Immigrant Residential Segregation in the U.S. in Established Immigrant Gateways and New Destinations, 1990-2000

Julie Park, University of Maryland
John Iceland, Pennsylvania State University

In the 1990s, many immigrants bypassed established gateways like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Miami. Instead, they migrated to other metropolitan areas across the U.S., creating new immigrant destinations. In this paper, we examine how segregation and spatial assimilation might differ between established gateways and new destinations. Are immigrants in new destinations segregated at the same levels as those in established gateways? How does this vary by race/ethnicity and year of entry? Did both types of immigrant destinations experience similar trends in segregation during the 1990s? Using restricted data from the 1990 and 2000 Censuses, we calculate levels of dissimilarity and isolation by race/ethnicity, nativity and year of entry for these two gateway types. Our preliminary findings show that segregation levels are consistently lower in new destinations. However, both types experienced increases in segregation over time. Using multivariate models, we examine what factors explain these patterns.