Charting the Age of Immigrant Populations in U.S. Urban Areas, 1990-2000

Elizabeth Fussell, Tulane University

Immigration is now an important source of urban population growth in U.S. making it increasingly important to distinguish between immigrant populations and their characteristics. A critical question is how new immigrant urban populations differ from older immigrant urban populations in their characteristics and needs. One key attribute is the foreign-born population’s average length of U.S. residence. We develop a typology of nativity-specific urban-immigrant populations characterized by their duration in the U.S., the percentage that has in the previous five years and the change in these measures between 1990 and 2000. We develop several typologies: 1) old urban-immigrant enclaves that are not receiving a new inflow; 2) old urban-immigrant enclaves that are receiving a new inflow; 3) young urban-immigrant enclaves that have emerged during the 1990s due to new immigrant flows and 4) young urban-immigrant enclaves that have emerged during the 1990s due to older immigrant flows to new destinations.