The Dual Role of Race and Immigration Among Ascending Neighborhoods in U.S. Metropolitan Areas

The racial/ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of immigrants to the United States has grown since the 1990s, along with growing neighborhood socioeconomic inequality. Few studies explain how race/ethnicity and immigration interact to influence neighborhoods’ socioeconomic ascent (increases in residents’ household income, rents, property values, educational and occupational attainment). We draw on two decades of Census microdata, 1990–2010, to create synthetic cohorts that allowed us to measure the interactions between race/ethnicity and immigration on neighborhood ascent. We find that Black immigrants contributed the most to socioeconomic ascent in predominantly Black neighborhoods, while non-Hispanic newcomers—both immigrant and U.S.-born—contribute the most to predominantly Hispanic ascendant neighborhoods. All combinations of White/nonwhite and immigrant/U.S.-born contribute to the ascent of White neighborhoods with White immigrant newcomers to the neighborhood having the highest SES. The presence of White residents increases in nonwhite ascendant neighborhoods, especially neighborhoods in new immigrant destinations. The foreign-born presence grew more in all non-ascendant neighborhoods relative to ascendant neighborhoods of all types. Our analysis shows that immigration influences neighborhood socioeconomic ascent differently across racial/ethnic groups and in neighborhoods with differing initial racial composition. Our findings underscore the need to account for both race/ethnicity and immigration in order to explain the population processes underlying neighborhood change.