Exiting and Entering High-Poverty Neighborhoods: Latinos, Blacks and Anglos Compared

A special sample from the 1990-1995 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics is used to examine differences in the patterns and determinants of residential mobility between high-poverty and lower-poverty neighborhoods among Latinos, blacks and Anglos. Householders of Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban origin are significantly less likely than Anglos to move from a high-poverty to a lower-poverty neighborhood, and these differences are only partially explained by ethnic differences in standard mobility determinants. Although African Americans are thought to face unique barriers to geographic mobility, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans are significantly less likely than non-Hispanic blacks to escape high-poverty neighborhoods. Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are significantly more likely than Anglos to move from a lower-poverty to a high-poverty neighborhood, but blacks exhibit by far the highest rates of moving into high-poverty neighborhoods.