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Title: The Shifting Destinations of Metropolitan Migrants in the U.S., 2005-2011

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2017

Abstract: Recent estimates that central cities are growing faster than their suburbs in the U.S. have captured the attention of both academics and the popular media. Many commentators have used these numbers to claim that internal migration trends in the U.S. have reached a turning point, in which migrants increasingly prefer urban residences to suburban locales. However, these assertions often rely on problematic definitions of city and suburb, and pay too little attention to demographic variations among migrants. This paper examines whether recent internal migrants in the U.S. are choosing closer-in destinations, drawing from microdata samples from the American Community Survey since 2005. During this period, there is an overall trend of migrants to the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. choosing to migrate closer to the metropolitan core. However, this trend varies significantly among major demographic groups; whereas younger, single, educated, and white-collar migrants show evidence of a return to the core, migrants who are blue-collar, less-educated, older, and with families remain more suburban. In turn, this analysis suggests that overall trends of back to the city migration are producing considerable divergence in the metropolitan destinations of different demographic groups.

Url: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/grow.12187/full

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Walker, Kyle, E

Periodical (Full): Growth and Change

Issue: 4

Volume: 48

Pages: 532-551

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Land Use/Urban Organization, Migration and Immigration

Countries:

IPUMS NHGIS NAPP IHIS ATUS Terrapop