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Source: Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Keister, Lisa A.
Vallejo, Jody Agius
Borelli, E. Paige
Mexican American Mobility: An Exploration of Wealth Accumulation Trajectories
Working Paper, Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, April 2013
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality
Keyword(s): Hispanics; Immigrants; Life Course; Mobility; Poverty; Wealth

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

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 considerable debate exists 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 accumulation trajectories over the life course, focusing on three interrelated processes. First, we examine childhood poverty and inheritances to establish financial starting points and the degree to which resources from prior generations affect wealth ownership. Second, we study impediments to mobility in young adulthood to understand how processes in early adulthood affect later-life outcomes. Third, we study wealth accumulation rates over the life course and midlife wealth ownership to identify the trajectories followed over the working years and wealth status as respondents near retirement. We find high levels of early life disadvantage among Mexican Americans, but these disadvantages decline with each generation since migration. We also find that Mexican Americans accumulate assets over the working years more slowly than whites but more rapidly than African Americans, and that accumulation rates increase over the generations for Mexican Americans. At midlife, 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.
Bibliography Citation
Keister, Lisa A., Jody Agius Vallejo and E. Paige Borelli. "Mexican American Mobility: An Exploration of Wealth Accumulation Trajectories." Working Paper, Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, April 2013.