From Heterogeneity to Concentration: Latino Immigrant Neighborhoods and Collective Efficacy Perceptions in Los Angeles and Chicago

Abstract

Latino immigrant presence in urban neighborhoods has been linked with reduced neighborhood cohesion in social disorganization-based ethnic heterogeneity hypotheses and enhanced cohesion in immigration revitalization approaches. Using the 2000-2002 Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey and the 1994-1995 Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods Community Survey, we explore the association between Latino immigrant concentration and both levels of, and agreement about, neighborhood collective efficacy. Findings from multilevel models with heteroskedastic variance indicate that Latino immigrant concentration exhibits a nonlinear association with collective efficacy. At low levels, increases in Latino immigrant concentration diminish collective efficacy, consistent with a heterogeneity hypothesis. The negative association between Latino immigrant concentration and collective efficacy declines in magnitude as immigrant concentration increases and, particularly in LA, becomes positive beyond a threshold, consistent with an immigration revitalization effect. We also find an inverse nonlinear pattern of association with the variance of collective efficacy. At low levels, increasing Latino immigrant concentration increases the variance of collective efficacy (reflecting more disagreement), but beyond a threshold, this association becomes negative (reflecting increasing agreement). This pattern is observed in both LA and Chicago. The prevalence of social interaction and reciprocated exchange within neighborhoods explains a modest proportion of the Latino immigrant concentration effect on mean levels of collective efficacy in Chicago, but does little to explain effects on the mean in LA or effects on the variance in either LA or Chicago. These findings offer insight into the complex role Latino immigrant presence plays in shaping neighborhood social climate.

Neighborhood immigrant concentration and violent crime reporting to the police: A multilevel analysis of data from the National Crime Victimization Survey*

“…In contrast, when immigrants reach a large proportion of the neighborhood population, a variety of community‐wide externalities may be more likely to emerge. Browning, Dirlam, and Boettner () documented such a nonlinear effect of community immigrant concentration on levels of collective efficacy, and we suggest that a similar pattern may exist for legal cynicism. Thus, as shown in the summary of hypotheses in table , on the basis of the legal cynicism framework, we anticipate a negative association between the percentage of neighborhood residents who are foreign born and the likelihood of crime reporting by victims of crime that strengthens, and perhaps only emerges, at high levels of percent foreign born (H1).…”

“…Browning et al. () found support for this idea in Los Angeles and Chicago, where growth in the percent foreign born beyond approximately 40–50 percent yielded significant increases in the levels of collective efficacy. This pattern represents another reason that percent foreign born may exhibit an accelerating positive association with victim crime reporting rates.…”

“…In drawing insights from this work, we anticipate that immigration may not enhance crime reporting levels until the size of the immigrant population becomes large, when immigrants are more likely to be perceived as threatening. The parallel nonlinear relationship anticipated by theories of social capital is less recognized, but the underlying logic has been effectively articulated by Browning et al (2016). As they argued, the community-wide anticipated gains in collective efficacy that may accrue from immigration should be limited to communities in which immigrants reach a large share of the population, where strong social networks and social support are sufficient to counter the potential disrupting influences of heterogeneity.…”

Disagreement in Assessing Neighboring and Collective Efficacy: The Role of Social Distance

“…Whereas psychologists have considered this possibility in the context of small groups, prior neighborhood research rarely empirically examines this possibility. One recent exception considers how Latino immigrant concentration shapes variability in collective efficacy assessments at the tract level, in an effort to address the tension between ethnic heterogeneity and immigrant revitalization hypotheses (Browning et al 2016). The authors found a nonlinear effect such that at low levels of concentration, increasing Latino immigrant presence has a positive association with variability (e.g., greater disagreement), while at high levels of concentration, the effect becomes negative.…”

“…The prior focus of Browning et al (2016) on Latino immigrant concentration provides just one example of the types of contexts in which social distance is salient. For example, prior research found that gentrification processes often lead to stable or increased diversity (Freeman 2009).…”