Immigrant banking and financial exclusion in Greater Boston

Abstract

Immigrants' lack of financial integration has been explained by individual characteristics including education, income, legal status and English ability, with little attention given to the geographic dimensions of banking. This article builds on the literature on financial exclusion and ecology to investigate the spatial relationships between Immigrant settlement patterns in Greater Boston in 2000 and accessibility to various types of financial institutions. The analysis reveals important differences among the 10 largest immigrant groups, with poorer and more isolated immigrants disproportionately exposed to check-cashers and pawn-brokers. Immigration interacts with race and class to create a complex intra-urban financial ecology of exclusion.