Immigrant suburbanisation and the shifting geographic structure of metropolitan segregation in the United States

Abstract

This study investigates immigrant suburbanisation trends over the past decade in the metropolitan USA, focusing on how suburbanisation affects the residential segregation of foreign-born populations. Using 2000–2012 data from the decennial census and American Community Survey, it tracks the suburban settlement patterns of 17 country-of-origin groups. It uses a methodological approach that decomposes metropolitan segregation into within and between city/suburb components. The findings indicate that most immigrant groups rapidly suburbanised during the 2000s, though there remain large differences in suburbanisation rates among country-of-origin groups. Immigrant suburbanites tend to be less segregated from US-born whites than are their coethnic counterparts in large cities. Suburbanisation continues to blur the city/suburb divide, which now accounts for a small share of the segregation experienced by most groups. At the metro level, suburbanisation is associated with lower levels of immigrant segregation even after controlling for relevant metropolitan characteristics. These findings are consistent with spatial assimilation, though trends over time suggest a more complicated picture. While immigrants are gaining access to the suburbs, most groups experienced increasing segregation at the same time they were rapidly suburbanising. This is due to increasing segregation within the suburbs, which often offset segregation declines occurring within large cities. These findings underscore the importance of understanding the underlying and often countervailing city/suburb contributions to metropolitan segregation.