Skip to main content
Journal cover image

Mexican American Mobility: Early Life Processes and Adult Wealth Ownership.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Keister, LA; Vallejo, JA; Borelli, EP
Published in: Social forces; a scientific medium of social study and interpretation
March 2015

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 there is considerable debate 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 ownership, focusing on three interrelated processes. First, we examine childhood poverty and inheritances to establish financial starting points and to identify the degree to which resources from prior generations affect wealth ownership. Second, we study impediments to mobility in young adulthood to understand how childhood conditions create early adult obstacles to wellbeing. Third, we study midlife net worth and homeownership to better understand whether childhood and young adult impediments necessarily reduce adult wealth ownership. We find high levels of early life disadvantage among Mexican Americans, but these disadvantages are least pronounced in the second and third generations compared to the first generation. Consistent with prior research, we also find high levels of young adult impediments to mobility for Mexican Americans. However, we find that these early roadblocks do not necessarily translate into lower adult wealth: we show that 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.

Duke Scholars

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

Published In

Social forces; a scientific medium of social study and interpretation

DOI

EISSN

1534-7605

ISSN

0037-7732

Publication Date

March 2015

Volume

93

Issue

3

Start / End Page

1015 / 1046

Related Subject Headings

  • Sociology
  • 4410 Sociology
  • 1608 Sociology
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Keister, L. A., Vallejo, J. A., & Borelli, E. P. (2015). Mexican American Mobility: Early Life Processes and Adult Wealth Ownership. Social Forces; a Scientific Medium of Social Study and Interpretation, 93(3), 1015–1046. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sou102
Keister, Lisa A., Jody Agius Vallejo, and E Paige Borelli. “Mexican American Mobility: Early Life Processes and Adult Wealth Ownership.Social Forces; a Scientific Medium of Social Study and Interpretation 93, no. 3 (March 2015): 1015–46. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sou102.
Keister LA, Vallejo JA, Borelli EP. Mexican American Mobility: Early Life Processes and Adult Wealth Ownership. Social forces; a scientific medium of social study and interpretation. 2015 Mar;93(3):1015–46.
Keister, Lisa A., et al. “Mexican American Mobility: Early Life Processes and Adult Wealth Ownership.Social Forces; a Scientific Medium of Social Study and Interpretation, vol. 93, no. 3, Mar. 2015, pp. 1015–46. Epmc, doi:10.1093/sf/sou102.
Keister LA, Vallejo JA, Borelli EP. Mexican American Mobility: Early Life Processes and Adult Wealth Ownership. Social forces; a scientific medium of social study and interpretation. 2015 Mar;93(3):1015–1046.
Journal cover image

Published In

Social forces; a scientific medium of social study and interpretation

DOI

EISSN

1534-7605

ISSN

0037-7732

Publication Date

March 2015

Volume

93

Issue

3

Start / End Page

1015 / 1046

Related Subject Headings

  • Sociology
  • 4410 Sociology
  • 1608 Sociology