Does the concentration of recent Latino immigrants into "occupational linguistic niches"--occupations with large numbers of other Spanish speakers--restrict their wage growth? On the one hand, it is possible that Latino immigrants who are concentrated in jobs with large numbers of Spanish speakers may have less on-the-job exposure to English,…

This study uses national survey data in federal election years from 1996 through 2004 to examine voter registration and voting. It shows that racial/ethnic disparities in socio-economic resources and rootedness in the community do not explain overall group differences in electoral participation. It contradicts the expectation from an assimilation…

This paper examines racial and ethnic differences in locational attainments in the transition to adulthood, using longitudinal data about neighborhoods of youth in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. It examines place stratification and life course models of locational attainment during the 1990s, a period during which…

Using terms like free spaces and havens, conventional wisdom views social ties by subordinate groups to dominant group members as hindering protest participation. In contrast, we draw on ethnic resiliency and social capital perspectives and argue that there are mobilization benefits to having dominant group members as friends. We offer a unique…

The debate about racial residential preferences has two open questions. First, are neighborhood racial preferences truly racial, or is race a proxy for socioeconomic factors? Second, are in-group or out-group preferences more salient? Using the Houston Area Survey, we employ a factorial experiment to assess the effect of racial composition on…

This paper presents the authors' comments on "Dreams Fulfilled, Dreams Shattered: Determinants of Segmented Assimilation in the Second Generation" by William Haller, Alejandro Portes and Scott M. Lynch. The overall well-being and integration of second-generation immigrant youth constitute an important topic for researchers and policy makers, one…

This study uses the Survey of Income and Program Participation to infer the legal status of Mexican and Central American immigrant youth and to investigate its relationship with educational attainment. We assess differences by legal status in high school graduation and college enrollment, decompose differences in college enrollment into the…

Consistent with the hypothesis that heightened visibility and competition lead to greater economic discrimination against minorities, countless studies have observed a negative association between minority population concentration and minority socioeconomic attainment. But minorities who reside in areas with high minority concentration are likely…

Using data from 6070 U.S. heterosexual internet dating profiles, this study examines how racial and gender exclusions are revealed in the preferences of black, Latino, Asian and white online daters. Consistent with social exchange and group positions theories, the study finds that whites are least open to out-dating and that, unlike blacks, Asians…

We extend research on black-white gaps in the subjective quality of life by exploring recent General Social Survey data, focusing attention on Latinos, and probing the value of partial proportional odds models for ordinal quality-of-life measures. Results indicate a declining but discernable black-white gap for four measures--marital happiness,…

America's changing color line is perhaps best expressed in shifting patterns of neighborhood residential segregation--the geographic separation of races. This research evaluates black exceptionalism by using the universe of U.S. blocks from the 1990 and 2000 decennial censuses to provide a "single" geographically inclusive national…

U.S. immigration policies after 1965 fueled a rise in the Latino population and, thus, increased the competition for low-skill jobs. We examine whether Latino immigration and Latino dominance of low-skill industries increases black urban violence. Using city-level data for the year 2000, we find that (1. Latino immigration is positively linked to…

We use panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) to estimate the effects of cognitive skills (measured by the Armed Forces Qualification Test) and attitudinal/behavioral traits (a latent factor based on self-reported self-esteem, locus of control, educational aspirations and educational expectations) on career wage…

We analyze the relationship between Hispanic population growth and changes in U.S. rural income inequality from 1990 through 2000. Applying comparative approaches used for urban areas we disentangle Hispanic population growth's contribution to inequality by comparing and statistically modeling changes in the family income Gini coefficient across…

Using tract-level data from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. Census, this study addresses four questions: (1) Has the proportion of neighborhoods with high ethnic concentration changed in from 1990 to 2000? (2) What are the socio-demographic profiles of ethnic neighborhoods? (3) Are new ethnic neighborhoods forming in America's suburbs? (4) How common are…