Ethnic Differences in Settlement Patterns Among Hispanics in New York City

• Activity Number: 369
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 15, 2002 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Government Statistics*
• Author(s): A. Lobo*+ and Ronald Flores and Joseph Salvo
• Affiliation(s): NYC Department of City Planning and St. Lawrence University and NYC Department of City Planning
• Keywords: Hispanic settlement ; Immigration ; Ethnicity ; New York City

Abstract

Latin American immigration to New York has greatly diversified the city's Hispanic population. Puerto Ricans, the traditionally dominant Hispanic group, comprised just over one-half of the city's Hispanics in 1990 and 37% in 2000; Dominicans, Colombians, and Ecuadorians accounted for most of the remainder. Each of these groups has its own unique social and economic characteristics, as well as its own distinctive migration/immigration experience. While much scholarship has focused on how structural differences between European ethnic groups have manifested themselves in settlement patterns, little attention has been given to variation among Hispanic ethnic groups settling in the same housing market. We show that distinct Hispanic ethnic settlement patterns exist. The process of settlement is unique for each ethnic group, with race, income, access to public housing, neighborhood structure, and prior settlement patterns playing different roles for each group.