Immigration and Neighborhood Change: Methodological Possibilities for Future Research

Abstract

The recent settlement of immigrant populations into a wider range of geographies and communities across the United States raises new questions about the dynamics of residential segregation and complicates assumptions about how neighborhoods change—or don't—and why. While multiple theories attempt to explain the relationship between race/ethnicity, immigration, and neighborhood change, sociological examinations have been limited by the lack of systematic and frequently collected data. That is, the residential churn of neighborhoods, particularly in the market for rental housing where racial/ethnic minorities and immigrants predominate, often outpaces analysts’ ability to gather cross–neighborhood and cross–city data. In this essay we describe how online sources can help answer questions about race/ethnicity, immigration, and neighborhoods by providing large amounts of readily updatable data. An array of platforms designed to provide homeseekers with information about their housing options can also be used by sociologists for making claims about neighborhood change across multiple geographies. We review recent research that uses online data and describe an ongoing study by the authors that examines trends in the settlement patterns of immigrants and the rental housing market across the 50 largest MSAs in the United States. Online data sources can more accurately capture immigration and neighborhood processes, yielding better theories about the impact of immigration on neighborhood change.