Immigration Integration in Two Chicago Suburbs: Barriers and Strategies Among the Mexican Second Generation

Author: Benjamin Roth

Dissertation School: University of Chicago

Abstract:

In the past 20 years, the geographic pattern of immigrant settlement in the United States has decidedly broadened, shifting from ethnic neighborhoods in central cities to places that have not been home to new immigrants for generations: suburban municipalities. Scholars now recognize suburbia as a diverse patchwork with significant pockets of rising economic inequality, deteriorating housing stock, and racial diversity. This dissertation will compare two suburban municipalities to explore how the processes of integration for the children of low-skilled Mexican immigrants are influenced by key structural factors and the social organization of the suburbs.

The Mexican second generation-defined as U.S.-born individuals with at least one parent born in Mexico-growing up in poor central-city neighborhoods face higher rates of dropping out of high school, incarceration, and teenage pregnancy than their counterparts from other ethnic groups. Little research has explored how this group is fairing in the suburban context, however. Therefore, this qualitative study explores the mechanisms that shape the process of adaptation itself, particularly how local institutions-municipal government, churches, and human service organizations-and the suburban poverty form shape opportunities second generation youth have to "get ahead."

This comparative case study will draw on three primary data sources from each municipal context. First, retrospective interviews with Mexican second-generation respondents will explore how individual-level factors interact with local context to create barriers to or resources for adaptation. Second, in-depth interviews with local government officials, leaders in local organizations, and adult community members will provide insight into the structural factors that influence integration and the role of local institutions as resource brokers for second-generation suburban youth. Third, participant observation in two local organizations with youth-serving programs will allow me to observe the actual process of social capital formation.

Immigration scholars have begun to explore how first-generation Mexican immigrants are socially, culturally, and economically integrating into the suburbs (or why they are not), but little is known about the processes of integration for their native-born children-the immigrant second generation-in the suburbs. Similarly, poverty scholars have extensively documented the causes and consequences of urban poverty-particularly as it affects African Americans-but comparatively little research has been done on the suburban poverty form or how poverty affects Latinos. This comparative case study of two types of suburban municipalities will build on and contribute to these literatures, ultimately providing insights into hypotheses that can be tested later with empirical data.

This project will be useful to local and state policymakers, as well as the institutions that comprise nonprofit safety net in the suburbs. While immigration policy is designed and implemented at the federal level, the processes of immigrant integration unfold locally and are therefore shaped by local context. This project will highlight how local social and political contexts condition integration for immigrant families with adolescent children, thereby helping to meet a growing demand for research that can inform local immigrant integration policies.

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