Does residence in an ethnic community help immigrants in a recession?

Abstract

Research on how the residential segregation of immigrant populations has impacted their labor market outcomes presents many challenges because of the fact that immigrants often choose to locate near co-ethnics to share resources and cultural amenities. Because not all immigrants choose to live in these ethnic communities, identification of a causal effect on living in an ethnic community is problematic. The estimation of the effect of living in these ethnic communities is also difficult because it is ambiguous whether such residence will help or harm the labor market outcomes of immigrants. This study implements a number of approaches to help identify a causal effect, including using sample of adults whose residential location is plausibly exogenous with respect to their labor market outcomes and using the current recession as a source of exogenous variation. Results suggest that residence in an ethnic community after the recession increases the likelihood of working, albeit with longer commutes.

Linking migrant enclave residence to employment in urban China: The case of Shanghai

“…However, we still cannot disentangle the compounding effect between spatial accessibility of job opportunities and social networks in rural migrants' employment probabilities given enclave residence because we cannot ascertain the migrants' job locations. Thus, we estimate the models for two other groups with rural migrant enclave RCQ in comparison because these groups will face the same spatial distribution of jobs but will not enjoy the social networks unique to rural migrants (for a similar strategy, see Zhu et al, 2014). The results show that the employment probabilities of an urban native (model 2) or an urban migrant (model 3) are not affected by the degree of rural migrant residential concentration in the same jiedao, all else being equal.…”

“…Despite such spatial constraints, migrant villages in China, like ethnic enclaves in the Western context, are rich in ethnic ties, social networks, and other informal resources that provide migrants with important entryways into the urban economy of the host city (He, 2013;. Such job-housing linkages can operate through two mechanisms: migrant businesses that are located within migrant villages and other migrant-concentrated jobs and occupations across the entire city (Zhu, 2016;Zhu, Liu, & Painter, 2014). Migrant businesses emerge and thrive in migrant enclaves in response to the everyday needs of the migrant population but also cater to the wider urban clientele, forming migrant economies (Y.…”

Coethnic Concentration and Asians’ Perceived Discrimination across U.S. Counties during COVID-19

“…Additionally, it is unclear whether the effect of coethnic concentration is sensitive to social or economic conditions. For instance, during widespread economic hardship, such as recessions, social and institutional trust may change and individuals may rely more heavily on coethnic networks (Ervasti, Kouvo, and Venetoklis 2019; Zhu, Liu, and Painter 2013). We assess whether coethnic concentration protects Asians against discrimination during times of crises.…”