Immigrant Neighborhoods Research Articles

Where they live and go: Immigrant ethnic activity space and neighborhood crime in Southern California

The current study advances the literature by simultaneously accounting for the geographic location of immigrant residences and the location of ethnic businesses, and considers their proximity to one another. We argue our alternative measure, which we term Immigrant Ethnic Activity Space (IEAS), more fully captures the ecology of immigrant communities. Using data from several sources to capture neighborhoods in the Southern California region, we constructed IEAS measures for the seven largest ethnic groups in the region, including groups from Mexico, China, Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, Armenia, and El Salvador. These measures reflect where immigrants live and where they go for various ethnic-related routine activities, as well as the distance between the two. We estimated a set of negative binomial regression models to examine the effects of the IEAS measures on neighborhood violent and property crime rates. We find that our IEAS approach is distinct from traditionally-employed measures of immigrant neighborhoods. We also find that IEAS measures have negative associations with both violent and property crime, in general. The current study proposes and develops an alternative approach to conceptualizing immigrant neighborhoods, which more closely aligns with extant theory and should be considered in future research on the immigration-crime nexus.

Feasibility and Outcomes of an Electronic Health Record Intervention to Improve Hypertension Management in Immigrant-serving Primary Care Practices.

South Asians experience a disproportionate burden of high blood pressure (BP) in the United States, arguably the most preventable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. We report 12-month results of an electronic health record (EHR)-based intervention, as a component of a larger project, "Implementing Million Hearts for Provider and Community Transformation." The EHR intervention included launching hypertension patient registries and implementing culturally tailored alerts and order sets to improve hypertension control among patients treated in 14 New York City practices located in predominantly South Asian immigrant neighborhoods. Using a modified stepped-wedge quasi-experimental study design, practice-level EHR data were extracted, and individual-level data were obtained on a subset of patients insured by a Medicaid insurer via their data warehouse. The primary aggregate outcome was change in proportion of hypertensive patients with controlled BP; individual-level outcomes included average systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) at last clinic visit. Qualitative interviews were conducted to assess intervention feasibility. Hypertension was defined as having at least 1 hypertension ICD-9/10 code. Well-controlled hypertension was defined as SBP<140 and DBP<90 mm Hg. Postintervention, we observed a significant improvement in hypertension control at the practice level, adjusting for age and sex patient composition (adjusted relative risk, 1.09; 95% confidence interval, 1.04-1.14). Among the subset of Medicaid patients, we observed a significant reduction in average SBP and DBP adjusting for time, age, and sex, by 1.71 and 1.13 mm Hg, respectively (P<0.05). Providers reported feeling supported and satisfied with EHR components. EHR initiatives in practices serving immigrants and minorities may enhance practice capabilities to improve hypertension control.

Settling down the crisis: planning and implementation of the immigrant settlements in the Balkans during the Late Ottoman period

ABSTRACT Since the Crimean War (1853–56), the Ottomans encountered with the problem of settling the Muslim immigrants and it was initially resolved by establishing new towns and villages on vast arable plains in the Balkans and Anatolia. However, it became a necessity to let the immigrants settle in the cities after the massive influx of refugees in 1877–78, when available agricultural lands to assign remained limited in the empire. With the consent of the Sultan, a new urban typology emerged at the outskirts of the cities, which were called immigrant (muhajir) neighbourhoods. This article aims to explore the spatial development of these settlements by the close examination of two cases based on archival materials. Mecidiye, which was established after the Crimean War, stands as an archetypal example and acted as an experimental laboratory. The success of Mecidiye case encouraged the Ottoman bureaucrats for further in post-1878 period. Hence, immigrant neighbourhood in Üsküb demonstrates us how the experience of Mecidiye was disseminated in the empire to establish a new planned settlement at the edges of an existing city. The close examination of Üsküb case provides us with the necessary tools to understand how the resettlement of refugees had cross-geographical spatial patterns.

Neighborhood immigrant concentration and violent crime reporting to the police: A multilevel analysis of data from the National Crime Victimization Survey*

AbstractUsing data from the Area‐Identified National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), we provide a national assessment of the impact of neighborhood immigrant concentration on whether violence is reported to the police. By drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives, we outline how the level of violence reporting could be higher or lower in immigrant neighborhoods, as well as how this may depend on individual race/ethnicity and the history of immigration in the county in which immigrant neighborhoods are located. Controlling for both individual‐ and neighborhood‐level conditions, our findings indicate that within traditional immigrant counties, rates of violence reporting in immigrant neighborhoods are similar to those observed elsewhere. In contrast, within newer immigrant destinations, we observe much lower rates of violence reporting in neighborhoods with a large concentration of immigrants. Our study findings reveal comparable patterns for Whites, Blacks, and Latinos. The results have important implications for theory, policy, and future research.

Review: The Construction of Equality: Syriac Immigration and the Swedish City, by Jennifer Mack

Jennifer Mack The Construction of Equality: Syriac Immigration and the Swedish City Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017, 344 pp., 7 maps, 78 b/w illus. $30 (paper), ISBN 9780816698714 At a moment when divisive and xenophobic rhetoric about immigrants is on the rise, “place histories” can illuminate migrants’ critical place-making practices and contextualize their complex relationships with their new homes as well as the ones they left behind. In The Construction of Equality: Syriac Immigration and the Swedish City , Jennifer Mack presents a social, spatial, and urban history of Sodertalje, a city on the periphery of Stockholm, over the past fifty years. Drawing on a range of methodologies, Mack guides the reader through empirically rich case studies while also demonstrating how ethnographic research can inform historical analysis and contribute to the telling of vital architectural and urban stories. In large part, this book explores how Syriac spatial and building practices have disrupted Swedish architectural and planning philosophies based on the notion that formal homogeneity and uniformity promote social and economic equality. Mack also examines the assumption—made by many urban planners, politicians, and citizens—that segregated immigrant neighborhoods in Sweden are a social problem. In response to this prevalent narrative, she explores the spatial richness of so-called segregated neighborhoods as well as the stories of individual Syriac migrants, who are often perceived as being part of a monolithic immigrant bloc. These histories illustrate how those on the margins produce “urban design from below” through repeated tactical and material interventions into local planning processes and uses of public and private spaces (17). According to Mack, “rather than urban anthropology,” hers is “an anthropology of the urban,” one that creates a road map for studying a shifting material world so as to better understand migrants’ social and architectural histories (11). Sweden's unique political history makes it a particularly interesting place in which to study migrant-initiated urban change. In twentieth-century Sweden, where spatial solutions to social problems were the norm, planners and architects …

Factors Impacting Adherence to Diabetes Medication Among Urban, Low Income Mexican-Americans with Diabetes.

Mexican-Americans carry a high burden of type 2 diabetes and are disproportionately affected by diabetes related mortality and morbidity. Poor adherence to medication is an important barrier to achieving metabolic control and contributes to adverse health outcomes and health disparities. Little is known about barriers and facilitators to medication adherence among Mexican-Americans with diabetes. This is a qualitative study of semi-structured interviews with a sample of 27 adults (25 Mexican-Americans and 2 Latinos of other origin) with self-reported type 2 diabetes who were recruited as part of a church-based, randomized controlled trial for diabetes self-management education in a low-income, immigrant neighborhood of Chicago. Face-to-face, in-depth interviews were conducted (one in English and 26 in Spanish), audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and professionally translated. Systematic qualitative methods were used to analyze interviews. All 27 participants were Latino, and 25 were of Mexican descent. Participants' mean age was 57 years, 81% were female, 69% had an annual income less than $20,000 and 48% had no health insurance. Mean A1C level was 8.6% and mean systolic blood pressure was 125mmHg. The majority of participants (85%) reported using oral diabetes medication and 35% reported taking insulin. 76% reported being affiliated with one of the two partnering catholic churches based in the South Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago, also known as Little Village. Concerns regarding effectiveness and negative impact of diabetes medication were prevalent and expressed by 13 (48%) of 27 participants. Dissatisfaction with ineffective provider communication and not being able to pay for medication were other important barriers to adherence and were expressed by 7% and 11% of participants, respectively. Family support, for example, family members assisting in organizing medications in boxes and reminding participants to take them, was reported by 15% of participants and emerged as an important facilitator to medication adherence. There is a gap in research on factors influencing adherence to diabetes medication among Mexican-Americans. Our study suggests that concerns regarding negative impact of diabetes medication and concerns regarding effectiveness are prevalent barriers to adherence. These barriers can be addressed through educational efforts targeting patients and clinicians by specifically including content on beliefs that lead to poor adherence in diabetes self-management interventions for patients and continuing medical education for providers and by developing interventions that engage family members as a support system for medication adherence.

Enhancing Parent Consent for School-Based Primary and Reproductive Health Care Among Vulnerable Youth

This quality-improvement initiative evaluated procedures to increase parental consent for students, 13 to 18+ years old, to access a school-based health clinic that provides primary and reproductive health care in a Hispanic immigrant neighborhood in the U.S. Southwest. Six consent-retrieval procedures were sequentially implemented. Procedures included school registration, competition, hand delivery, PTO meetings, self-consent, and mail. Age, grade, and number of completed consents were calculated and compared. The percentage of students with completed consents increased from 35% to 72%. Lessons learned include increasing the number of completed consents is difficult; however, it is important to increase students’ access to health-care services.

Serge Liberman. A story.

A portrait of Serge Liberman, as I knew him, drawing parallels between his work as a physician and writer. As a storyteller Serge drew on many sources. My focus here is on his roots, as an emigrant, and as a doctor who practiced in immigrant neighbourhoods, Carlton and Brunswick. He wrote in the tradition of earlier Melbourne based immigrant Yiddish writers, Pinchas Goldhar and Bergner, exploring similar themes of displacement, exile and longing. He drew also on older traditions of Yiddish literature, writers such as Isaac Bashevis Singer. But Serge was more forgiving of human foibles, less judgemental, a documenter of symptoms, both in the consulting room, and at the writer’s desk. Here, I pay tribute to him, as one storyteller to another, in the form of a story about Serge, the storyteller, and friend.

A Spatial Appropriation of the Exterior Space of Housing Units of Immigrant Neighbourhoods: The Case of “Little Halep,” Önder Neighbourhood, Ankara

A Spatial Appropriation of the Exterior Space of Housing Units of Immigrant Neighbourhoods: The Case of “Little Halep,” Önder Neighbourhood, Ankara

An Examination of Preterm Birth and Residential Social Context among Black Immigrant Women in California, 2007-2010.

The foreign-born black population contributes a considerable amount of heterogeneity to the US black population. In 2005, black immigrants accounted for 20% of the US black population. Compared to native-born black women, black immigrant women are at lower risk for adverse birth outcomes, including preterm birth. Some scholars posit that differential exposures to socioeconomic disadvantage and structural racism in the residential context may account for this advantage. However, to date, few studies offer comprehensive examinations of the black immigrant residential social context, particularly in settlement regions beyond predominantly black and historically segregated regions. Further, studies examining the black immigrant residential context typically use a single indicator, which limits discussion of the intersecting domains that simultaneously increase or decrease risk among black immigrants. We addressed these gaps by examining black immigrant neighborhoods in the state of California, where racial residential segregation of the black population is low. We operationalized the residential context of black immigrant women using three distinct attributes: immigrant co-ethnic density, black racial concentration, and neighborhood deprivation. We linked 2007-2010 California birth records of black immigrant women and 2010 census data on tract-level social attributes (N = 6930). OLS regression analyses showed that immigrant co-ethnic density, black racial concentration and neighborhood deprivation were not associated with preterm birth among black immigrants. Our findings indicate that in California, residential social context has little relation to black immigrant preterm birth-a finding that is unique compared to residential settings of other settlement contexts.

Nativity/language, neighborhoods, and teen pregnancy norms among U.S. Hispanics

ABSTRACTThis study examined the relations of nativity, language, and neighborhood context to pregnancy norms among U.S. Hispanic teens. We used data from a sample of 972 Hispanic females and 960 Hispanic males from Waves I and II (1994–1996) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) collected in eighty high schools and fifty-two middle schools across the country. Results indicated that nativity, language, and neighborhood context were related to Hispanic teen pregnancy norms, although these relationships varied by gender. Specifically, foreign-born, non-English speaking females and those who lived in immigrant neighborhoods held stronger norms against unmarried teen pregnancies compared to English speakers and/or lived elsewhere. Yet, no relationship was demonstrated for males. The results of this study suggest an immigrant advantage related to female teen pregnancy norms, and that context matters in the formation of pregnancy norms for Hispanic females.

Where immigrants live: capturing ethnic segregation at the local level in two Australian cities

ABSTRACTAlthough the consequences of residential segregation are well documented, few studies to date have examined patterns of residential segregation at the local level in Australia. While available research indicates relatively low levels of residential segregation in Australia compared to other contexts, the traditional measures of segregation commonly utilised tend to be aspatial and global in nature and, as such, offer limited insight into local segregation trends. Considering these shortcomings, this paper employs two highly spatialised yet under-utilised local segregation measures—Location Quotients and Local Moran’s I. Using these measures, this paper explores how various immigrant groups are spatially distributed across two Australian cities with differing immigration histories—Sydney an established immigrant gateway and Brisbane a relatively new immigrant destination. Additionally, this article examines whether or not immigrant neighbourhoods in each city are co-located or isolated. Contrary to expectations that Australian neighbourhoods are multicultural, these findings demonstrate clear differences in the neighbourhoods where immigrant groups settle.

Institutional Completeness and Crime Rates in Immigrant Neighborhoods

Objectives: A growing body of research finds that immigration has a null or negative association with neighborhood crime rates. We build on this important literature by investigating the extent to which one theory, institutional completeness theory, may help explain lower crime rates in immigrant communities across the Southern California region. Specifically, we test whether two key measures of institutional completeness—the presence of immigrant/ethnic voluntary organizations in the community and the presence and diversity of immigrant/ethnic businesses in the community—account for lower crime rates in some immigrant communities. Method: Compiling a tract-level data set utilizing various data sources, we estimate negative binomial regression models predicting violent and property crime levels that include measures of institutional completeness while controlling for a range of neighborhood correlates of crime. We also account for possible endogeneity by estimating instrumental variable models. Results: The results reveal very limited support for institutional completeness theory. Conclusions: Several possible explanations for these findings are discussed.

Challenges Faced by Teachers in Immigrant Neighborhoods: A Political Dilemma Perspective

Challenges Faced by Teachers in Immigrant Neighborhoods: A Political Dilemma Perspective

Neither Here nor There? How the New Geography of Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship Disadvantages African Americans

AbstractRecent research shows that the foreign born utilize both local and long-distance social relationships to become entrepreneurs, affecting immigrants’ chances at upward mobility and their contributions to economic development. Scholars have yet to assess how African American entrepreneurs take part in similar types of geographically dispersed business communities. Using multi-level social network analyses and OLS regressions to compare the geography of buyer-supplier ties originating from one immigrant neighborhood and one African American neighborhood in Chicago, this article highlights a unique mechanism that places African Americans at a disadvantage compared to immigrants: a lack of geographic diversity in African American social capital. Immigrant entrepreneurs’ social networks, unlike African Americans’ networks, connect the foreign born to more people in different places, enabling them to circumvent the limitations of their local communities and accrue more business assets. Contrary to existing research, many foreign-born business owners in this study relied on intra-national rather than local or transnational social ties. These findings challenge researchers to reevaluate the geographic foundations of immigrant and African American entrepreneurship and reexamine how ethnic minority entrepreneurship affects patterns of social stratification and economic development.

Jane Addams and Possibilities for Transnational Political Friendship

Jane Addams was a first-rate practitioner of political friendship whose model is useful for exploring possibilities for transnational political friendships. She and other residents of the Hull House settlement worked for more than 40 years in their diverse immigrant neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side to move beyond class divisions and build friendly cosmopolitan communities to address common civic problems. Her experiential accounts detail the process—the epistemological and structural changes—through which friendships develop among diverse persons and groups that are unequal in power and resources. These accounts expand notions of political friendship beyond current applications to democratic citizens and provide insights into an area neglected by democratic theorists—possibilities for political friendship among unequal parties in transnational market relations.

The Role of Police Officer Race/Ethnicity on Crime Rates in Immigrant Communities

Few studies have examined the role of city police officer racial/ethnic representation on violent crime in immigrant neighborhoods. Yet police officer race/ethnicity might play a significant role in bolstering or weakening the relationship between immigration and violent crime rates. Researchers have posited that increasing the representation of minority officer would be an important avenue for making police departments more accountable to the communities they serve. The current study contributes to existing research by using national (i.e., 89 cities and 8,980 neighborhoods) data on violent crime from large U.S. cities. We examine the relationship between immigration, violent crime rates, and minority police officer representation using multilevel modeling techniques. Results indicate that neighborhood immigrant concentration is associated with lower robbery and homicide rates. Moreover, the negative relationship between immigrant concentration and violent crime rates is strengthened by city African American and Hispanic officer representation. Policy implications for law enforcement are discussed.

Using Community-Driven, Participatory Qualitative Inquiry to Discern Nuanced Community Health Needs and Assets of Chicago’s La Villita, a Mexican Immigrant Neighborhood

In predominately immigrant neighborhoods, the nuances of immigrant life in the ethnic enclave have important, yet underappreciated impact on community health. The complexities of immigrant experiences are essential to unpacking and addressing the impact of acculturative processes on observed racial, ethnic, and class-based health disparities in the United States. These insights because they are largely unexplored are best captured qualitatively through academic-community research partnership. We established the participatory mixed method Little Village participatory community health assessment(CHA) to explore community health in an ethnic enclave. In this paper, we share findings from our qualitative component exploring: how do Residents in a Predominately Immigrant Neighborhood Perceive Community Health Needs and Assets in Little Village. Three major themes emerged: rich, health promoting community assets inherent in the ethnic enclave; cumulative chronic stress impacting the mental health of families and intra-familial strain; and, work and occupation as important but underappreciated community health determinants in an immigrant neighborhood. These nuanced findings enhanced our community health assessment and contributed to the development of two additional tailored CHA methods, a community member-administered Community Health Survey, and an oral history component that provided deeper insight on the community's health needs and assets, and a focus for action on work as a social determinant of health at the community level. Conducting trusted community-driven health assessments that are adaptive and flexible to capture authentic needs and assets are critical, given health consequences of the new anti-immigrant rhetoric and growing socio-political tensions and fear in immigrant neighborhoods in the United States.

The ethnoracial context of residential mobility in France: Neighbourhood out‐migration and relocation

AbstractRecent research from France has used census data to explore patterns of residential segregation among immigrants and natives. Yet few studies explore how residential mobility underpins these patterns. This article draws on recent panel data (1990–2013) to explore how the ethnoracial composition of neighbourhoods impacts moving among first and second generation immigrants and natives. Two hypotheses are explored:ethnic clustering, or reduced out‐mobility of immigrants and their offspring from coethnic neighbourhoods, andnative flight,or the departure of natives from immigrant neighbourhoods. This article is the only to measure these processes in France at the neighbourhood level, on both first and second generation immigrants, using panel models that control for individual and neighbourhood heterogeneity. The findings document a significant negative effect of the neighbourhood coethnic share on moving out among first and second generation immigrants that remains strong over all time periods. In contrast, the French majority are more likely to exit areas with increasing shares of immigrants, except in models controlling for unobserved neighbourhood characteristics. Moving destinations across groups are also analysed and show that non‐Europeans enter neighbourhoods with substantially higher immigrant shares net of controls.

French Immigration—Demography Meets Politics: A Review Essay

French Immigration—Demography Meets Politics: A Review Essay