Moving Up in Rural America: Economic Attainment of Nonmetro Latino Immigrants

Abstract

Rapid Hispanic population growth represents a pronounced demographic transformation in many nonmetropolitan counties, particularly since 1990. Its considerable public policy implications stem largely from high proportions of new foreign-born residents. Despite the pressing need for information on new immigrants in nonmetro counties and a bourgeoning scholarship on new rural destinations, few quantitative analyses have measured systematically the social and economic well-being of Latino immigrants. This study analyzes the importance of place for economic well-being, an important public policy issue related to rural Hispanic population growth. We consider four measures of economic mobility: full-time, year-round employment; home ownership; poverty status; and income exceeding the median national income. We conduct this analysis for 2000 and 2006-2007 to capture two salient periods of nonmetro Hispanic population growth, using a typology that distinguishes among nonmetropolitan areas by the categories of "traditional" immigrant destinations concentrated in the Southwest and Northwest, "new" immigrant destinations to capture recent and rapid Hispanic population growth in the Midwest and Southeast, and "all other" rural destinations as a reference category representing more typical nonmetro population trends. We also compare our results to those for metropolitan destinations. We find that place type matters little for stable employment but more so for wealth accumulation and income security and mobility. Compared with urban Latino immigrants, rural Latino immigrants exhibit higher rates of homeownership as well as greater likelihoods of falling into poverty and lower likelihoods of earning a measure of U.S. median income. From 2000 to 2006-2007, rural-urban differences deteriorated slightly in favor of urban areas. We conclude by discussing implications of these findings and those of addressing rural immigrant economic well-being more generally.

Diverging fortunes? Economic well-being of Latinos and African Americans in new rural destinations

“…Immigrants living outside enclave communities may be most vulnerable to the recession, which may explain why immigrants in new destinations began returning to gateway settlement areas at the earliest signs of economic stagnation (Parrado and Kandel, 2011a). By the mid-2000s, poverty rates were falling more slowly in new versus traditional rural destinations, and rural Latinos had lower homeownership rates and more difficulty achieving the median income in new destinations compared to their counterparts in traditional destination states (Koball et al, 2008b;Kandel et al, 2011). Any benefits from living in new metropolitan destinations at the beginning of the 21st century may have eroded or vanished by the end of the decade (Ellis et al, 2013).…”

“…Latinos have nevertheless experienced upward mobility with shifts from agricultural jobs to nondurable manufacturing (see Kandel and Parrado, 2004). Some have also branched out of low-wage manufacturing jobs -entering other sectors such as service and construction, and opening small businesses to serve an expanding Latino population (Gouveia and Stull, 1997;Hernández-León and Zúñiga, 2000;Johnson-Webb, 2002;Kandel et al, 2011).…”

“…The recent economic downturn, however, has called into question whether Latino immigrants have benefited from relocating to new destinations (Ellis et al, 2013;Kandel et al, 2011;Koball et al, 2008b). Emerging evidence that Latinos increasingly are moving away from new destinations and into traditional settlement areas has further underscored the need to reevaluate new destinations as a platform for upward economic mobility among Latinos (Parrado and Kandel, 2011a).…”

“…Yet, few studies have quantified the economic implications of Latino population growth in new destinations (for exceptions, see Crowley et al, 2006;Crowley and Lichter, 2009;Ellis et al, 2013;Kandel et al, 2011;Koball et al, 2008aKoball et al, , 2008b, and fewer still have identified the putative economic impacts on other minority workers (for exception, see Turner, 2014). Quantitative studies investigating implications of immigrant growth typically focus on metropolitan areas or national rather than local or regional effects -often documenting small negative impacts on low-skill, native-born workers (Borjas et al, 2010).…”

Hispanic Concentrated Poverty in Traditional and New Destinations, 2010–2014

“…On the one hand, foreign-born Hispanics in new destinations are mostly very recent immigrants (Kandel and Cromartie, 2004; Kandel, et al, 2011), and the foreign born are disadvantaged along a number of characteristics. For example, recent Hispanic immigrants have lower English-language proficiency, are more likely to be poor, less likely to own homes, and are less likely to be U.S. citizens (Kandel and Cromartie, 2004; Donato, et al, 2007; Jargowsky, 2009; Kandel, et al, 2011; Crowley, Lichter, and Turner, 2015). The foreign born are also more residentially segregated from whites, and this might increase concentrated poverty.…”