RACIAL/ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION AS A BARRIER TO SOCIOECONOMIC UPWARD MOBILITY AMONG SECOND-GENERATION IMMIGRANTS: A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF PREVALENCE AND SHORT- AND LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF PERCEIVED DISCRIMINATION

Abstract

Today’s second-generation immigrants who are mostly of Hispanic, Afro-Caribbean, and Asian descent face new challenges that prevent them from replicating the high levels of intergenerational upward mobility that were achieved by most European immigrants and their offspring in earlier periods. Segmented assimilation theory argues that the persistent racial and ethnic discrimination against nonwhite children of immigrants constitutes a major barrier to their incorporation into the middle class as such experiences foster a reactive mindset that is detrimental to socioeconomic incorporation. To test this claim, I analyze whether perceived discrimination (PD) has a negative impact on the educational and occupational outlooks, and ultimately on the socioeconomic status attainment of second-generation immigrants. Further, I examine how socioeconomic background and contextual factors influence the risk of PD on the one hand, and its short- and long-term consequences on the other. Drawing from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS), which was conducted in three waves when respondents were on average fourteen, seventeen, and twenty-four years old, I include individual-level and school-level data and use school random effects logistic and linear regression modeling to examine the effects of perceived racial/ethnic discrimination on second-generation immigrant incorporation. I find very little evidence for the notion that PD has a negative impact on future outlooks or status attainment; only youth who come of age in relatively privileged socioeconomic circumstances are more likely to have higher educational aspirations than expectations, but this mechanism does not translate into lower status attainment. I discuss possible explanations for the lack of support of segmented assimilation theory’s claims as well as the theoretical and methodological implications of my study.