Gendered Spatial Patterns in Recent U.S. Immigration

Erin T. Hofmann, Utah State University
Elizabeth Reiter, Utah State University

In this paper, we describe county-level variations in the sex ratios of recent immigrant populations across the U.S. between 2000 and 2011. We find that, in 2000, women comprised an high proportion of recent immigrants in many northern and western areas of the U.S., while men comprised an unusually high proportion of recent immigrants in the Southeast. These geographic patterns have become even more pronounced in recent years. In the final version we will explore whether this pattern is driven by Latin American immigrants, and whether whether there are associations between gendered migration patterns and other types of geographic clustering, such as clusters by education and household type. Identifying gendered geographic patterns of immigration is a necessary first step to introducing a gendered perspective to theories on new immigration patterns in the U.S.