Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration

  • C. Matthew Snipp
  • Tomas Jimenez
  • Linda Burton
  • Hazel Markus
  • Douglas Massey

Leaders: Linda Burton, Tomás Jiménez, Hazel Markus, Douglas Massey, C. Matthew Snipp

The CPI has an extensive research program on race, ethnicity, immigration, and poverty. The National Poverty Study, for example, is designed to rigorously compare differences across rural black, deindustrialized, reservation, and other “racialized” poverty forms. The CPI also runs a comprehensive program on Hispanic poverty that explores such topics as the “chilling effect” of anti-immigrant laws on program use, the reasons why, contrary to much speculation, the Hispanic poverty rate has not taken off, and the causes of the so-called Hispanic Health Paradox (see, for example, our Pathways Magazine special report on poverty, inequality, and mobility among Hispanics). And one of the CPI’s most distinguished affiliates, Jennifer Eberhardt (who is on the CPI directorate), is carrying out a groundbreaking big-data analysis of policing and race. We list below a sampling of other CPI projects on race, ethnicity, immigration, and poverty.

Poverty among refugees: The U.S. refugee population faces very high rates of poverty, yet we know very little about the effects of different resettlement programs and approaches. There are efforts afoot to exploit available administrative data and begin to find out what works and what doesn’t.

Arrests, race, and poverty: Why are some arrests resolved informally while others are converted into a criminal record that then has a life-long scarring effect? The process of converting an arrest into a criminal booking may play an important role in generating downstream racial disparities.

Reducing the race gap in test scores: The new Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA) is a rich resource that is providing the most systematic evidence to date on the capacity of school-district policies to reduce the racial gap in test scores.

Poverty and schooling on reservations: Why are test scores and educational outcomes on Native reservations so low (relative to the national average)? In a new project by the noted ethnographer Martin Sánchez-Jankowski, we’ll be learning more about how traditional and formal education are viewed and the ways in which they might be better integrated. 

Race And Ethnicity - CPI Research

Title Author Media
Coming of Age in the Other America Stefanie DeLuca, Susan Clampet-Lundquist, Kathryn Edin

Coming of Age in the Other America

Author: Stefanie DeLuca, Susan Clampet-Lundquist, Kathryn Edin
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Date: 04/2016

Recent research on inequality and poverty has shown that those born into low-income families, especially African Americans, still have difficulty entering the middle class, in part because of the disadvantages they experience living in more dangerous neighborhoods, going to inferior public schools, and persistent racial inequality. Coming of Age in the Other America shows that despite overwhelming odds, some disadvantaged urban youth do achieve upward mobility. Drawing from ten years of fieldwork with parents and children who resided in Baltimore public housing, sociologists Stefanie DeLuca, Susan Clampet-Lundquist, and Kathryn Edin highlight the remarkable resiliency of some of the youth who hailed from the nation’s poorest neighborhoods and show how the right public policies might help break the cycle of disadvantage.

Whom Do Immigrants Marry? Emerging Patterns of Intermarriage and Integration in the United States Daniel T. Lichter, Zhenchao Qian, Dmitry Tumin

Whom Do Immigrants Marry? Emerging Patterns of Intermarriage and Integration in the United States

Author: Daniel T. Lichter, Zhenchao Qian, Dmitry Tumin
Publisher: The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Date: 11/2015

We document patterns of intermarriage between immigrants and natives during a period of unprecedented growth in the size and diversity of America’s foreign-born population. Roughly one in six U.S. marriages today involve immigrants and a large share includes U.S.-born partners. Ethno-racial background clearly shapes trajectories of immigrant social integration. White immigrants are far more likely than other groups to marry U.S.-born natives, mostly other whites. Black immigrants are much less likely to marry black natives or out-marry with other groups. Intermarriage is also linked with other well-known proxies of social integration—educational attainment, length of time in the country, and naturalization status. Classifying America’s largest immigrant groups (e.g., Chinese and Mexican) into broad panethnic groups (e.g., Asians and Hispanics) hides substantial diversity in the processes of marital assimilation and social integration across national origin groups.

Spatial Assimilation in U.S. Cities and Communities? Emerging Patterns of Hispanic Segregation from Blacks and Whites Daniel T. Lichter, Domenico Parisi, Michael C. Taquino

Spatial Assimilation in U.S. Cities and Communities? Emerging Patterns of Hispanic Segregation from Blacks and Whites

Author: Daniel T. Lichter, Domenico Parisi, Michael C. Taquino
Publisher: Sage Publications
Date: 07/2015

This article provides a geographically inclusive empirical framework for studying changing U.S. patterns of Hispanic segregation. Whether Hispanics have joined the American mainstream depends in part on whether they translate upward mobility into residence patterns that mirror the rest of the nation. Based on block and place data from the 1990–2010 decennial censuses, our results provide evidence of increasing spatial assimilation among Hispanics, both nationally and in new immigrant destinations. Segregation from whites declined across the urban size-of-place hierarchy and in new destinations. Hispanics are also less segregated from whites than from blacks, but declines in Hispanic-black segregation have exceeded declines in Hispanic-white segregation. This result is consistent with the notion of U.S. Hispanics as a racialized population—one in which members sometimes lack the freedom to join whites in better communities. Hispanic income was significantly associated with less segregation from whites, but income inequality alone does not explain overall Hispanic segregation, which remains high. The segmented assimilation of Hispanics that we observe supports two seemingly contradictory theories: both the idea that spatial assimilation can come from economic and cultural assimilation and the notion that economic mobility is no guarantee of residential integration.

 

Neighborhood Income Composition by Race and Income, 1990-2009 Sean F. Reardon, Joseph Townsend, Lindsay Fox

Neighborhood Income Composition by Race and Income, 1990-2009

Author: Sean F. Reardon, Joseph Townsend, Lindsay Fox
Publisher:
Date: 07/2015

Residential segregation, by definition, leads to racial and socioeconomic disparities in neighborhood conditions. These disparities may in turn produce inequality in social and economic opportunities and outcomes. Because racial and socioeconomic segregation are not independent of one another, however, any analysis of their causes, patterns, and effects must rest on an understanding of the joint distribution of race/ethnicity and income among neighborhoods. In this paper, we use a new technique to describe the average racial composition and income distributions in the neighborhoods of households of different income levels and race/ethnicity. Using data from the decennial censuses and the American Community Survey, we investigate how patterns of neighborhood context in the United States over the past two decades vary by household race/ethnicity, income, and metropolitan area. We find large and persistent racial differences in neighborhood context, even among households of the same annual income.

How Ethnoraciality Matters: The View Inside Ethnoracial “Groups” Tomás R Jiménez, Corey Fields, Ariela Schachter

How Ethnoraciality Matters: The View Inside Ethnoracial “Groups”

Author: Tomás R Jiménez, Corey Fields, Ariela Schachter
Publisher: Social Currents
Date: 06/2015

The color line is still a central problem in the United States, as Du Bois declared more than a century ago. But economic, demographic, and social trends have subdivided it in ways that Du Bois could not have foreseen, creating tremendous intra-ethnoracial group diversity. A challenge for twenty-first-century scholarship is to make sense of the implications of growing intra-group diversity for the boundaries and meaning of group identity. Meeting this challenge requires treating intra-group diversity not merely as an outcome of various social processes. Intra-group diversity must also be seen as the origin of processes shaping the boundaries and meanings of group identities, as well as intergroup attitudes and relations. Meeting the challenge also necessitates adopting ethnographic and survey research practices that better capture the dynamism of the multiple color lines defining the American ethnoracial landscape and the implication of this dynamism for identity.

race and ethnicity - CPI Affiliates

Susan Olzak's picture Susan Olzak Professor of Sociology, Emerita
Stanford University
Teresa D. LaFromboise's picture Teresa D. LaFromboise Professor of Education, Professor of Counseling Psychology; Member of Child Health Research Institute, School of Medicine
Stanford University
Edna Bonacich Professor Emeritus (Sociology and Ethnic Studies)
University of California, Riverside
Emily Hannum's picture Emily Hannum Professor of Sociology and Education; Associate Director, Population Studies Center
Univerisity of Pennsylvania
James Sidanius's picture James Sidanius John Lindsley Professor of Psychology in memory of William James and of African and African American Studies
Harvard University

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Race And Ethnicity - Other Research

Title Author Media
Immigration Enforcement and the “Chilling Effect” on Latino Medicaid Enrollment Francisco I. Padraza, Ling Zhu

Immigration Enforcement and the “Chilling Effect” on Latino Medicaid Enrollment

Author: Francisco I. Padraza, Ling Zhu
Publisher:
Date: 01/2015

Is contemporary interior immigration enforcement generating a “chilling effect” on Medicaiduse among Latinos? In the first section we theorize the “chilling effect” as a subclass of “massfeedback effects,” which we expand to include a narrative of contemporary Latino politics. In the second section we introduce the details of Secure Communities and explain how itfits in the broader development of America’s new immigration enforcement regime. The section after that describes our data, measures and methods. In addition to complimenting existing findings on the “chilling effect” of immigration enforcement, we present analyses that show patterns of heterogenous “chilling effects,” both in terms of nativity and immigrantgeneration, and across race/ethnicity and immigration status. The final section summarizes and concludes with thoughts about future research directions.

The Two-Way Street of Acculturation, Discrimination, and Latino Immigration Restrictionism Francisco I. Pedraza

The Two-Way Street of Acculturation, Discrimination, and Latino Immigration Restrictionism

Author: Francisco I. Pedraza
Publisher: Political Research Quarterly
Date: 11/2014

Existing research concludes that acculturation converges Latino immigration policy views with those of Anglo-Americans. Yet, polls show few Latinos support restricting immigration. This article reconciles these statements with theory and evidence. I argue acculturation is part of a broader give-and-take process, the two-way street in which the contrast between expected and perceived treatment by the receiving community shapes whether or not Latino acculturation leads to restrictionism and “convergence” with Anglos. Regression analysis of survey data shows that perceived group discrimination, but not perceived individual discrimination or Latino within-group discrimination, moderates the link between acculturation and support for restrictive policy.

Fear of Deportation is not Associated with Medical or Dental Care Use Among Mexican-Origin Farmworkers Served by a Federally-Qualified Health Center—Faith-Based Partnership: An Exploratory Study Daniel F. López-Cevallos, Junghee Lee, William Donlan

Fear of Deportation is not Associated with Medical or Dental Care Use Among Mexican-Origin Farmworkers Served by a Federally-Qualified Health Center—Faith-Based Partnership: An Exploratory Study

Author: Daniel F. López-Cevallos, Junghee Lee, William Donlan
Publisher: Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health
Date: 08/2014

Migrant and seasonal farmworkers face many health risks with limited access to health care and promotion services. This study explored whether fear of deportation (as a barrier), and church attendance (as an enabling factor), were associated with medical and dental care use among Mexican-origin farmworkers. Interviews were conducted with 179 farmworkers who attended mobile services provided by a local federally-qualified health center (FQHC) in partnership with area churches, during the 2007 agricultural season. The majority of respondents (87 %) were afraid of being deported, and many (74 %) attended church. Although about half of participants reported poor/fair physical (49 %) and dental (58 %) health, only 37 % of farmworkers used medical care and 20 % used dental care during the previous year. Fear of deportation was not associated with use of medical or dental care; while church attendance was associated with use of dental care. Findings suggest that despite high prevalence of fear of deportation, support by FQHCs and churches may enable farmworkers to access health care services.

Contribution of Socioeconomic Factors and Health Care Access to the Awareness and Treatment of Diabetes and Hypertension Among Older Mexican Adults Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez, Flávia Cristina Drumond-Andrade, Fernando Riosmena

Contribution of Socioeconomic Factors and Health Care Access to the Awareness and Treatment of Diabetes and Hypertension Among Older Mexican Adults

Author: Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez, Flávia Cristina Drumond-Andrade, Fernando Riosmena
Publisher: Salud Publica Mex
Date: 06/2014

To estimate changes in self-report and treatment of diabetes and hypertension between 2001 and 2012 among Mexican aged 50-80, assessing the contribution of education and health insurance coverage.

Can We Measure Immigrants' Legal Status? Lessons from Two U.S. Surveys James D. Bachmeier, Jennifer Van Hook, Frank D. Bean

Can We Measure Immigrants' Legal Status? Lessons from Two U.S. Surveys

Author: James D. Bachmeier, Jennifer Van Hook, Frank D. Bean
Publisher: International Migration Review
Date: 03/2014

This research note examines response and allocation rates for legal status questions asked in publicly available U.S. surveys to address worries that the legal status of immigrants cannot be reliably measured. Contrary to such notions, we find that immigrants' non-response rates to questions about legal status are typically not higher than non-response rates to other immigration-related questions, such as country of birth and year of immigration. Further exploration of two particular surveys – the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (LAFANS) and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) – reveals that these data sources produce profiles of the unauthorized immigrant population that compare favorably to independently estimated profiles. We also find in the case of the SIPP that the introduction of legal status questions does not appear to have an appreciable “chilling effect” on the subsequent survey participation of unauthorized immigrant respondents. Based on the results, we conclude that future data collection efforts should include questions about legal status to (1) improve models of immigrant incorporation; and (2) better position assimilation research to inform policy discussions.

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