Pioneer Dispersion of Immigrants during the 1990s: Determinants and Origin Group Differentials

Douglas T. Gurak, Cornell University
Mary M. Kritz, Cornell University

For thirteen Hispanic, Asian, and Caribbean immigrant groups, this paper examines the process of immigrant dispersion during the 1990s, focusing on place factors associated with settlement in areas where no group members lived in 1990. The objective is to evaluate the relative importance of economic, demographic, social and co-ethnic correlates of pioneer settlement in new destinations and the extent to which these processes vary across immigrant groups. Using confidential decennial Census data, each of 741 labor markets are classified as unsettled or “empty” for each immigrant group if it had no members there in 1990. For each of the 13 groups, Zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) regressions are estimated to specify the characteristics of labor markets that received higher counts of pioneer settlers. The major determinants include distance from a group’s closest top-5 gateway, size of population in 1990, economic characteristics, native-born population growth, and the settlement history of other ethnic populations.