Mobility and the children of Langley Park's immigrant families

Journal of Negro Education, The, Winter 2003 by Hanna, William J

Unfortunately, the economic situation of immigrant families from Central America and Mexico is more stressed than these figures suggest, due to out-of-area family obligations. Sending money back to the home country is a strong expectation, and the weekend lines at money-sending companies are long (see Hardman, 2002, for a study of the phenomenon among Mexicans in the United States).

Families on the Move

Langley Park's children move in and out of school so frequently that fewer than half of them have educational continuity for the full school year, and an even smaller portion complete a full year and then return to the same school. For many people, the neighborhood is a way station for newcomers to the United States or those leaving central city Washington, D.C., and other areas. Their move into the neighborhood may have resulted from the push of gentrification elsewhere or the pull of a Central American community and inexpensive living. Their plan to move out of the neighborhood is almost never out of mind. Indeed, many of the people who have recently arrived in the United States are de facto binationals who have not relinquished their emotional, economic, social, and other ties to the former homeland. One aspect of this is the regular remittance of funds home, often to build a house in one's hometown. The emotional anchor is not to the current neighborhood but to the former national home and therefore moving may not be emotionally difficult. Of course, moving in and out of neighborhoods can cost social capital, as newly developed networks are disrupted (Hagan, MacMillan, & Wheaton, 1996).

Mobility data for Langley Park are not available from the 2000 Census, but the larger reported picture appears to be reflected at the local level. Nationally, according to a special Bureau of the Census study (Schachter, 2001a), about 16% of respondents moved within the study year, about half of them within the same county. However, certain characteristics are associated with a higher rate. For example, the rate is 21% for Hispanic Americans, 33% for renters, and 34% for those 20-29 years of age. Langley Park's Hispanic Americans are disproportionately renters in their 20s. In another Census study, Hispanic American renters over 15 years of age were found to have the shortest average residence duration, 1.9 years, compared with 5.2 years for all respondents (Hansen, 1998).

Consider several indicators of mobility in Langley Park. Of the four 1998 founding members of the neighborhood nonprofit organization Action Langley Park-a partnership of neighborhood residents and their university and regional allies-three have moved out of the area. Of the 100 addresses on the organization's initial mailing list, approximately two-thirds are no longer valid for mailing. One of the two large apartment complexes in the neighborhood, with over 700 units, has approximately a 50% turnover each year. The Census data, again reporting on the basis only of those who completed the forms, indicate that within the last five years 3 of 10 neighborhood respondents came from out of the state or country and another 3 of 10 moved to the neighborhood from within the state. Presumably, the estimated 20% of residents who were not counted had a much higher residential mobility rate.