First-generation immigrants bypass city for suburbs

An interesting change has happened lately, immigrants are moving directly to the suburbs and not first into cities. They are looking for good schools and jobs. DP

By Michael Hill, ASSOCIATED PRESS

WashingtonTimes.com: GLENVILLE, N.Y. Thiyagarajan Subramanian came to the United States and ended up in a contemporary colonial with a two-car garage. He skipped the sort of city living linked to immigration for more than a century.

Mr. Subramanian is typical of many immigrants across the country. They are more likely to bypass the cozy cocoon of urban enclaves to settle amid the plush lawns and strip malls of suburbia. Demographers tracking immigration trends say it's a signpost in a country simultaneously more diverse and more suburban.

It's happening coast to coast: from Iranians spread through California's sprawling Orange County to Virginia, where Koreans are settled among the pricey suburbs of Fairfax County. The trend is especially pronounced among Indians, a group thick with first-generation professionals such as Mr. Subramanian, 43, an information technology consultant who moved his family from India in 1995.

"I think they're the first ethnic group that the majority of whom have gone directly to the suburbs instead of following the traditional pattern of settling in the city and moving to the suburbs," said Kenneth Johnson, a demographer and professor of sociology at Loyola University in Chicago.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.