Race Differences in the Mobility Decision-Making Process

For the past three decades “separate but unequal” has characterized the residential location of blacks and to a lesser degree Hispanics. These groups are more likely to be residentially isolated and live in lower-quality neighborhoods. Recently, researchers have turned their attention towards understanding minorities’ residential mobility, since it is the behavior underlying where individuals live. A limitation of these studies, however, is that they only explore one dimension of what amounts to a larger, more complex decision-making process. The research presented in this paper examines how the decision-making process underlying mobility varies for blacks, Hispanics, and whites across metropolitan areas. I employ data from the 1985 and 1989 national samples of the American Housing Survey as well as from the metropolitan samples of Los Angeles and Detroit for my analyses. These data, which come from a longitudinal sample of housing units, are well suited for my study since individuals were asked prospective questions in 1985 about their mobility preferences five years later and their estimated likelihood of carrying out their plans. Another strength of these data is that metropolitan-level characteristics can be easily appended to individual-level data. Results from hierarchical logistic regression models (Bryk and Raudenbush 1992) reveal that minorities’ mobility is less strongly linked to mobility decision making than whites’ mobility. Moreover, the effect of inclinations on mobility is context-specific. Levels of residential segregation and ethnic diversity within the metropolitan area affect the link between mobility plans and behavior.