The Black Box of Immigrant Settlement: U.S. Social Control and Foreign-Born Settlement Across Immigrant Destinations

• In Event: Immigration Enforcement and Social Control

Abstract

As immigrants have increasingly settled across the U.S., the immigrant destinations construct has been applied to better understand where the foreign-born population settles and why. In studies of foreign-born settlement, migration scholars have largely neglected to consider the role of place-based social control dynamics in settlement decisions. Using an integrated theoretical framework that combines migration and social control theories, this study explores how immigration enforcement intensity and crime context are associated with foreign-born settlement patterns, alongside traditional migration factors, such as employment opportunities and migrant networks. The study examines continental U.S. counties in the 2010s, a decade that followed the recession, had the highest rates of immigration enforcement in U.S. history, and was characterized by increasing political debate on immigration. I apply spatial regime models to assess how various factors are differentially associated with foreign-born settlement across immigrant destinations. I focus particularly on immigration enforcement efforts, which have been thus far underexplored in the context of immigrant settlement. Preliminary results indicate significant variation in predictors of foreign-born settlement across immigrant destinations, lending insight into (1) the role of social control in foreign-born settlement decisions and (2) the implications of the immigrant destinations construct.

Author

• Bianca Wirth, The Pennsylvania State University