Katherine J. Curtis

Recovery migration after hurricanes Katrina and Rita: spatial concentration and intensification in the migration system

Changes in the human migration systems of the Gulf of Mexico coastline counties affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita provide an example of how climate change may affect coastal populations. Crude climate change models predict a mass migration of “climate refugees,” but an emerging literature on environmental migration suggests that most migration will be short-distance and short-duration within existing migration systems, with implications for the population recovery of disaster-stricken places. In this research, we derive a series of hypotheses on recovery migration predicting how the migration system of hurricane-affected coastline counties in the Gulf of Mexico was likely to have changed between the pre-disaster and the recovery periods. We test these hypotheses using data from the Internal Revenue Service on annual county-level migration flows, comparing the recovery period migration system (2007–2009) with the pre-disaster period (1999–2004). By observing county-to-county ties and flows, we find that recovery migration was strong: the migration system of the disaster-affected coastline counties became more spatially concentrated, while flows within it intensified and became more urbanized. Our analysis demonstrates how migration systems are likely to be affected by the more intense and frequent storms anticipated by climate change scenarios, with implications for the population recovery of disaster-affected places.

International handbook of rural demography

1: Why does rural demography still matter? : Laszlo J. Kulcsar.- 2: Challenges in the analysis of rural populations in the United States: Steve. H. Murdock, Michael Cline, Mary Zey.- 3: Rural natural increase in the new century: Americas third demographic transition: Kenneth M. Johnson, Daniel T. Lichter.- 4: Migration and rural population change: Comparative views in more developed nations: David Brown.- 5: World Urbanization: Destiny and reconceptualization: Avery M. Guest.- 6: Rural aging in international context: E. Helen Berry.- 7: Europes rural demography: Anthony Champion.- 8: The demography of rural Latin America: The case of Chile: Leif Jensen, David Ader.- 9: Rural demography in Asia and the Pacific Rim: Gavin Jones, Premchand Dommaraju.- 10: Demographic change and rural-urban inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Theory and trends: Parfait M Eloundou-Enyegue, Sarah C. Giroux.- 11: Demographic structure and process in rural China: Dudley L. Poston, JR., Mary Ann Davis, Danielle Xiaodan Deng.- 12: Rural population trends in Mexico: demographic and labor changes: Landy Sabches, Edith Pachecco.- 13: Rural demography in India: T.V. Sekher.- 14: The aboriginal people of Canada: a rural perspective: Gustave Goldmann.- 15: Rural race and ethnicity: Rogelio Saenz.- 16: Family matters: gender, work arrangements, and the rural myth: Leann M. Tiggs, Hae Yeon Choo.- 17: Rural families in transition: Kristin E. Smith, Marybeth J. Mattingly.- 18: Rural health disparities: P. Johnelle Sparks.- 19: Perspectives on U.S. rural labor markets in the first decade of the twenty-first century: Alexander C. Vias.- 20: Race and place: Determinants of Poverty in the Texas borderland and the lower Mississippi Delte: Joachim Singelmann, Tim Slack, Kayla Fontenot.- 21: Rural jobs: Making a living in the countryside: Gary Paul green.- 22: The spatial heterogeneity and geographic extent of population deconcentration: Measurement and policy implications: Joanna P. Ganning, Benjamin D. McCall.- 23: Integrating ecology and demography to understand the interrelationship between environmental issues and rural populations: Christopher A. Lepczyk, Marc Linderman, Roger B. Hammer.- 24: Boom or bust? Population dynamics in natural resource dependent counties: Richelle Winkler, Cheng Cheng, Shaun Golding.- 25: Neoliberal democratization and public health inequalities in Sub-Saharan Africa: A proposed conceptual and empirical design: Moshi Optat Herman.- 26: Divers ruralities in the 21st Century: from effacement to (re)invention: Keith Halfacree.

A Note on the Identification of Common Geographies.

Areal data have been used to good effect in a wide range of sociological research. One of the most persistent problems associated with this type of data, however, is the need to combine data sets with incongruous boundaries. To help address this problem, we introduce a new method for identifying common geographies. We show that identifying common geographies is equivalent to identifying components within a k-uniform k-partite hypergraph. This approach can be easily implemented using a geographic information system in conjunction with a simple search algorithm.

Assessing the Spatial Concentration and Temporal Persistence of Poverty: Industrial Structure, Racial/Ethnic Composition, and the Complex Links to Poverty

This study assesses the social-structural, spatial, and temporal dimensions of aggregate-level poverty in the US Upper Midwest between 1960 and 2000. Central focus is on the links between local-area poverty, industrial structure and racial/ethnic composition, and the spatial and temporal dimensions of the linkages. During the study period, the region underwent significant industrial restructuring and dramatic change in racial/ethnic concentration. Using newly developed statistical methods for spatial-temporal regression, we explore hypotheses related to the spatial and temporal dimensions of the complex relationship between poverty, industrial structure, and race/ethnicity. Our approach yields reliable and interpretable estimates for structural factors of interest as well as the spatial-temporal autocorrelation structure underlying the data. Results inform theory about the implications of industrial structure and racial/ethnic composition for the concentration and persistence of poverty with clear direction for future research, and contribute to our understanding of the methodological approaches to investigating data that varies by and is dependent on space and time.

Puerto Rico's Population Padrones, 1779-1802

The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were a period of dramatic economic and population change for the Spanish Caribbean, including Puerto Rico. This note describes a unique collection of population data that sheds nuanced light on older research themes and promises to inspire new inquiries. These aggregate population data, or padrones, commissioned by the Spanish Crown and now more widely available and usable than ever before, offer details on Puerto Ricos sex, age, status, and socio-racial composition on an annual basis for the period spanning 1779 to 1802. We describe the data, their accompanying limitations, and their potential uses to advance scholarship on late-colonial Spanish America.

Historical Racial Contexts and Contemporary Spatial Differences in Racial Inequality

Research examining regional variation in the impact of racial concentration on Black–White economic inequality assumes that the American South is distinct from the non-South because of its slavery history. However, slavery’s influence on the relationship has not been directly examined nor has it been adequately theorized within the economic inequality literature. We assess whether the link between contemporary Black concentration and poverty disparities is structured by historical racial context. We find that while there is contemporary racial inequality throughout the United States, inequality-generating processes vary spatially and in ways that are tied to the local historical racial context.

Why Does Rural Demography Still Matter

Over the course of human history, rural places have been viewed as population reserves for urbanization and industrialization. Rurality was often synonymous with backwardness, and modernization in many countries was conceptualized and understood as a shrinking rural population accompanied by an increasing urban population. Concurrently, policy measures more often promoted urban expansion to the neglect of rural development, and in some cases rural areas were deliberately left undeveloped. The dominant perception of rurality stems from a dichotomous view of what is urban and what is rural, subsequently assuming rural areas are homogeneous. However, this collection of research disputes such overly simplistic views and incomplete policies. Rural areas are increasingly diverse in economic structure, and the presence of certain amenities, historical development patterns, and cultural conditions prompt a reevaluation of rurality. Throughout the international context, contemporary rural areas are confronting several challenges, including managing natural resources, addressing the local impacts of the global economy, and reconceptualizing what “rural” means in a rapidly changing world. Rural demography has much to contribute to understanding the continued evolution of rural populations and places into the 21st century.

Economic Transition and Social Inequality in Early Twentieth Century Puerto Rico

Using historical census data from 1899, 1910 and 1920, this chapter employs spatio-temporal data analysis techniques to estimate the influence of U.S.- led changes in crop production, namely sugar and coffee, on the distribution of racial inequality in literacy ratios across Puerto Rican municipios. Significant development in the island’s infrastructure, including educational institutions, accompanied investments in crop expansion. Sugar was the primary focus of U.S. interests and its production was organized around a plantation system historically dependent on racial subordination. Two competing theses concerning how expansion influenced racial inequality are tested: the stratifying thesis, which argues sugar expansion would increase racial inequality by perpetuating the plantation system; and the equalizing thesis, which asserts sugar expansion would decrease racial inequality through infrastructure development resulting from high capital in-flows. Results support the equalizing thesis. Implications for the Puerto Rican case and the study of space and time in historical demographic research are discussed.

U.S. Return Migration and the Decline in Southern Black Disadvantage, 1970-2000*: Return Migration and Decline in Southern Black Disadvantage

Objective This study investigates how the Return Migration altered racial inequality in poverty in the American South. Methods I disaggregate southern poverty into its separate constituents using household data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) for 1970 through 2000. Results The prevalence of poverty declined most dramatically for black southern households and the racial gap in poverty narrowed to the extent that previous substantial regional differences disappeared. A central focus is the contrast between higher poverty and inequality among migrants who returned to their birth state relative to other southern-born migrants who returned to the South. Conclusions The migration experience is diverse and has conflicting consequences for racial inequality; for some, migration maintained economic vulnerability. Given the complex force of migration, I conclude that a nuanced theoretical approach to migration that gives weight to economic and noneconomic motivations is critical to understand the racial dimensions of migration and the associated changes in racial inequality.

The Spatial Distribution of Poverty and the Long Reach of the Industrial Makeup of Places: New Evidence on Spatial and Temporal Regimes: Spatial and Temporal Poverty-Industry Regimes

A wealth of research identifies industrial structure as a central correlate of place-level poverty and suggests that changes in and the clustering of industry contribute to the spatial clustering of poverty over time. However, few studies have investigated the spatial and temporal dimensions simultaneously, and none have effectively examined spatio-temporal interactions. Consequently, a core tenet of theory on poverty in place has not been adequately examined. To address this limitation, we explicitly test hypotheses about systematic variation in the poverty-industry relationship over time and across space using a new method to quantify dynamic associations by simultaneously accounting for spatial and temporal autocorrelation and relationship heterogeneity. The Upper Midwest is our study site given dramatic regional changes in dominant industries (i.e., manufacturing, services, and agriculture) and poverty during the past several decades. We find that the specific character of the poverty-industry relationship systematically varies along both the temporal and spatial dimensions: industry is more protective in certain periods than in others according to sector trends, and is more protective in certain places than others conditional on sector dependence. Our approach yields a more precise and reliable understanding of the long reach of local industrial structure on the spatial clustering of poverty.