Full Citation
Title: Immigrant Assimilation: Do Neighborhoods Matter?
Citation Type: Working Paper
Publication Year: 2008
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Abstract: The United States provides a path to citizenship for its newcomers. Unlike other immigrationcountries, however, the United States does not have policies that ease assimilation or directlypromote naturalization such as easily accessible and widely advertised language and civicinstruction courses. Immigrants are by and large left on their own when facing legal and financialbarriers or seeking instruction to pass the citizenship test. Not surprisingly, thus, we find thatimmigrants attributes such as educational attainment, English language proficiency, and incomeaffect naturalization rates. This paper analyzes whether naturalization rates are also affected byneighborhood characteristics and informal networks for assistance and information. Towards thatend, we estimate a binary model of immigrants citizenship status specifying the size of theimmigrant enclave and its level of assimilation as key explanatory variables. The study uses2005 ACS data, and focuses on immigrants from the Caribbean islands in the New York area.The results suggest that who they are and where they live has substantial impacts on immigrantspropensities to have acquired US citizenship. Citizenship is unlikely for recent arrivals, thosewho do not speak English well, are poorly educated, and have a low income. Moreover, living ina neighborhood with a well assimilated immigrant enclave enhances the chance of acquiring UScitizenship. This effect is stronger for highly educated than for poorly educated immigrants andthus misses the more vulnerable segments of the immigrant population.
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Authors: Duncan, Natasha T.; Waldorf, Brigitte S.
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Publication Number: 8-14
Institution: Purdue University
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Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Migration and Immigration
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