical lenses for neighborhood economic status and racial composition. Minorities can move into neighborhoods with greater socioeconomic advantage more successfully than they can move to Whiter areas (Akresh and Frank 2018;Timberlake and Iceland 2007). Resurgent ethnicity theory fills in this gap and asserts that immigrants or minorities have an in-group residential preference, even if they can afford to live in a Whiter neighborhood (Logan et al 2002;Wen et al 2009).…”

Remaking Metropolitan America? Residential Mobility and Racial Integration in the Suburbs

“…The residential attainment literature has focused overwhelmingly on whether racial and ethnic minorities are integrating spatially into America's white majority mainstream or, instead, are being left behind in mostly poor, minorityconcentrated, or high-crime inner-city neighborhoods (Akresh and Frank 2018;Clark and Brazil forthcoming;Crowder, Pais, and South 2012). We instead examine residential mobility among suburban whites as a demographic response to growing racial and ethnic diversity in suburban communities.…”