Journal Article

Immigrants and the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis: Employment Outcomes among Immigrant Youth in Los Angeles

Liu, Cathy Yang, Zhuang, Duan, Painter, Gary

2007

Overview

This paper examines the effect of space and race/ethnicity on labour force participation outcomes among minority and immigrant youth in the Los Angeles metropolitan areas. This research contributes to the spatial mismatch literature by analysing the differences between firstand second-generation immigrants in addition to exploring the role of race and job accessibility on the likelihood of working. It does so by comparing the employment status of comparable youth (16-21 years of age) who reside in central cities, inner-ring suburbs and outer-ring suburbs using 2000 Census PUMS data. Finally, the decision to attend school and to work is modelled in a bivariate probit framework to discover how the correlation across decisions may change the estimated impact of race and space on employment. The results of this study suggest that both space and race play a role in the probability that a youth will work, but that the decision to attend school does not influence the estimated impact of space and race on employment.

• Publisher: Routledge Journal, Taylor & Francis Ltd,SAGE Publications,Longman Group,Sage Publications Ltd
• Subject: Access / America / Bgi / Prodig / Censuses / Cities / Decisions / Employment / Employment status / Ethnic Groups / Ethnicity / Foreigners / Generational differences / Geography / Hispanics / Households / Hypotheses / Immigrants / Inner city / Labor force / Labor Force Participation / Labor markets / Labor supply / Labour force / Labour supply / Los Angeles California / Metropolitan areas / Minority Groups / Noncitizens / Pacific / Parents / Race / Second generation / Social research / Spatial analysis / Suburban areas / Suburbs / United States / United States of America / Urban studies / Youth / Youth Employment