Immigrants follow U.S.-borns' path — often to Sun Belt

USA TODAY has analyzed the Census data and shows where immigrants are moving to and the reasons. It discovered the places and reasons are the same as for other Americans. A very interesting report. DP

By Haya El Nasser and Paul Overberg, USA TODAY

usatoday.com: Foreign-born Americans are moving from place to place in patterns similar to those of the U.S.-born, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Census data out today offering the first detailed look at migration since the beginning of the decade.

The foreign-born, who in the 1990s concentrated in enclaves in large metropolitan areas, are increasingly following the same trajectory as natives. They're often leaving congested, expensive coastal cities for smaller, middle-class metro areas where schools are better and housing is cheaper.

It's the first time since the 2000 Census that such detail on the movement of Americans in and out of thousands of places has been collected.

The 2007 numbers open a window on the effects of a tumultuous decade marked by terrorist attacks, natural disasters, globalization and a housing boom and collapse.

"The new immigrants, especially Hispanic immigrants, are assimilating geographically much more quickly than at the turn of the previous century," says William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution.

"They're more quick to leave the inner city and go to the suburbs," he says.
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