Suburbanization Patterns of Racial and Ethnic Groups

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The United States continues to be a multiracial and multiethnic society, standing out among industrial societies in the magnitude of continuing waves of immigration and in the depth of concern over social relations among ethnic and racial groups. In a pattern at variance with the past, racial and ethnic minorities are increasingly found in the suburbs of metropolitan areas, rather than their central cities. This project addresses the significance of this trend by studying the suburbanization patterns for a wide range of racial/ethnic groups in five major metropolitan areas. The study goes well beyond past research on suburbanization by focusing on differences among the suburban places to which different groups gain access. It also examines differences within major racial/ethnic categories (for instance, between the Chinese and Japanese among Asians). The analysis will investigate how minority-group members attain residence in places with characteristics that affect positively the quality of life and life chances of their residents. The investigators will estimate models that view locational outcomes as a function of the socioeconomic, assimilation, and life-cycle characteristics of individuals, and will test whether these models vary by ethnic group and across metropolitan areas. Further, the investigators will analyze the ability of individuals to "convert" their socioeconomic and assimilation characteristics into favorable residenti allocations.