Latino Employment and Non-Latino Homicide in Rural Areas: The Implications of U.S. Immigration Policy

Abstract

From 1990 to 2000, rural counties experienced a major influx of low-skill Latinos. This was due in part to the increased enforcement of the U.S.–Mexican border, which encouraged Latino migrants already in the United States to stay for fear that they cannot return. We examine whether the increasing dominance of Latinos in rural low-skill labor markets raised rural homicide among non-Latino whites and blacks. Using 1990 and 2000 census and crime data for counties, we find that where low-skill labor markets shifted toward Latino labor, violence increases among non-Latino whites, but not among blacks. This is in contrast to prior research emphasizing how low-skill jobs loss is detrimental mainly to blacks. This major structural change in the ethnic structure of low-skill employment has negative consequences for rural white communities, and current theorizing on the loss of low-skill jobs must account for these effects.