What Growing Up in a Segregated L.A. Neighborhood Means to Young Latinos

Sociologists have questioned how immigrants acclimate to, and are affected by, poor neighborhoods in American cities. Previous theories have suggested that second-generation immigrants assimilate into rough urban environments by picking up on negative behaviors of groups that have lived there for relatively longer periods, or by reacting to discrimination from whites outside the neighborhood.

But a new qualitative study, published in the upcoming issue of Ethnicities, finds that Latino immigrants don't necessarily assimilate in the ways outlined above. Segregation and social isolation in Hispanic immigrant-heavy neighborhoods can force young residents to define themselves using their parents and Latino peers as points of reference—rather than other racial groups within or outside the neighborhood.