Marriage Influences Immigrants’ Cohesiveness

The traditional idea that immigrants cluster together in neighborhoods with their countrymen after coming to the United States and move away after achieving economic success is far from universal. New research from the University of Washington indicates that who immigrants marry or partner with has a strong influence on where they live.

The study, published in the current issue of Urban Geography, was authored by Dr. Mark Ellis, a UW geography professor, Dr. Richard Wright of Dartmouth College and Dr. Virginia Parks of the University of Chicago.

The study focused on the eight largest immigrant groups in the Los Angeles area — Chinese, Filipinos, Guatemalans, Iranians, Koreans, Mexicans, Salvadorans and Vietnamese. Mexicans comprised the largest immigrant group, with nearly 1.7 million individuals in 1990, more than six times the size of the next largest group, Filipinos.

“Our research shows that immigrants are partnering with members of other immigrant groups and native-born Americans,� says Ellis, the study’s lead author. “When people talk about immigrants as ‘them’ and Americans as ‘us,’ they need to realize that these two groups are quite mixed together and are not separate populations.�

Among other findings, the study showed that Mexicans were the least likely to live in highly clustered neighborhoods, and nearly a quarter of them partnered outside their group. Chinese, Iranians and Vietnamese were the groups mostly like to live among their countrymen. Guatemalans had the highest rate of marrying or partnering outside their group (36 percent), while Koreans had the lowest rate (13 percent).

“I would be floored if the results would be substantially different in other parts of the country. The rates might be different, but the direction in trends of mixing would be the same,� Ellis says.

— Diverse staff reports