Doctoral Dissertation Research: Socio-Spatial Geographies of Youth Accessing the Urban Labor Market

The ability of immigrant youth to transfer their education, skills, and potential into a job with a fair and stable wage affects not only their families and communities, but the economic and social development of the U.S. as a whole. This study investigates the process of how youth enter into the labor market. The focus is on Hispanic immigrant youth, aged 16-21 who arrived in the U.S. with their parents before turning 13 but were not born here, the 1.5 generation. Studies suggest that children of immigrants are mostly doing well; however, certain ethnicities and racial groups lag behind. The extent to which this applies to Hispanic immigrant youth will be investigated in this research. The researchers will explore how documentation status affects the way youth view their chances and navigate their job opportunities. Factors including educational attainment, gender, residential neighborhood, and socioeconomic status are also considered. How youth navigate the labor market is spatially contingent and particular attention will be paid to how youth perceive and negotiate local geographies in the process of accessing work.

Segmented assimilation and social-spatial exclusion/inclusion form the basis of this study's conceptual framework. Segmented assimilation is a theoretical framework for understanding the process in which the children of immigrants become incorporated into the system of stratification in the host country. Socio-spatial exclusion can be: physical (residential segregation), functional (denied access to opportunities), relational (indifference), and symbolic (construction of otherness). These dimensions will be used to identify ways in which Hispanic youth are excluded from or included in the labor market. In addition, this study draws from and adds to research on labor market segmentation, social capital and networks, and youth geographies. It also contributes to our understanding of the trajectories of the children of immigrants in the US context in general, but also more narrowly within the New South. Charlotte, North Carolina, lends itself well as a case study site because of its status as an emerging immigrant gateway city, with Latino growth rates over 800 percent between 1980 and 2000. The researchers employ a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach and a multi-tiered qualitative methodology (questionnaire, interview, observational, and participatory action modes of research, such as mental mapping and journaling) to learn about, involve, and empower an understudied and marginalized population. By involving youth as co-researchers, they craft strategies to improve job access for themselves and their peers, and gain relevant skills in the process. Results will inform ongoing public debates about immigration policy, and suggest programs and public policies that can improve immigrant youth positionality in the labor force.