Is the Southeast Different? Interstate Migration and Geographic Assimilation of Hispanics

Alexis Silver, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Ted Mouw, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jacqueline Hagan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Amidst a very visible increase in Hispanic migration to the Southeast United States, a less conspicuous, yet far more numerous migration of non-Hispanic Whites and Blacks has occurred within the past two decades. Despite general population growth in the area, very little research has comparatively analyzed the migration flows of distinct racial and ethnic migrants to the Southeast. Merging data from the 2005 American Community Survey with the PUMS census data from 1980, 1990, and 2000, to track spatial patterns of immigration to the Southeast U.S. Moreover, we test whether Hispanic spatial migration patterns to the Southeast differ from Hispanic migration patterns to other areas of the country, and from non-Hispanic migration patterns. The data will allow us to track whether Hispanics are spatially assimilating to the residential movements of non-Hispanics, or whether the Hispanic migration to the Southeast is a distinct migration phenomenon.