Doctororal Dissertation Research: Transition Out of School and Into Young Adulthood: The Role of Neighborhoods in Education and Work Outcomes of Mexican American Youth

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Proposal Title: Doctoral Dissertation Research: Transition Out of School and Into Young Adulthood: The Role of Neighborhoods in Education and Work Outcomes of Mexican American Youth.Principal Investigator: Mary Waters, Harvard UniversityProposal Number: 0703221This study investigates how school and work outlooks and decisions of second-generation Mexican-origin youth are shaped by their neighborhood context. It compares youth/young adult males, ages 17-22, in two equally disadvantaged neighborhoods in Los Angeles that differ in their ethnic/racial composition and immigrant concentration. One is predominantly Mexican and immigrant and the other is a mixed Black and Mexican neighborhood. Through neighborhood observations and repeated in-depth interviews with youth and their parents, this study analyzes how these high poverty contexts matter in the lives of youth and their decision-making process as they transition into adulthood and from school to work. By focusing on social ties and investigating other neighborhood mechanisms believed to contribute to their school and work patterns, this study bridges macro-level arguments about how neighborhood matters with micro-level arguments about how social ties, particularly to US born native minorities and immigrants, influence second-generation outlooks and outcomes related to school and work in young adulthood. Theoretically, this study is conducted to speak to the segmented assimilation thesis which argues that children of immigrants are more at risk of experiencing "downward assimilation" in a neighborhood context with large numbers of US born minorities, and, the contention by some research that immigrant concentration may attenuate the effects of poverty concentration. This study reacquaints the estranged literatures on immigration and urban sociology by trying to shed light on the assimilation process in the contemporary urban context. The need to merge these literatures is reflected in the growing concern over the prospects of the second-generation, particularly those growing up in the inner-city, as well as, the need to understand how the new urban context, which is more immigrant and Latino, functions to promote or inhibit mobility. Not only is this study relevant given the increase of Latinos throughout the United States, but the focus on males is particularly crucial given recent trends showing Latino males are falling behind their female co-ethnics in pursuing higher education. This study will shed light on male youths' views and decision-making processes towards school and work and the contextual factors that lead them towards a positive or negative direction. As such, the study should appeal to practitioners, such as educators or those serving this at-risk population, and policy makers interested in understanding what aspects of the urban context may be changed to improve outcomes for youth.