Immigrant Status and Individual Perception of Collective Efficacy: Analyses of National and Metropolitan Data

• In Event: Roundtable: Immigration

Abstract

Over the 20th century, a growing number of studies have been done on the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and crime. Collective efficacy is one of the key theories in explaining neighborhood variation in crime rates. It argues that neighborhood collective efficacy mediates the association between neighborhood structural risk factors and neighborhood crime rates. Immigrant concentration/ethnic heterogeneity is a key structural characteristic of socially disorganized neighborhood in the collective efficacy literature. However, individual immigrants and their perception of collective efficacy have never been studied as the focal point. This study aims to examine the effect of immigrant status on individual perception of collective efficacy. Theoretically, we contribute to the literature by connecting the studies on immigrant incorporation in the U.S. and research on collective efficacy. Using data from the 2013 panel of the American Housing Survey, our study finds that at the national level, the most recent immigrants have no difference in perceptions of collective efficacy than native-born Americans, while earlier immigrant arrivals perceive less collective efficacy in their neighborhood. While controlling for individual socio-demographic factors, in metropolitan areas that are new destinations for most immigrants, immigrants have lower perceptions of collective efficacy than natives.

Authors

• Aysenur Kurtulus, University at Albany, SUNY

• Yinzhi Shen, SUNY Albany

• Samantha Friedman, University at Albany, SUNY