Abstract
This paper examines the economic impact of Hispanic immigration on two major metropolitan areas: Miami and Los Angeles. More specifically, I examine the effect of Hispanic immigrants on the employment of African American citizens with similar backgrounds in those areas. Miami and Los Angeles have been facing Hispanic immigrant influx for decades without major economic adjustments on the economy. Many researchers discuss that the reasons for immigrants focusing on certain areas are due to the language barriers being mitigated, which makes settling for them easier (Mason, 2016). In determining the impact of Hispanic immigration in these areas, I control for relevant factors such as wages, unemployment, crime rates, gender, age, experience, and education. Using pooled cross-sectional data, I find that the wages of Hispanic immigrants are lower than the African American citizens’ in these areas, therefore they are not perfect substitutes for each other.
