Sociologists Examine the Needs of South Philly’s Latino Immigrants

To study how immigrants incorporate into new communities, Penn researchers had to develop a unique survey strategy. “Immigrants are difficult to reach because they might be undocumented; they have often recently arrived,” says Professor of Sociology Emilio Parrado. “They work all the time. They’re highly mobile. And so they are generally underrepresented in standard surveys. We had to tailor our survey strategy and survey design to be able to reach them.”

Parrado, Associate Professor of Sociology Chenoa Flippen, Assistant Professor of of Sociology Amada Armenta, post-doc Heidy Sarabia, and doctoral candidate Edith Gutiérrez focused on the health needs and behaviors of the immigrants, their contact with local institutions, employment, changes to the neighborhood, and much more.

Parrado, who directs the Latin American and Latino Studies Program, and his colleagues have long been charting the immigrant experience in Philadelphia. According to United States Census Bureau estimates, more than 50,000 Latino immigrants live in the city, mostly concentrated in a pocket of South Philadelphia that was once a largely Italian neighborhood. The area’s migrant influx has presented a chance to better understand how immigrants settle in a new place.

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