New Destinations and the Changing Geography of Immigrant Incorporation

Abstract

While nearly three decades of new immigrant destination research has vastly enriched our understanding of diversity in contexts of reception within the United States, there is a striking lack of consensus as to the implications of geographic dispersion for immigrant incorporation. We review the literature on new destinations as they relate to ongoing debates regarding spatial assimilation and segmented assimilation; the influence of coethnic communities on immigrant incorporation; and the extent to which growth in immigrant populations stimulates perceived threat, nativism, and reactive ethnicity. In each of these areas, the sheer diversity of new destinations undermines consensus about their impact. Coupled with the continuous evolution in immigrant destinations over time, most dramatically but not limited to the impact of the Great Recession, we argue for the need to move beyond the general concept of new destinations and focus more directly on identifying the precise mechanisms through which the local context of reception shapes immigrant incorporation, where the historical presence of coethnic communities is but one of many dimensions considered, together with other labor, housing, and educational structures.