Immigration, Internal Migration, and Local Mobility in the U.S.

Book excerpt: This volume provides an important assembly of research findings for all who are interested either in changing or reinforcing present immigration policy. Both comprehensive and up-to-date, the study of the demographic, economic, and social interaction between immigration and internal mobility in the U.S. is based on a fresh analysis of the most recent data from all major available sources. Covering the past century through the present, the research reflects the concerns and problems of communities that receive migrants, as well as those of the migrants themselves. It provides a factual basis for negotiation between the strong demands for liberalized immigration laws and the equally strong public reaction toward unauthorized immigration. Emphasis is placed upon metropolitan areas, and their central cities and suburban communities. The authors study the role of mobility in neighborhood 'turnover' from one ethnic group to another, and how mobility both sustains and weakens clustering by income class, and individual motives for mobility. They find that the hypothesis of the 'healthy immigrant' does not extend into, but is in fact reversed, in old age. The book documents how the long-term economic and social adjustment of immigrants is highly dependent upon their skill level and education at time of entry, and discusses the implications of unauthorized immigration. This multidisciplinary and highly readable volume will appeal to demographers, economists and public policy specialists, as well as academics in labor and industrial economics, sociology, and geography.