Immigrant Churning through Gateway Cities: Foreign-Born Flows In and Out of Los Angeles and New York 1975-2000

James R. Elliott, Tulane University

I use 1980 and 1990 PUMS data to examine immigrant churning to and through Los Angeles and New York. Results indicate that immigrant concentration in these gateway centers has resulted primarily from internal migration of foreign-born residents already in the country and that this “new churning” has contributed to the number of immigrants out-migrating from these gateway centers to elsewhere in the United States. Results also indicate that younger, less-advantaged immigrants are more likely to out-migrate from these centers than older, more-advantaged immigrants. These findings illuminate how gateway cities continue to shape the nature and extent of immigrant flows to and from secondary U.S. destinations.