Understanding the Heterogeneous Residential Patterns across Asian Ethnic Groups and across Places

Hannah Lee, University of Washington, Seattle

Using 2010 U.S. decennial census and American Community Survey data, this descriptive analysis explores residential patterns of the six largest Asian ethnic groups – Chinese, Asian Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese – across fifty-seven U.S. metropolitan areas, which are categorized into seven immigrant gateway types. This study bridges two groups of literature – one that has primarily focused on residential patterns across Asian subgroups in only traditional gateways and another that has largely examined segregation levels across new and traditional destinations for only the broad Asian category. The findings reveal the need to examine neighborhood patterns and characteristics for distinct Asian subgroups rather than the pan-ethnic grouping; beyond the oft-studied large metropolitan areas; and with more contextualized immigrant gateway categories. Importantly, the results highlight the importance of understanding settlement dynamics at the intersection of a group’s immigration history and a metropolitan area’s ecological structure as an immigrant gateway.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 268. Understudied Racial Populations