Journal Article

The Changing Neighborhood Contexts of the Immigrant Metropolis

Stults, Brian J., Alba, Richard D., Logan, John R.

2000

Overview

To understand the impacts of large-scale immigration on neighborhood contexts, we employ locational-attainment models, in which two characteristics of a neighborhood, its average household income and the majority group's percentage among its residents, are taken as the dependent variables and a number of individual and household characteristics, such as race/ethnicity and household composition, form the vector of independent variables. Models are estimated separately for major racial/ethnic populations — whites, blacks, Asians, and Latinos — in five different metropolitan regions of immigrant concentration — Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and San Francisco. In the cross section, the findings largely uphold the well-known model of spatial assimilation, in that socioeconomic status, assimilation level, and suburban residence are all strongly linked to residence in neighborhoods displaying greater affluence and with a greater number of non-Hispanic whites. Yet when the results are considered longitudinally, by comparing them with previously estimated models for 1980, the consistency with spatial-assimilation theory is no longer so striking. The impact of immigration is evident in the changing racial/ethnic composition of the neighborhoods of all groups, but especially for those where Asians and Latinos reside.

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press,University of North Carolina Press,Oxford University Press
• Subject: Acculturation / African Americans / Asian Americans / Asians / Assimilation (Sociology) / Attainment / Changes / Chicago, Illinois / Cities / Cultural assimilation / Cultures and civilizations / Demographic aspects / Demographic Change / Dwellings / Ethnic Diversity / Ethnic Groups / Ethnic relations. Racism / Ethnicity / Family Income / Frey, William / Hispanic Americans / Hispanics / Household income / Housing / Immigrant assimilation / Immigrants / Immigration / Logan, John / Los Angeles, California / Majority groups / Metropolitan areas / Miami, Florida / Minority Groups / Neighborhood / Neighborhood Change / Neighborhoods / Neighbourhoods / New York City, New York / Race / Racial Composition / Racial Segregation / Residential Patterns / Residents / San Francisco, California / Social Environment / Social Mobility / Sociodemographic Characteristics / Socioeconomic factors / Socioeconomic status / Socioeconomics / Sociology / Spatial Analysis / Spatial assimilation theory / State Schools / State Universities / Suburbs / U.S.A / USA / Variables / White people / Whites