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

By Haya El Nasser and Paul Overberg, USA TODAY

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.


PARENTS: More of them moving in with kids
HOUSING: Americans straining to meet costs

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.

North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas are among the states gaining the most natives and immigrants from other states. Both groups also are moving in substantial numbers to Sun Belt counties in smaller metropolitan areas: Mecklenburg (Charlotte); Tarrant (Fort Worth); Richland (Columbia, S.C.); Cobb and Gwinnett (Atlanta).

"Hispanics are both aspiring to be in the American middle class and, according to this data, to a large degree they're succeeding," Frey says. Other findings:

• Immigration slowdown. The foreign-born population grew by about a half-million from 2006 to 2007, half as fast as in previous years this decade. It had been growing by an average 1 million a year since 2000.

Fourteen states, including traditional immigrant magnet states such as Illinois and New Jersey, had declines in their foreign-born population, Frey says.

"It's pretty clear that immigration has tanked in the last year, perhaps in response to the losses in employment opportunities," he says.

Research by the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that seeks immigration limits, also attributes the slowdown to a crackdown on the undocumented.

• Fewer new households. Only about 750,000 households were created from 2006 to 2007, compared with an average 1.3 million a year over the last decade.

The share of household heads under age 25 dropped from 5.4% in 2005 to 4.7% in 2007, says Casey Dawkins, co-director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech.

"It suggests that young householders may be delaying new household formation, living with parents longer in the face of rising housing costs," he says.

•More roommates. The share of non-family households made up of roommates, boarders and unmarried partners rose to 18.1% in 2007 from 15.9% in 2005.

•More Spanish speakers. At least one in five residents of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas spoke Spanish at home in 2007. About 12.3% of U.S. residents speak Spanish at home.

"While the nation has a higher share of Spanish speakers, they are still clustered in a handful of states," Frey says.

English is the only language spoken in 80% of homes.

"We are far from becoming a bilingual nation or Spanish-English society," Frey
--------------------------------

To post a comment about this article at the USA TODAY Online site follow this link:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/cen ... nsus_N.htm