Latino Immigrant Concentration and Collective Efficacy Perceptions in Los Angeles and Chicago

• In Event: 557 - Regular Session. Community Characteristics and Immigrant Well-Being

Abstract

Latino and immigrant presence in urban neighborhoods have been linked with reduced neighborhood cohesion in ethnic heterogeneity hypotheses and enhanced cohesion in ethnic enclave approaches. Using data from the 2000-2002 Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (LA FANS) and the 1994-1995 Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods Community Survey (PHDCN-CS), we explore the association between neighborhood Latino / immigrant concentration and both levels of, and agreement about, neighborhood collective efficacy. Findings from multilevel models with heteroskedastic variance indicate that increasing Latino / immigrant concentration at low levels is negatively associated with collective efficacy. The negative association between immigrant concentration and collective efficacy declines in magnitude as immigrant concentration increases and, in LA, becomes positive beyond a threshold. We find an inverse nonlinear pattern of association with the variance of collective efficacy across neighborhoods – at low levels, increasing immigrant concentration increases the variance of collective efficacy (reflecting more disagreement), but beyond a threshold, this association becomes negative (increasing agreement). This pattern is observed in both LA and Chicago. The prevalence of social interaction and reciprocated exchange within Chicago and LA neighborhoods explains a modest proportion of the Latino / immigrant concentration effect on mean levels of collective efficacy in Chicago, but does little to explain effects on the mean in LA or effects on the variance in either LA or Chicago. These findings offer insight into the complex role Latino / immigrant presence plays in shaping neighborhood cohesion and normative orientations.

Authors

• Christopher R. Browning, The Ohio State University

• Jonathan Dirlam, The Ohio State University

• Bethany Boettner, The Ohio State University