Urban Receptivity and the Second Generation: Comparing Dimensions of Incorporation in U.S. and European Cities

Susan K. Brown, University of California, Irvine
James D. Bachmeier, University of California, Irvine
Tineke Fokkema, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)
Laurence Lessard-Phillips, University of Manchester
John Mollenkopf, City University of New York

This paper examines the connection between receptivity toward immigrants and the form and degree of immigrant incorporation. Using a framework developed by Castles and Miller (2009) that separates countries by differential/assimilationist (DE/A) or multicultural, integrationist (MI) tendencies, we argue that places with different emphases should also differ in how they incorporate immigrants. Immigrants in cities in DE/A countries are likely to incorporate along multiple dimensions all at once, whereas immigrants in cities in MI countries may incorporate along one dimension (e.g., sociocultural) faster than another (e.g., spatial). Using data on second-generation immigrants in New York, Los Angeles, and 11 cities in six European countries, we find that the more that cities' cultures and institutions favor MI approaches, the better the children of immigrants fare on various dimensions of incorporation, particularly economic and political.