Where You Belong
Reexamining the Ethnic Hierarchy of Locational Attainment: Evidence from Los Angeles
David Cort
Social Science Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Because of a lack of data, the locational attainment literature has not incorporated documentation status into models examining group differences in neighborhood quality. I fill this void by using the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey, which permits the identification of undocumented respondents, allowing a re-examination of the ethnic structure of locational attainment in this important immigrant-receiving city. Results first suggest that while undocumented Latinos live in the poorest quality communities, blacks live in neighborhoods that are similar to native-born Latinos and better than foreign-born Asians and Latinos. Second, the effects of education are strongest for blacks, allowing the highly educated an opportunity to reside in communities that are of better quality than educated Latinos and Asians. Thus, undocumented Latinos replace blacks at the bottom of the locational attainment hierarchy, allowing educated blacks in Los Angeles to reside in better neighborhoods than blacks in the nation at large.
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All Along the Watchtower: Acculturation Fear, Anti-Latino Affect, and Immigration
Regina Branton et al.
Journal of Politics, July 2011, Pages 664-679
Abstract:
In this article, we consider how the factors driving Anglo attitudes toward immigration changed in the post-9/11 era. We argue that in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the immigration issue became nationalized, framed in a threat context. In this context, acculturation fear and anti-Latino sentiment are strong predictors of restrictionist sentiment; in the pre-9/11 period, these factors have little substantive impact on Anglo attitudes. We theorize that the current climate has helped "activate" social identities, which in turn has deleterious consequences for the Latinos in the United States. Using data from the 2000 and 2004 National Election Studies, we estimate a model of Anglo immigration attitudes. We show indicators of acculturation fear, anti-Latino sentiment, and media exposure significantly relate to Anglo immigration attitudes in the post-9/11 period but not the pre-9/11 period.
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Economic Dynamics and Changes in Attitudes Toward Undocumented Mexican Immigrants in Arizona
Priscila Diaz, Delia Saenz & Virginia Kwan
Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
Mexican immigration to the United States comprises an important social issue in contemporary public policy debate, particularly given the recent passage of Arizona's Senate Bill 1070 (SB 1070). The current study investigated how individuals' sentiments toward undocumented Mexican immigrants shifted between 2006 and 2009 in Arizona, and also examined economic concomitants to these shifts. Participants included 3,195 culturally diverse students attending a state university in Arizona. They reported their attitudes toward undocumented Mexican immigrants regarding housing, employment, values, social welfare, citizenship, health care, and education issues. Results show less-positive attitudes as each year progressed among European and Latino Americans, as well as other ethnic minorities. Further, anti-undocumented immigrant sentiment increased as unemployment increased and gross domestic product real growth rate decreased. Ethnic differences emerged in the relative negativity toward undocumented immigrants such that European Americans were less positive towards undocumented Mexican immigrants than Latinos over 4 years. These findings suggest that economic dynamics may beget anti-immigrant sentiment, leading to contentious legislation, such as Arizona's recent immigration law.
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The persistence of skin color discrimination for immigrants
Joni Hersch
Social Science Research, September 2011, Pages 1337-1349
Abstract:
Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, discrimination in employment on the basis of color is prohibited, and color is a protected basis independent from race. Using data from the spouses of the main respondents to the New Immigrant Survey 2003, this paper shows that immigrants with the lightest skin color earn on average 16-23% more than comparable immigrants with the darkest skin color. These estimates control for years of legal permanent residence in the US, education, English language proficiency, occupation in source country, Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, race, country of birth, as well as for extensive current labor market characteristics that may be themselves influenced by discrimination. Furthermore, the skin color penalty does not diminish over time. These results are consistent with persistent skin color discrimination affecting legal immigrants to the United States.
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The end of Swedish exceptionalism? Citizenship, neoliberalism and the politics of exclusion
Carl-Ulrik Schierup & Aleksandra Ålund
Race & Class, July 2011, Pages 45-64
Abstract:
Sweden, where some 20 per cent of the population is either foreign born or second generation, has long been known internationally as the model of a tolerant, egalitarian, multicultural welfare state, which extended substantial citizenship, welfare and labour rights to all within its borders, including immigrants. However, under the twin pressures of neoliberalism and the EU's commitment to ‘managed migration', this Swedish exceptionalism has been, and continues to be, substantially eroded. The shortcomings of the earlier multicultural settlement of the 1960s and 1970s, a growing extremist populism, the growth of an unprotected, semi-clandestine sector of the labour market, combined with high levels of youth unemployment and urban segregation, have led to unprecedented rioting and violence in Swedish cities. The voices of minority ethnic youth, many of them Muslim, should be heeded as rejecting the exclusivism of current political trends.
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Heidy Sarabia
Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this paper, I will first discuss the historical development of the Mexican migrant as "illegal." Second, I will discuss current border control and legalization policies and their effects on the undocumented population in the United States. Finally, reflecting on the effects of previous policies, I will discuss Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's proposed "three-legged stool" and its likely effects on the undocumented population in the United States. I will argue that the current immigration system, and any future proposals that include border enforcement as the primary mechanism to stop undocumented migrants from entering the United States will likely result in the continual perpetuation of an undocumented population of Mexican migrants in the United States. This paper is informed by the ethnographic data collected from July 2009 to August 2010 in the border city of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. During this time at the border, I talked to migrants deported from the United States.
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Ken-Hou Lin
Social Science Research, September 2011, Pages 1402-1418
Abstract:
Using data from the US Current Population Surveys 2006-2008, I examine the weekly work hours of Mexican immigrants. Mexican immigrant workers on average work 2-4 h less than non-Hispanic whites per week, which contradicts the popular portrait of long immigrant work hours. Four mechanisms to explain this gap are proposed and examined. Results show that the work time disparity between non-Hispanic white and Mexican immigrant workers is explained by differences in human capital, ethnic concentration in the labor market, and selection process into employment. English proficiency has limited effect on work time after location in labor market is specified, while the effect of citizenship status remains robust.
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Francine Blau & Lawrence Kahn
NBER Working Paper, August 2011
Abstract:
In this paper we use New Immigrant Survey data to investigate the impact of immigrant women's own labor supply prior to migrating and female labor supply in their source country to provide evidence on the role of human capital and culture in affecting their labor supply and wages in the United States. We find, as expected, that women who migrate from countries with relatively high levels of female labor supply work more in the United States. Moreover, most of this effect remains when we further control for each woman's own labor supply prior to migrating, which itself also strongly affects labor supply in the United States. Importantly, we find a significantly negative interaction between pre-migration labor supply and source country female labor supply. We obtain broadly similar effects analyzing the determinants of hourly earnings among the employed in the United States, although the results are not always significant. These results suggest an important role for culture and norms in affecting immigrant women's labor supply, since the effect of source country female labor supply on immigrant women's US work hours is still strong even controlling for the immigrant's own pre-migration labor supply. The negative interaction effects between previous work experience and source country female labor supply on women's US work hours and wages suggest that cultural capital and individual job-related human capital act as substitutes in affecting preparedness for work in the US.
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National Identity and Immigration Policy: Concern for Legality or Ethnocentric Exclusion?
Sahana Mukherjee, Ludwin Molina & Glenn Adams
Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
Does support for tough policies against undocumented immigration reflect anti-immigrant sentiments or a neutral concern about upholding laws? This study addresses the question by examining the relationship between different expressions of national identification and ethnocentric enforcement bias-that is, support for punishment of law-breaking immigrants but not law-breaking American employers who knowingly hire undocumented immigrants. Results revealed an association of this enforcement bias with nationalism (an ethnocentric engagement with national identity) but not with patriotism (a more critical engagement with national identity). A moderation analysis indicated that the relationship between nationalism and ethnocentric enforcement bias was most evident among participants who endorsed a "culture"-based construction of American identity in terms of American citizenship and ability to speak English. Discussion focuses on policy developments that reflect a symbolic threat to culture-based constructions of American identity and on the implications for fair and just enforcement of immigration policy.
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Wealth accumulation among U.S. immigrants: A study of assimilation and differentials
Ilana Redstone Akresh
Social Science Research, September 2011, Pages 1390-1401
Abstract:
Data from the New Immigrant Survey are used to study wealth differentials among U.S. legal permanent residents. This study is unique in its ability to account for wealth held in the U.S. and that held abroad and yields several key findings. First, relative to immigrants from Western Europe, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand (who have median wealth similar to native born non-Hispanic whites), other immigrant groups have lower levels of total wealth even after accounting for permanent income and life course characteristics. Second, time in the U.S. is positively associated with the wealth of married immigrants, yet this relationship is not statistically significant for single immigrants. Third, differences in the means of measured characteristics between Western European immigrants and those from most other origin regions account for more than 75 percent of observed wealth disparities. However, for immigrants from Asia and from the Indian subcontinent, much of the wealth differential remains unexplained by these factors.
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Michael McLendon, Christine Mokher & Stella Flores
American Journal of Education, August 2011, Pages 563-602
Abstract:
Few recent issues in higher education have been as contentious as that of legislation extending in-state college tuition benefits to undocumented students, initiatives now known as in-state resident tuition (ISRT) policies. Building on several strands of literature in political science and higher education studies, we analyze the effects of demographic, economic, political, and policy conditions on the likelihood of these initiatives becoming positioned for legislative action during the period 1999-2007. In particular, we develop and test a theoretical framework distilled from research on "descriptive and substantive representation" in U.S. politics. Our event history analysis finds that the percentage of female legislators (an indicator of descriptive representation), the percentage of the population that is foreign born, the level of unemployment, and the type of higher education governance in a state are associated with the likelihood of an ISRT initiative achieving the legislative agenda. To conclude, we explore several conceptual and policy implications of our findings.
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How the Media Frames the Immigration Debate: The Critical Role of Location and Politics
Stephanie Fryberg et al.
Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
The media plays an important role in how the American public understands controversial social and political issues, such as immigration. The purpose of this article is to examine how key features of the media, such as location (Arizona vs. National) and political ideology (Liberal vs. Conservative), affect the framing of arguments supporting and opposing the anti-immigration bill (Arizona SB 1070). A content analysis was conducted using 3 weeks of newspaper articles from two Arizona newspapers (one Conservative, one Liberal) and five national newspapers (three Conservative, two Liberal). Analyses revealed that both location and political ideology influenced the framing. Specifically, the national newspapers were more likely than Arizona newspapers to frame arguments supporting the bill in terms of threats (e.g., threats to economic and public safety) and to frame arguments against the bill in terms of civil rights issues (e.g., racial profiling). In terms of political ideology, Conservative newspapers were more likely than Liberal newspapers to frame the bill in terms of economic and public safety threats, but did not differ in mentions of civil rights issues. The implications for attitudes toward immigrants and legal ethnic minorities and for defining the boundaries of the American national identity are discussed.
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Did the Murder of Theo van Gogh Change Europeans' Immigration Policy Preferences?
Henning Finseraas, Niklas Jakobsson & Andreas Kotsadam
Kyklos, August 2011, Pages 396-409
Abstract:
To what degree are preferences determined by fundamental and stable value orientations, or are they vulnerable to exogenous shocks to issue saliency? We exploit that the second round of the European Social Survey was conducted around the time when Mohammed Bouyeri murdered Theo van Gogh on 2 November 2004. The murder was covered extensively across Europe and led to a debate about the impact of mass immigration. We consider the murder as a natural experiment which allows us to explore how a shock to issue saliency affects immigration policy preferences. We compare preferences of those interviewed right before the murder (control group) with those interviewed right after the murder (treatment group). We find robust evidence of a significant treatment effect in a pooled analysis with country fixed effects. However, when we allow the treatment effect to vary across countries, we find evidence of more support for restrictive policy in only three countries (Norway, Spain, and Slovakia).