Chenoa A. Flippen

Migration and Gender among Mexican Women

Despite their importance to womens empowerment and migrant adaptation more generally, the social and cultural processes that determine how gender relations and expectations evolve during the process of migration remain poorly understood. In this article, data from a survey conducted in Durham, North Carolina and four sending communities in Mexico are used to examine how the structures of labor, power, and emotional attachments within the family vary by migration and U.S. residency, womens human capital endowments, household characteristics, and social support. Using both quantitative and qualitative information, the main finding of the study is that the association between migration and gender relations is not uniform across different gender dimensions. The reconstruction of gender relations within the family at the place of destination is a dynamic process in which some elements brought from communities of origin are discarded, others are modified, and still others are reinforced. Results challenge the expectation that migrant women easily incorporate the behavior patterns and cultural values of the United States and illustrate the importance of selective assimilation for understanding the diversity of changes in gender relations that accompany migration.

Unequal Returns to Housing Investments? A Study of Real Housing Appreciation among Black, White, and Hispanic Households

This article assesses whether housing in predominantly minority and integrated neighborhoods appreciates more slowly than comparable housing in predominantly white communities, and if so, the extent to which inequality is due to neighborhood racial composition per se rather than nonracial socioeconomic and housing structure factors. I take a dynamic approach to the issue of housing appreciation, considering both racial, ethnic, and poverty composition at purchase and change in those characteristics over time. I examine differences in real housing appreciation across black, white, and Hispanic households by applying a hedonic price analysis to data from the Health and Retirement Study, combined with data from the 1970, 1980, and 1990 Census. While much of neighborhood appreciation inequality is explained by nonracial (particularly socioeconomic) factors, minority composition continues to exert a significant effect on appreciation even net of these considerations, particularly in highly segregated communities and those that experience large increases in black representation. Unequal housing appreciation has a large negative impact on the overall wealth holdings of mature minority households, and has important implications for racial and ethnic stratification.

Migration and Relationship Power Among Mexican Women

Our study drew on original data collected in Durham, NC, and four sending communities in Mexico to examine differences in women’s relationship power that are associated with migration and residence in the United States. We analyzed the personal, relationship, and social resources that condition the association between migration and women’s power and the usefulness of the Relationship Control Scale (RCS) for capturing these effects. We found support for perspectives that emphasize that migration may simultaneously mitigate and reinforce gender inequities. Relative to their nonmigrant peers, Mexican women in the United States average higher emotional consonance with their partners, but lower relationship control and sexual negotiation power. Methodologically, we found that the RCS is internally valid and useful for measuring the impact of resources on women’s power. However, the scale appears to combine diverse dimensions of relationship power that were differentially related to migration in our study.

RACIAL AND ETHNIC INEQUALITY IN HOMEOWNERSHIP AND HOUSING EQUITY

Wealth inequality, particularly in housing, has received increased attention in recent years for its importance to racial and ethnic stratification. Yet, while we know a fair amount about black-white wealth inequality, many questions remain regarding sources of Hispanic asset inequality. This article addresses this gap by examining racial and ethnic inequality in homeownership and housing equity among the pre-retirement population. Results support a stratification perspective of inequality for both blacks and Hispanics; even after accounting for numerous life-cycle, resource, and social-psychological considerations, blacks and Hispanics continue to lag significantly behind whites in housing wealth. While Hispanics initially appear better off than blacks with respect to housing, this is largely a function of their more favorable family structure. Important differences between blacks and Hispanics in the main contributors to housing inequality highlight the need to take a more multiethnic perspective on wealth stratification.

Participatory Survey Research Integrating Community Collaboration and Quantitative Methods for the Study of Gender and HIV Risks Among Hispanic Migrants

This article outlines a research strategy for studying difficult-to-reach migrant populations that combines community collaboration, targeted random sampling, and parallel sampling in sending and receiving areas. The authors describe how this methodology was applied to the study of gender, migration, and HIV risks among Hispanic migrants in Durham, North Carolina. They illustrate the usefulness of community collaboration for informing survey design and providing a contextual understanding of research findings. They likewise demonstrate the importance of parallel sampling and assess the bias that would have resulted from conducting their study with convenience samples as opposed to a targeted random sampling technique. While the authors describe its application to HIV risks among Hispanic migrants, the methodology can easily be extended to other migrant groups as well as to other sensitive topics pertaining to migration and social adaptation.

The spatial dynamics of stratification: metropolitan context, population redistribution, and black and Hispanic homeownership.

Racial and ethnic inequality in homeownership remains stubbornly wide, even net of differences across groups in household-level sociodemographic characteristics. This article investigates the role of contextual forces in structuring disparate access to homeownership among minorities. Specifically, I combine household- and metropolitan-level census data to assess the impact of metropolitan housing stock, minority composition, and residential segregation on black and Hispanic housing tenure. The measure of minority composition combines both the size and rate of growth of the coethnic population to assess the impact on homeownership inequality of recent trends in population redistribution, particularly the increase in black migration to the South and dramatic dispersal of Hispanics outside traditional areas of settlement. Results indicate remarkable similarity between blacks and Hispanics with respect to the spatial and contextual influences on homeownership. For both groups, homeownership is higher and inequality with whites is smaller in metropolitan areas with an established coethnic base and in areas in which their group is less residentially segregated. Implications of recent trends in population redistribution for the future of minority homeownership are discussed.

Forging Hispanic Communities in New Destinations: A Case Study of Durham, North Carolina

The Chicago School of urban sociology and its extension in the spatial assimilation model have provided the dominant framework for understanding the interplay between immigrant social and spatial mobility. However, the main tenets of the theory were derived from the experience of prewar, centralized cities; scholars falling under the umbrella of the Los Angeles School have recently challenged the extent to which they are applicable to the contemporary urban form, which is characterized by sprawling, decentralized, and multinucleated development. Indeed, new immigrant destinations, such as those scattered throughout the American Southeast, are both decentralized and lack prior experience with large–scale immigration. Informed by this debate this paper traces the formation and early evolution of Hispanic neighborhoods in Durham, NC, a new immigrant destination. Using qualitative data we construct a social history of immigrant neighborhoods and apply survey and census information to examine the spatial pattern of neighborhood succession. We also model the sorting of immigrants across neighborhoods according to personal characteristics. Despite the many differences in urban form and experience with immigration, the main processes forging the early development of Hispanic neighborhoods in Durham are remarkably consistent with the spatial expectations from the Chicago School, though the sorting of immigrants across neighborhoods is more closely connected to family dynamics and political economy considerations than purely human capital attributes.

Housing Dependence and Intimate Relationships in the Lives of Low-Income Puerto Rican Mothers

Using longitudinal ethnographic data from the Three-City Study, the authors examined the relationship between 16 low-income Puerto Rican mothers’ housing dependencies and their intimate partner relations. This study traced mothers’ dependent housing arrangements and entrée to marital or cohabiting relationships from their teens through their procurement of independent housing while entering and maintaining intimate partner unions as adults. Findings indicated that various trigger factors led women out of their natal homes and into expedited cohabitation with romantic partners, which frequently resulted in unstable unions in which mothers had little power and autonomy. As mothers became eligible for housing subsidies they obtained housing independent from their male partners, potentially increasing the propensity for greater relationship power. Housing independence, however, was not without problems. Spillover effects, such as shadowing partners, threatened housing stability, and mothers’ independence. The relevance of these findings for future research is discussed.

Relative deprivation and internal migration in the United States: A comparison of black and white men.

While the link between geographic and social mobility has long been a cornerstone of sociological approaches to migration, recent research has cast doubt on the economic returns to internal U.S. migration. Moreover, important racial disparities in migration patterns remain poorly understood. Drawing on data from the 2000 census, the author reappraises the link between migration and social mobility by taking relative deprivation into consideration. She examines the association between migration, disaggregated by region of origin and destination, and absolute and relative earnings and occupational prestige, separately by race. Findings lend new insight into the theoretical and stratification implications of growing racial disparities in migration patterns; while both blacks and whites who move north-south generally average lower absolute incomes than their stationary northern peers, they enjoy significantly higher relative social positions. Moreover, the relative “gains” to migration are substantially larger for blacks than for whites. The opposite patterns obtain for south-north migration.

Immigrant Context and Opportunity New Destinations and Socioeconomic Attainment among Asians in the United States

Immigrant-origin populations, once overwhelmingly concentrated in a handful of receiving gateways, have dispersed in recent decades to scores of new destinations throughout the United States. This pattern and its implications for immigrant incorporation have received a great deal of attention, but the vast majority of research has focused on Hispanics. This article examines the relationship between settlement patterns and socioeconomic attainment (income, occupational status, and homeownership) among Asians. Drawing on individual- and metro-level information from the 2009 to 2011 American Community Survey, results suggest that Asians in new destinations face an important tradeoff between income and homeownership, and that differences across contexts are largely attributable to metropolitan labor and housing market conditions, rather than the ethnic context per se. However, there are important differences in outcomes among Asians by national origin and sex, and a comparison with whites suggests that inequality differs across new and more established Asian settlement areas.