Location, Duration, and Employment Accessibility: An Analysis of Immigrant Workers' Commutes in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.

Author: Cathy Yang Liu

Dissertation School: University of Southern California

Pages: 38

Publication Date: 11/2006

Availability:
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Access Number: 5015

Abstract:

Building on the literature of spatial mismatch hypothesis and immigrants' economic assimilation, this paper tries to depict a dynamic picture of immigrants' employment accessibility in the three metropolitan areas of Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. It records the changing spatial distributions of immigrants' residential locations and employment in these metropolises and their level of mismatch from 1990 to 2000. By way of regression analysis, it examines the effects of residential location (in central city, inner-ring suburbs or outer-ring suburbs, and in ethnic enclave or not) and immigrant duration, together with other socioeconomic factors on immigrants, especially low-skilled Latino workers' commuting time. It finds that structural location is intertwined with immigrants' economic assimilative process, which is spatially uneven. Being in the central city and ethnic enclaves lengthens immigrants' commutes and harms their economic accessibility. It suggests that both spatial and temporal dimensions should be taken into account in discussion of immigrants' residential and economic mobility in an era of changing urban spatial structures.

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