IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v47y2010i8p1663-1686.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Commuting Times: Is There Any Penalty for Immigrants?

Author

Listed:
  • Maite Blázquez

    (Departmento de Análisis Económico: Teoría Económica e Historia Económica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, Madrid, 28049, Spain, maite.blazquez@uam.es)

  • Carlos Llano

    (Departmento de Análisis Económico: Teoría Económica e Historia Económica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, Madrid, 28049, Spain, carlos.llano@uam.es)

  • Julian Moral

    (Departmento de Análisis Económico: Teoría Económica e Historia Económica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cantoblanco, Madrid, 28049, Spain, julian.moral@uam.es)

Abstract

The assimilation of immigrants and their impact on the labour market of the host country have become a growing subject of study in recent literature. This is a topic of particular interest in countries like Spain, where immigration has become one of the main challenges of government policy in recent years. The Madrid region has experienced one of the highest increases in the number of foreign residents between 1996 and 2007. The intensity of this inflow in such a short period of time has led to restrictions on the ability of the residential and labour market to absorb all these newcomers, limiting their choice set of available dwellings and jobs. In this paper the spatial mismatch hypothesis for the Madrid region is tested by exploring the relationship between immigrants’ residential location and employment accessibility as measured by commuting times. The findings reveal that immigrants from eastern Europe, Africa, Ecuador and Colombia are significantly more likely to experience higher commuting times when compared with natives. These differences in commuting times can be attributed to different preferences regarding dwelling and employment optimal decisions. However, they could also be seen as symptoms of residential segregation and the difficulties in employment accessibility experienced by immigrant groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Maite Blázquez & Carlos Llano & Julian Moral, 2010. "Commuting Times: Is There Any Penalty for Immigrants?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(8), pages 1663-1686, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:47:y:2010:i:8:p:1663-1686
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098009356127
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098009356127
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098009356127?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McCann, Philip, 2001. "Urban and Regional Economics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198776451.
    2. Cavailhes, Jean & Peeters, Dominique & Sekeris, Evangelos & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 2004. "The periurban city: why to live between the suburbs and the countryside," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 681-703, November.
    3. Richard K. Green & Patric H. Hendershott, 2001. "Home-ownership and Unemployment in the US," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 38(9), pages 1509-1520, August.
    4. Giuliano, Genevieve & Small, Kenneth A., 1999. "The Determinants of Growth of Employment Subcenters," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt06n534j0, University of California Transportation Center.
    5. Epstein, Gil S, 2002. "Informational Cascades and Decision to Migrate," CEPR Discussion Papers 3287, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Louis de Mesnard, 2004. "Biproportional Methods of Structural Change Analysis: A Typological Survey," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 205-230.
    7. McCormick, Barry, 1986. "Employment Opportunities, Earnings, and the Journey to Work of Minority Workers in Great Britain," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 96(382), pages 375-397, June.
    8. Borjas, George J, 1999. "Immigration and Welfare Magnets," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(4), pages 607-637, October.
    9. Rachel Guillain & Julie Le Gallo & Celine Boiteux-Orain, 2006. "Changes in Spatial and Sectoral Patterns of Employment in Ile-de-France, 1978-97," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(11), pages 2075-2098, October.
    10. P. C. Cheshire & E. S. Mills (ed.), 1999. "Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 3, number 3.
    11. Rouwendal, Jan, 1999. "Spatial job search and commuting distances," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 491-517, July.
    12. Bartel, Ann P, 1989. "Where Do the New U.S. Immigrants Live?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 7(4), pages 371-391, October.
    13. White, Michelle J., 1999. "Urban areas with decentralized employment: Theory and empirical work," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: P. C. Cheshire & E. S. Mills (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 36, pages 1375-1412, Elsevier.
    14. Samuel L. Myers & Chanjin Chung & Lisa Saunders, 2001. "Racial Differences in Transportation Access to Employment in Chicago and Los Angeles, 1980 and 1990," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(2), pages 174-177, May.
    15. Aslund, Olof, 2005. "Now and forever? Initial and subsequent location choices of immigrants," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 141-165, March.
    16. Valerie Preston & Sara McLafferty, 1999. "articles: Spatial mismatch research in the 1990s: progress and potential," Papers in Regional Science, Springer;Regional Science Association International, vol. 78(4), pages 387-402.
    17. Crampton, Graham R., 1999. "Urban labour markets," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: P. C. Cheshire & E. S. Mills (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 39, pages 1499-1557, Elsevier.
    18. Dohmen, Thomas J., 2005. "Housing, mobility and unemployment," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 305-325, May.
    19. Andrada I. Pacheco & Timothy J. Tyrrell, 2002. "Testing spatial patterns and growth spillover effects in clusters of cities," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 275-285, October.
    20. Borjas, George J., 1998. "To Ghetto or Not to Ghetto: Ethnicity and Residential Segregation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 228-253, September.
    21. Antolin, Pablo & Bover, Olympia, 1997. "Regional Migration in Spain: The Effect of Personal Characteristics and of Unemployment, Wage and House Price Differentials Using Pooled Cross-Sections," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 59(2), pages 215-235, May.
    22. Barry Chiswick & Paul Miller, 2001. "A model of destination-language acquisition: Application to male immigrants in Canada," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 38(3), pages 391-409, August.
    23. van Ommeren, Jos & Rietveld, Piet & Nijkamp, Peter, 1997. "Commuting: In Search of Jobs and Residences," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 402-421, November.
    24. Piet Rietveld & Peter Nijkamp & Jos van Ommeren, 2000. "Job mobility, residential mobility and commuting: A theoretical analysis using search theory," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 34(2), pages 213-232.
    25. Huriot,Jean-Marie & Thisse,Jacques-François (ed.), 2000. "Economics of Cities," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521641906.
    26. Jos van Ommeren & Piet Rietveld & Peter Nijkamp & Jos van Ommeren & Piet Rietveld & Peter Nijkamp, 2004. "Job Moving, Residential Moving, and Commuting: A Search Perspective," Chapters, in: Location, Travel and Information Technology, chapter 11, pages 223-246, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    27. Henley, Andrew, 1998. "Residential Mobility, Housing Equity and the Labour Market," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(447), pages 414-427, March.
    28. Pinto, Santiago M., 2002. "Residential Choice, Mobility, and the Labor Market," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 469-496, May.
    29. Luis Suarez-Villa & Ruth Rama, 1996. "Outsourcing, R&D and the Pattern of Intra-metropolitan Location: The Electronics Industries of Madrid," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 33(7), pages 1155-1197, August.
    30. Florence Goffette-Nagot, 2000. "Urban spread beyond the city edge," Post-Print halshs-00144756, HAL.
    31. Hohenberg, Paul M., 2004. "The historical geography of European cities: An interpretive essay," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 67, pages 3021-3052, Elsevier.
    32. John F. Kain, 1968. "Housing Segregation, Negro Employment, and Metropolitan Decentralization," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 82(2), pages 175-197.
    33. Rachel Guillain & Julie Le Gallo & Céline Boîteux-Orain, 2006. "Changes in spatial and sectoral patterns of employment in Ile-de-France, 1978-1997," Post-Print halshs-00109434, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David C. Ribar, 2013. "Immigrants’ time use: a survey of methods and evidence," Chapters, in: Amelie F. Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Migration, chapter 20, pages 373-392, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Hubert Jayet & Glenn Rayp & Ilse Ruyssen & Nadiya Ukrayinchuk, 2016. "Immigrants’ location choice in Belgium," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 57(1), pages 63-89, July.
    3. K. Bruce Newbold & Darren M. Scott & Charles Burke, 2017. "Immigrant status and commute distance: an exploratory study based on the greater Golden Horseshoe," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 181-198, January.
    4. Fernández-Huertas Moraga, Jesús & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada & Saiz, Albert, 2019. "Immigrant locations and native residential preferences: Emerging ghettos or new communities?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 133-151.
    5. Daniel Chatman, 2014. "Explaining the “immigrant effect” on auto use: the influences of neighborhoods and preferences," Transportation, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 441-461, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Reichelt, Malte & Haas, Anette, 2015. "Commuting farther and earning more? : how employment density moderates workers commuting distance," IAB-Discussion Paper 201533, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    2. Teresa Casey & Christian Dustmann, 2008. "Intergenerational Transmission of Language Capital and Economic Outcomes," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(3), pages 4660-4687.
    3. Philip S. Morrison, 2005. "Unemployment and Urban Labour Markets," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(12), pages 2261-2288, November.
    4. Clark, William A. V. & Huang, Youqin & Withers, Suzanne, 2003. "Does commuting distance matter?: Commuting tolerance and residential change," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 199-221, March.
    5. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Bruno Decreuse & Morgane Laouénan & Alain Trannoy, 2016. "Customer Discrimination and Employment Outcomes: Theory and Evidence from the French Labor Market," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 107-160.
    6. Gautier, Pieter A. & Zenou, Yves, 2010. "Car ownership and the labor market of ethnic minorities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 392-403, May.
    7. Anna Damm & Michael Rosholm, 2010. "Employment effects of spatial dispersal of refugees," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 105-146, March.
    8. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/2tlvpn71ve888pnch88db9g683 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Kawata, Keisuke & Sato, Yasuhiro, 2012. "On-the-job search in urban areas," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 715-726.
    10. Miquel-Àngel García-López, 2010. "The Accessibility City. When Transport Infrastructure Matters in Urban Spatial Structure," Working Papers XREAP2010-01, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Feb 2010.
    11. Michiel van Leuvensteijn & Pierre Koning, 2006. "The Effect of Home-Ownership on Labour Mobility in the Netherlands," Chapters, in: Julián Messina & Claudio Michelacci & Jarkko Turunen & Gylfi Zoega (ed.), Labour Market Adjustments in Europe, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Taha Rashidi & Abolfazl Mohammadian & Frank Koppelman, 2011. "Modeling interdependencies between vehicle transaction, residential relocation and job change," Transportation, Springer, vol. 38(6), pages 909-932, November.
    13. Peter Huber & Klaus Nowotny & Julia Bock-Schappelwein, 2010. "Qualification Structure, Over- and Under-qualification of the Foreign Born in Austria and the EU," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 41226, April.
    14. Laurent Gobillon & Harris Selod & Yves Zenou, 2007. "The Mechanisms of Spatial Mismatch," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(12), pages 2401-2427, November.
    15. Jae Hong Kim, 2014. "Residential and job mobility: Interregional variation and their interplay in US metropolitan areas," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(13), pages 2863-2879, October.
    16. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Bruno Decreuse & Morgane Laouénan & Alain Trannoy, 2016. "Customer Discrimination and Employment Outcomes: Theory and Evidence from the French Labor Market," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 107-160.
    17. Patrick Bayer & Stephen L. Ross, 2006. "Identifying Individual and Group Effects in the Presence of Sorting: A Neighborhood Effects Application," Working papers 2006-13, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2009.
    18. Julie Beugnot & Olivier Charlot & Guy Lacroix, 2019. "Does promoting homeownership always damage labour market performances?," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 161-183, July.
    19. Michael Haan, 2008. "The Place of Place: Location and Immigrant Economic Well-being in Canada," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 27(6), pages 751-771, December.
    20. Thomas Bauer & Gil Epstein & Ira Gang, 2005. "Enclaves, language, and the location choice of migrants," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 18(4), pages 649-662, November.
    21. Anna Piil Damm, 2009. "Ethnic Enclaves and Immigrant Labor Market Outcomes: Quasi-Experimental Evidence," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(2), pages 281-314, April.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R15 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Econometric and Input-Output Models; Other Methods

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:47:y:2010:i:8:p:1663-1686. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.