Heterolocalism, Social Networks, and Migration: Refugee Nodes and Networks in the Pacific Northwest

本研究计画将在太平洋西北部的一个都会区，测试规模对异质性空间理论的影响。这一新的理论表明，在某种程度上，美国城市的新移民可能会选择在广泛分散的地方定居，而不是在更集中的种族飞地，同时仍然保持他们的种族身份。这项研究将通过比较定居模式和维护身份的两个最大的群体，最近的难民现在居住在中心城市，郊区和小城镇内的大都市地区为中心的波特兰，俄勒冈州。 这两个群体是来自越南和前苏联的移民。 越南人于1970年代中期开始在该地区定居，现在已经站稳脚跟，而大多数在前苏联出生的移民只是在过去十年内才抵达。因此，这两个比较群体的选择是基于他们定居日期的差异，以及他们内部的多样性和比较种族，宗教和语言特征。本研究所采用的方法包括地图分析、问卷调查、结构化与非结构化访谈、参与观察等。其成果将包括提高对美国移民和难民安置的认识，以及一组比较地理数据，显示了1980年、1990年、2000年和2002年研究地区两个最大难民群体的定居模式。这项分析将基于人口普查数据、移民和归化局报告中列出的人口统计信息、学区入学数据以及项目团队与总部位于波特兰的移民和难民社区组织主任和工作人员密切合作提供的信息。由于最近的政治、环境和经济危机，全球有2300多万人流离失所，因此对难民重新安置的研究至关重要。在过去的四分之一世纪里，至少有230万移民搬迁到美国寻求新的生活。许多人选择在东海岸城市、芝加哥或加州城市的传统移民集中点定居。然而，在过去十年中，越来越多的难民移民到美国，他们已经搬到了较小的城市。 例如，在北方新英格兰、五大湖上游和太平洋西北部（这些地方长期以来都是由同质的欧美人口主导），最近的人口普查报告中记录了外国出生的居民数量的意外增长。本研究项目将侧重于这些新出现的多样性节点之一，以调查最近移民定居的地理和社会模式。

This research project will test the impact of scale on the spatial theory of heterolocalism in a metropolitan area in the Pacific Northwest. This new theory suggests that, to a degree unknown in the past, new migrants in U.S. cities may choose to settle in widely dispersed places rather than in more concentrated ethnic enclaves while still maintaining their ethnic identities. The research will test this theory by comparing the settlement patterns and maintenance of identity of the two largest groups of recent refugees now residing in the central city, suburbs, and small towns located within the metropolitan region centered on the city of Portland, Oregon. The two groups are migrants from Vietnam and from the former Soviet Union. Vietnamese began settling in the region in the mid-1970s and are now well established while the majority of migrants born in the former USSR have arrived only within the past decade. The selection of these two comparative groups, therefore, is based on differences in the dates of their settlement, as well as on their internal diversity and comparative racial, religious, and linguistic characteristics. Methodologies to be employed in this research include cartographic analysis, survey questionnaires, structured and unstructured interviews, and participant observation. Outcomes will include improved knowledge of immigration and refugee settlement in the U.S., and a set of comparative geographic data showing the settlement patterns of the two largest refugee groups in the study area for the years 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2002. This analysis will be based on census data, demographic information listed in Immigration and Naturalization Service reports, school district enrollment data, and information provided by the close collaboration of the project team with the Director and staff of the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization headquartered in Portland.Globally, the study of refugee resettlement is critically important with more than 23 million displaced people on earth as a result of recent political, environmental, and economic crises. At least 2.3 million of these migrants have relocated to the U.S. in the past quarter century to seek new lives. Many choose to settle in traditional nodes of immigrant concentrations in East Coast cities, Chicago, or urban California. However, ever increasing numbers of refugee newcomers to the U.S. during the past decade have relocated to smaller cities. In northern New England, the upper Great Lakes, and the Pacific Northwest, for example (places long dominated by homogeneous Euro-American populations) unexpected increases in the number of foreign-born residents were recently documented in census reports. This research project will focus on one of these newly emerging nodes of diversity to investigate the geographic and social patterns of settlement of recent migrants.