Collaborative Research: Enclaves, Labor Markets, and the Locational Choices of U.S. Immigrants in Economic Boom and Bust

外国出生的美国人口比例上升到几乎创纪录的比例，2007年为12.6%。越来越多的美国移民在加利福尼亚州和其他传统的门户州以外定居。在过去20年里，南部和中西部的移民人口迅速增长，这两个地区此前相对没有受到半个世纪前开始的移民潮的影响。这些地区的人口增长源于自然增长，但更重要的是来自土著出生人口的迁入。由信贷推动的繁荣吸引了许多移民来到这些新的地方，现在已经失败了。迁移行为也发生了变化。越来越少的人(包括移民和土生土长的人)跨越州界移民。移民人数也有所放缓。一些经历了人口快速增长的州现在正面临人口下降。这项研究项目将记录外国出生的移民在该国的定居模式，并将他们与本地出生的人口进行比较。调查人员将专门调查在美国出生和在外国出生的移民制度，并特别感兴趣的是分析这两种制度如何随着时间的推移而变化，特别是2008年至2010年的经济危机。他们将在最近的经济衰退背景下将移民在美国境内的流动与在美国出生的人的流动进行比较，特别强调确定在外国出生的工人和在美国出生的工人是否以同样的方式对劳动力市场信号做出反应。调查人员将检验这一假设，即移民将以类似于在美国出生的工人的方式在美国境内移民，以应对当地的经济危机，将高失业率地区留在就业前景更好的地区。他们还将寻求确定移民是否会更不愿意离开移民飞地，以及当他们真的搬到这些飞地时，他们是否会被吸引到这些飞地。通过研究移民对同一种族飞地的吸引力和就业机会的地理位置的反应，通过考虑这些反应如何因技能、教育水平以及种族而异，通过考虑在最近的经济困难时期移民行为可能与20世纪90年代总体繁荣时期发生的不同，调查人员将解决劳动力市场地理和种族飞地之间作为移民制度驱动力的核心理论紧张关系。该研究项目的学术价值将来自于对其在整个经济周期内对移民内部移徙的影响的衡量。更广泛的积极影响将包括通过学术和更实用的媒体，经常和及时地发布关于移民在这次衰退期间不断变化的定居、地理和就业情况及其后果的信息。该项目还将为本科生和研究生以及博士后研究员提供教育和培训机会。

The foreign-born share of the U.S. population has risen to almost a record proportion, 12.6 percent in 2007. Immigrants to the U.S. increasingly are settling outside California and other traditional gateway states. In the last 20 years, immigrant populations have grown rapidly in the South and Midwest, regions that previously had been relatively untouched by the upswing in immigration that began half a century ago. Population growth in these areas stemmed from natural increase but more importantly from the in-migration of the native born. The credit-fueled boom that drew many immigrants to these new locations now has fizzled. Migration behavior also has changed. Fewer people (both immigrants and native-born) are migrating across state lines. Immigration also has slowed. Some states that had experienced rapid population growth now are facing population declines. This research project will document the settlement patterns of foreign-born immigrants within the country and compare them to the native-born population. The investigators will look specifically at US-born and foreign-born migration systems within the U.S. and are especially interested in analyzing how these two systems change over time, with a particular emphasis on the economic crisis of 2008-2010. They will compare the movement of immigrants within the US with movements of U.S.-born people in the context of the recent recession, with special emphasis given to determining whether foreign-born and U.S.-born workers respond to labor market signals in the same way. The investigators will test the hypothesis that immigrants will migrate within the U.S. in response to local economic crises in ways much like U.S.-born workers, leaving areas of high unemployment for areas with better job prospects. They also will seek to determine whether immigrants will be more reluctant to leave immigrant enclaves and that they will be drawn to these enclaves when they do move.By examining how migrants respond to the pull of enclaves of people from the same ethnic group and the geography of employment opportunities, by considering how these responses vary by skill and education level as well as by ethnic group, and by considering how migration behavior may differ in more recent economic hard times from what occurred in the generally prosperous era of the 1990s, the investigators will address a core theoretical tension between the geography of labor markets and ethnic enclaves as drivers of migration systems. The project's intellectual merit of this research will result from the measurement of their effects on immigrant internal migration across the economic cycle. Positive broader impacts will include the frequent and timely release of information on the evolving settlement geography and employment of immigrants during this recession and its aftermath through both scholarly and more applied media. The project also will provide education and training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students and a postdoctoral researcher.