Residential Choices of the Newly Arrived Foreign Born: Spatial Patterns and the Implications for Assimilation

William A.V. Clark, University of California, Los Angeles
Shila Patel, University of California, Irvine

The preponderance of work on the assimilation of the foreign-born makes only passing reference to their spatial patterns. This study uses data from the 1990 PUMS data, to be extended with the 2000 data, to examine the residential choices of the newly arrived (since 1985) foreign born and to re-examine the evidence for spatial assimilation. While the central city continues to receive lower income immigrants with lower levels of human capital there are also professionals arriving in the central city. Similarly, the suburbs, at least in this case study, receive both households with lower levels of human capital and professionals. The spatial patterns are more complex than in the past and the central city suburban dichotomy may be increasingly questionable as a measure of spatial assimilation. We postulate that this may become increasingly so in our multi-nodal metropolitan areas