(Re)Defining Access to Latino Immigrant-Serving Organizations: Evidence from Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, DC

Abstract

AbstractObjective: Local social-service organizations can shape the process of immigrant integration, but their ability to do so partially hinges on whether immigrants can reasonably access services. In addition to distance or proximity, key features of an organization (e.g., capacity, multilingual staff) also shape whether a social-service program is accessible. This study explores the spatial relationship between Latino immigrant neighborhoods and organizations that we define as “immigrant-serving.” We argue that spatial access to social services is a characteristic of the immigrant receiving context and therefore integral to how we understand processes of immigrant integration. Method: Drawing on unique survey data from social-service organizations in metropolitan Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles, California, and Washington, DC, and tract-level demographic information from the American Community Survey, we measured spatial access to social-service providers across neighborhoods with different degrees of ...