Events

"Neighborhood Change in a New Destination: The Case of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Venezuelans in Houston, TX" 

The new destinations literature has been studying the effects of Latin American and Caribbean migrants arriving to new destinations in the Mid-West and South (Marrow, 2011; Massey, 2008; Tienda & Fuentes, 2014). Research has found that while migrants can access more diverse neighborhoods and succeed socioeconomically, these new destinations will become as segregated as established or traditional destinations (Brown et al., 2018; Iceland, 2004; Lichter & Johnson, 2009; Lichter et al., 2010; Sampson & Sharkey, 2008). Most of this research conceptualizes new destinations as "new" or "emerging" for the majority of Latin American and Caribbean migrants, mainly Mexican-born migrants. However, this conceptualization prevents sociologists from observing the effects and outcomes of Latin American and Caribbean migrants moving into new destinations that are historically Latinx destinations or minority-majority cities. During the last twenty years, Venezuelans, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans have been increasingly moving to Houston, TX, a new destination and a historically-Latinx city. Using ACS data, this research employed a spatial regression model to measure the effect new immigrants have on the income, poverty, and racial and ethnic proportions of Houston’s neighborhoods. The results suggest that an increase in the migrant population is associated decrease in the non-Hispanic Black population in the same census tracts and the neighboring tracts. The findings of this research can provide further insight into how new migrant groups in a minority-majority can affect residential patterns and social hierarchies.