Neighborhood Cultural and Socioeconomic Capital and Immigrants’ Socioeconomic Integration in the United States, 1860-1950

Anna Tegunimataka, Lund University
Martin Dribe, Lund University
Jonas Helgertz, University of Minnesota/Lund University

There can be little doubt that the characteristics of the environment in which the individual resides can have important consequences for a vast range of outcomes. Neighborhoods not only differ when it comes to the extent to which the individual is exposed to pollutants and crime, but also the amount of socio-cultural and socio-economic resources. In contexts characterized by immigration, the neighborhoods in which the foreign-born reside have been viewed as associated with both advantages and disadvantages. Whereas access to networks of other foreign-born may provide the individual with important benefits promoting integration into the local labor market, the value of these networks may be of little benefit when it comes to integration into the wider native-dominated labor market. Additionally, network access may be dependent on sharing a common language, culture or country of origin. This paper aims to contribute to our understanding concerning how local networks influenced immigrants’ labor market outcomes in the United States during the Era of Mass Migration. We will do this by distinguishing both between local networks depending on their county-of-origin and socio-economic composition, examining adult men observed in the Multigenerational Longitudinal Panel project’s linked census data between 1860-1950.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 57. Migration, Integration, and Social Outcomes: A Historical Perspective