The Suburbanization of Poverty: Implications for Low-Income Immigrants

• In Event: 095 - Section on Community and Urban Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 15. Suburbs

Abstract

In the past decade, sociology scholars have noted the rise of suburban poverty in the United States (Berube and Frey 2002, Kneebone and Garr 2010), and consequently, they have researched how social service organizations are (or are not) keeping up with the needs of increasing low-income populations in the suburbs (Allard 2009, Reckhow and Weir 2012). Despite growing research on this area, few studies use a qualitative lens, which would reveal on-the-ground experiences of people living in poverty in the suburbs, and few studies focus on how suburban poverty impacts immigrant populations. In this paper, I combine interview and participant observation data to explore and compare how social service providers in suburban and urban areas are responding increasing poverty along with a rise in limited English speaking immigrant populations. I find strong contrasts between the quantity and quality of social services in urban areas previously exposed to poverty as opposed to suburban areas that have more recently started experiencing rising poverty levels. The differences in the quality of services particularly impact low-income limited English speakers who come in for services, and/or who are deterred from receiving them in the first place. I end with proposals for future research on studying suburban poverty, and its implications for different populations.

Author

• Daniela Carrillo, University of California-Berkeley