New Citizens and Internal Migration

Karen A. Woodrow-Lafield, no affiliation

This analysis explores foreign-born settlement and internal migration as portrayed by changing residence before the date of naturalization. The data are drawn from a project that utilized linked immigrant and naturalization records as a multi-cohort retrospective data source. As the foreign-born population has increased, subsequent migrations are of greater relevance, especially because the foreign-born population has been concentrated in certain states and metropolitan areas and is becoming more dispersed to nontraditional receiving areas. The primary focus is on migration experiences of immigrants who were adults at lawful admission. These findings are discussed in the context of recent research on U.S. population redistribution, especially from the 2000 Census.