Abstract This study analyses the effect of immigrant concentration - PDF document

Residential segregation and probability of being employed of recent immigrants in Montevideo 2011 Julieta Bengochea 1 El Colegio de México, México Programa de Población, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República, Uruguay Abstract This study analyses the effect of immigrant concentration in neighbourhood of residence on the probability of being employed for recent immigrants in Montevideo, Uruguay (arriving in 2005-2011) who were born in Peru, Paraguay and Chile. Social and economic features of the settlement area have an effect on the kind of integration: those immigrants with less social and economic capital tend to settle in poorer neighbourhoods than those with more social capital. With the aim of elucidating the effect of neighbourhood of residence on the employability of recent immigrants, this study answers the following question: for recent immigrants, does the probability of being employed vary with residential concentration degree of immigrant population in their neighbourhood of residence and with their country of birth? Based on the Population Census of Uruguay in 2011, multilevel logistic regression models were estimated, which allow us to analyse the overall effect of individual and structural features on the probability of being employed. Keywords : Recent immigration. Residential segregation. Labour insertion of immigrants Introduction This study analyses the effect of immigrant concentration in the neighbourhood of residence on the probability of being employed for recent immigrants in Montevideo, Uruguay (arriving in 2005-2011) who were born in Peru, Paraguay and Chile. Social and economic features of the settlement area have an effect on the type of integration: those immigrants with less social and economic capital tend to settle in poorer neighbourhoods than those with more social capital. Even when both situations may imply residential segregation, both situations imply qualitatively different integration processes. None of them per se has a positive or negative effect on economic integration since a higher concentration of immigrant population can provide networks facilitating labour insertion in the country of destination during the first years of settlement. In this regard, neighbourhood of residence is understood as a geographical unit of residential segregation. With the aim of elucidating if the concentration of recent immigrants in their neighbourhood of residence in Montevideo, considered a geographical segregation unit, operates as a space of working opportunities or as a space constraining working opportunities, this study intends to answer the following question: for recent immigrants, does the probability of being employed vary with residential concentration degree of immigrant population in their neighbourhood of residence and with their 1 Julieta Bengochea is PhD candidate in Population Studies at Colegio de México. She is teaching assistant and researcher for the Program of Population at Facultad de Ciencias Sociales (School of Social Sciences), Universidad de la República, Uruguay. 1

country of birth? To do so, multilevel logistic regression models were estimated, with variables of level 1 considered as sex, age, age at migration, education level, marital status, country of birth, and variables of level 2 considered as coefficient of localization of immigrants for the 62 neighbourhoods in Montevideo. Background Social integration of immigrants in the host country occupies a central role in debates on migration. Studies on such issue were initially conducted in order to understand social inequities which would segregate foreign from native population. Concretely, the interest rises in the United States during anti-segregation fights of the twentieth century due to the formation of "ghettos" and poor "urban neigbourhoods" (Martori & Hoberg, 2004; Gans, 1997). Even when social integration of immigrated population is a multidimensional phenomenon, the main dimension to measure integration is related to the economic ability of self-sufficiency of immigrants. Although migration is a response to multiple motivations and enables diverse kinds of flows (forced migration, labour migration, study migration, highly skilled migration or circularity, family migration, etc.), labour is the main component of flows. Thus, it makes sense to analyze labour insertion as the central dimension of integration. Moreover, employment and its characteristics determine other aspects of social life such as social security benefits or accessing to housing and to other social services (Niessen & Schibel, 2004). Immigrants often present high activity rates (Alarcón & Ramírez-García, 2011); however, it does not imply a successful insertion in the labour market if conditions are poor or jobs imply low wages, low skills and menial social status (Alarcón & Ramírez-García, 2011). Factors such as age (immigrants are younger on average than native population) and the importance of labour-related motivations for migration lead many immigrants to be less selective, more vulnerable, and to accept disadvantageous working conditions, which explains their high participation in local markets (Cerrutti, 2009). Other important factors to understand high rates of immigrant occupation are the segmentation of labour markets, the precarization of work and the existence of specific niches where immigrants work. The theory of dual labour markets postulates that labour markets are divided in a sector for native workers and another for immigrants (Piore, 1979, 1986; Massey et al. , 1993). Piore, in his book Birds of Passages (1979), analyses circular migration of workers from undeveloped regions to developed ones, and elaborates the theory of dual labour markets. This theoretical perspective focuses on structures of job opportunities at destination which, through segmentation of the labour market, comprise jobs in the secondary sector of industry which were rejected by native workers employed in the primary sector. In this regard, the perspective identifies diverse factors shared among immigrants and relates them to the economic and industrial structure of destination countries. In the same line of reasoning, Portes develops the concept of economic enclave which argues that immigrants are employed in given labour environments depending on their origin (Piore, 1986). For instance, Mexican immigrants in the United States are employed in the secondary sector of the labour market with lower wages than native workers, while Cuban immigrants are employed in their own commercial network developed by the first generations of immigrants (Piore, 1986). Alarcón and Ramírez-García (2011) show it among immigrant population in Los Angeles city: Mexicans and Central Americans are employed in low-skill and low-wage activities, whereas Europeans and Asians are 2