Moving Under Pressure? Household Shocks, Constraints, and Residential Im/mobility

• In Event: Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 14: Urban Mobility and Migration

Abstract

Sociologists have shown how unequal exposure to residential mobility pressures—such as eviction, unit quality failures, foreclosure, and neighborhood violence—widen family inequality. Less is known about how inequalities may also emerge through families’ responses to these pressures. In this paper, I address this gap by using interviews conducted with 131 low and middle-income, Latino and non-Hispanic white renters living in Los Angeles, a subsample of whom were followed across four years. I identify two understudied responses to mobility pressures: protective moves away from residential hazards and residential immobility. Though most protective movers see improvements in their residential context, these positive changes are often accompanied by trade-offs, and more advantaged families generally achieve greater gains. Immobile families, who are predominantly low-income, often have no short or medium-term plans to exit their units, despite experiencing substantial mobility pressures. Their decision to remain in place, albeit constrained, allows them to invest in other dimensions of family life. Taken together, the findings suggest that considering both unequal exposure and unequal reactions to mobility pressures offers a more complete accounting of how residential mobility decisions stratify families.

Author

• Steven Edward Schmidt, Boston University