Immigration and living arrangements: Moving beyond economic need versus acculturation

Abstract

Prior research seeking to explain variation in extended family coresidence focused heavily on the potentially competing roles of cultural preferences and socioeconomic and demographic structural constraints. We focus on challenges associated with international immigration as an additional factor driving variation across groups. Using 2000 census data from Mexico and the United States, we compare the prevalence and age patterns of various types of extended family and non-kin living arrangements among Mexican-origin immigrants and nonimmigrants on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Additionally, we use the Survey of Income and Program Participation to examine the stability of extended family living arrangements among Mexican-origin immigrants and natives in the United States. We find that newly arrived immigrants to the United States display unique patterns in the composition and stability of their households relative to nonimmigrants in both Mexico and the United States. Recent immigrants are more likely to reside in an extended family or non-kin household, and among those living with relatives, recent immigrants are more likely to live with extended family from a similar generation (such as siblings and cousins). Further, these households experience high levels of turnover. The results suggest that the high levels of coresidence observed among recently arrived Mexican immigrants represent a departure from "traditional" household/family structures in Mexico and are related to the challenges associated with international migration.

The impact of migration on intergenerational solidarity types

“…To better understand the adjustments in intergenerational solidarity following international migration, a different perspective is required, namely the consideration of nonmigrant compatriots from the same original regional-cultural contexts (Foner 1997;Nauck 1989;van Hook and Glick 2007). In this paper, we use data from the 2000 Families Study, which covers families from five regions in Turkey who either live in Western Europe today or never left their country (Guveli et al 2016).…”

Does immigrant residential crowding reflect hidden homelessness?

“…Many of the strongest factors for predicting where a household is in its career are socio-demographic, and not economic, in nature (Angel and Tienda 1982;Gyourko and Linneman 1993;Gyourko et al 1999;Evans et al 2000;Skaburskis 2004;Van Hook and Glick 2007). That is not to say that economic factors do not matter, but they are often secondary in determining where a household is in its career.…”

“…Several US studies have found that young households are more likely to be crowded than older ones Van Hook and Glick 2007). Part of the reason for this is that, in addition to being cash-strapped, younger households are earlier along in their housing careers, so they are more likely to have small children, who do not require as much space as adults or older children.…”

“…Although there has been widespread speculation about whether these patterns are cultural or economic in origin (for a recent entry in this debate, see Van Hook and Glick 2007), there is little consensus on the topic. Researchers are unable to determine why households are crowded, but can only conclude that there appear to be significant deviations from the housing career framework presented earlier.…”

Immigrants, their children, and theories of assimilation: Family structure in the United States, 1880–1970

“…Newly married couples and unmarried youth are more likely to migrate and nuclear families and solitaries should be common in the first generation (Kritz et al, 2000). Van Hook & Glick (2007) show that Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants of long duration in the US form vertically extended households (as they do in Mexico), whereas horizontal extension arises from a specific economic strategy among recently arrived immigrants who lack family members (Glick et al, 1997;Blank, 1998).…”