Exploring Recent Trends in Immigrant Suburbanization

Central cities historically have been viewed as “ports of entry” welcoming new immigrants to the United States. Beginning in the 1970s, new immigrants began to settle in areas outside traditional ports of entry as economic opportunities moved to the suburbs and new suburban immigrant enclaves emerged. By the end of the 20th century, foreign-born suburbanites outnumbered foreign-born central city residents. This article relies on microdata from the U.S. Current Population Survey to identify the determinants of suburban location choice among foreign-born U.S. residents. The analysis includes a variety of controls for household-level socioeconomic characteristics, metropolitan area characteristics, and country of origin. Graphs displaying trends in suburbanization and location choice among U.S. immigrants, along with logit regression models of suburban destination, suggest that recent waves of foreign-born immigrants choose residential locations in conformance with spatial assimilation theory. The study also finds evidence that native and immigrant groups place a different value on the consumer amenities found in the central city and the transportation access and owneroccupied housing supply found in the suburbs. Trends in immigrant suburbanization follow trends in housing and gas prices. These trends have interacted with metropolitanspecific conditions to affect rates of suburbanization among foreign-born residents.