Immigration, naturalization, and residential assimilation among asian americans in 1980

We investigate the residential assimilation of Asian-origin groups in the U.S., paying particular attention to socioeconomic characteristics, immigrant status, and ethnicity. Our primary goal is to disentangle the competing influence of the last two variables. Data from a special tabulation of the 1980 U.S. census (PUMS-F) allow us to express residential outcomes measured in the aggregate as a function of individual characteristics. We restrict our sample to Asian-origin householders and use OLS for our analysis of both pooled and separate group estimates of residential assimilation. Our results support the link between social mobility and spatial mobility in that Asian-origin groups translate their socioeconomic achievements into residential assimilation. Contrary to some interpretations of standard assimilation models, we find that duration of residence in the United States does not have a particularly strong influence on residential assimilation. The effect of immigrant status is overshadowed by that of ethnic group membership, a factor that points to the diversity of experiences and contexts of arrival for Asian Americans.