Population Movement, Diversity, Inequality
Immigration and migration; the racial, ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic composition of populations and inequalities therein; health disparities
The surge in immigration since legislative changes in 1965 has altered the racial and ethnic composition of the US population. Although the US has been a nation of immigrants from its beginning, immigration increased dramatically after 1965, and the origin of the flows changed considerably, shifting from Europe to Latin America and Asia. The US destination of immigrants has also changed considerably. As many Latino immigrants regularized their status in the 1980s and 1990s through the legalization programs of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, they sought new destinations and new labor markets, migrating internally to cities, small towns, and rural areas throughout the south, including North Carolina, where shifts in the global economy created new forms of deindustrialization and economic investment.
CPC fellows use data from the US Census and the American Community Survey, to explore the most recent migration patterns of Latinos and non-Latinos (2000-2007), and are revealing a reversal of the convergence evident in prior decades. Other research using the same sources explore how the changes in race/ethnic classification may provide greater insight into the diversity of the US population.
Racial and ethnic differences in residential mobility shape local patterns of segregation. Research at CPC involves developing spatial analytic strategies to consider characteristics of the local neighborhood and also surrounding, or extralocal, neighborhoods as potential determinants of individual mobility decisions.
Another topic of research by CPC fellows in this theme is the economic impact of immigration on places of destination, with efforts to enumerate the costs and benefits associated with the growing Hispanic population in North Carolina – their contributions to taxes, the supply of cost-effective labor, the cost competitiveness of some key industries, and the potential to depress wage levels of non-Hispanics.
Related Fellows:
- Clare Barrington
- Margaret E. Bentley
- Richard E. Bilsborrow
- Peter A. Coclanis
- Glen H. Elder, Jr.
- Barbara Entwisle
- Penny Gordon-Larsen
- Clark Gray
- Jacqueline M. Hagan
- Kathleen Mullan Harris
- Amy H. Herring
- Jon M. Hussey
- Pamela Jagger
- James H. Johnson, Jr.
- Arne L. Kalleberg
- Michelle Mendez
- Margarita Mooney
- Ted Mouw
- Shuwen Ng
- Anthony D. Perez
- Krista M. Perreira
- Klara Peter
- Whitney Robinson
- Eleanor Seaton
Related Research:
- Emerging Disparities in Chronic Disease Risk
- Gene-Environment Interactions and Weight Gain
- ONEdata - Obesity & Neighborhood Environment Database
- Socioeconomic Disparities in Young Adult Health
- The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health
