Immigrant Paradox or Good House Hunting? The Effects of Crime on Settlement Patterns of Recent Immigrants from Latin America.

• In Event: Untangling the Macro-Contextual Link Between Immigration and Crime

Abstract

A large number of studies have shown that higher levels of immigrant residential concentration lead to lower crime rates. Yet, few studies have considered the possibility that the crime reducing effects of immigration may be partially or possibly fully attributed to how the geographical distribution of crime rates affects residential settlement choices made by immigrants. While some recent studies have noted the importance of accounting for reverse causation, the effects of crime on immigrant settlement patterns have been treated as a statistical nuisance and not as a sociologically meaningful process. In the current study we utilize data from National Neighborhood Crime Study and the U.S. Census to explore whether and how violent crime rates affects residential concentration of recent Latin American immigrants at the neighborhood level. We also examine whether this relationship is shaped by city-level factors focusing especially on the issue of immigrant destination. Preliminary findings suggest that, net of other neighborhood-level factors, recent immigrants are less likely to settle in neighborhoods that have higher violent crime rates. We also found that this is the case in traditional but not in new immigrant destination cities.

Authors

• Feodor Gostjev, Bridgewater State University

• Jacob Stowell, Northeastern University