Mexican American Mobility: Early Life Processes and Adult Wealth Ownership

Abstract

Mexican Americans are a large group whose mobility patterns can provide important insight into immigrant assimilation processes. It is well known that Mexicans have not attained economic parity with whites, but there is considerable debate about the degree to which Mexican immigrants and their American-born children experience mobility over their lives. We contribute to this literature by studying Mexican American wealth ownership, focusing on three interrelated processes. First, we examine childhood poverty and inheritances to establish financial starting points and to identify the degree to which resources from prior generations affect wealth ownership. Second, we study impediments to mobility in young adulthood to understand how childhood conditions create early adult obstacles to wellbeing. Third, we study midlife net worth and homeownership to better understand whether childhood and young adult impediments necessarily reduce adult wealth ownership. We find high levels of early life disadvantage among Mexican Americans, but these disadvantages are least pronounced in the second and third generations compared to the first generation. Consistent with prior research, we also find high levels of young adult impediments to mobility for Mexican Americans. However, we find that these early roadblocks do not necessarily translate into lower adult wealth: we show that Mexican Americans have less total wealth than whites but more than African Americans, even when early life impediments are controlled. Our results suggest that Mexican Americans are establishing a solid financial foundation that is likely to lead to long-term class stability.

Deporting the American Dream: Immigration Enforcement and Latino Foreclosures

“…This assumption seems reasonable in light of previous scholarship that employs similar strategies of statistical inference to infer causality. Finally, we note that our conceptual model is not intended to portray potential effects on non-Latino households, local businesses that cater to Latino immigrants (Hagan, Rodriguez, and Castro 2011), or the ultimate impact on Latino household wealth and opportunity (Keister, Vallejo, and Borelli 2015). We view this latter limitation, however, as a favorable invitation for further research on the compounding effects of these processes.…”

Wealth Inequality and Accumulation

“…Of course, the Hispanic population in the United States is diverse, and wealth patterns may differ by ethnicity, national origin, and immigrant generation. For example, median net worth is higher among Cuban-Americans than among Mexican-Americans, who in turn hold more wealth than Puerto Ricans; Mexican-Americans who have resided in the U.S. for three generations or more accumulate more wealth by midlife, on average, than second-generation Mexican immigrants, and both groups exceed first-generation Mexican immigrants in median net worth (Keister et al 2015). …”

Middle‐Range Theories of Institutional Change

“…These competitive, overlapping middle‐range theories have gone on to motivate and guide productive debate and empirical research on the socioeconomic mobility of immigrant minorities (Kasinitz et al. ; Waters and Jiménez ; Keister, Vallejo and Borelli ; Drouhot and Nee forthcoming).…”

“…The unintended consequences of practical strategies in pursuit of familiar goals-a good education, a good job, a good place to live-lead to assimilation of immigrant minorities into the American mainstream. These competitive, overlapping middle-range theories have gone on to motivate and guide productive debate and empirical research on the socioeconomic mobility of immigrant minorities (Kasinitz et al 2008;Waters and Jim enez 2005;Keister, Vallejo and Borelli 2014;Drouhot and Nee forthcoming).…”