Did We Make It? Will We Make It? A Typology of Suburban Immigrant Neighborhoods

Emily A. Shrider, Ohio State University

The US immigration landscape has shifted significantly since the early 1990s so that now many immigrants are moving to suburbs and urban areas outside the traditional immigrant gateways. Although assimilationists and segmented assimilationists have generally seen suburban residence as an indication that immigrants have been or will be successful in assimilating, population shifts have changed the characteristics of suburbia, making it possible that suburban neighborhoods are no different economically or racially than urban neighborhoods. While there has been plenty of attention paid to the experience of immigrants in the new destinations, very little attention has been paid to the characteristics of the suburban neighborhoods in which immigrants are now living. This research seeks to fill that gap by developing a typology of suburban immigrant neighborhoods, which should provide insight into where suburbanized immigrants are living now, and what that theoretically means for their assimilation prospects.