New York.- Old Places,New Places: Geographic Mobility of Dominicans in the U.S., a statistical studydocumenting theinternal mobility and geographic dispersion of the Dominicanpopulation in the United States, was released to the public on October 19th onthe CUNY Dominican Studies Institute (CUNY DSI).
Over the past fourdecades the Dominican population living in the U.S. has grown substantially.With a population of 204,360 in 1980 it has increased to reach a population of1.5 million in 2010. While the growth of the Dominican population in the U.S.has been consistent, the settlement patterns of the group have begun to shift.
By analyzing IPUMSharmonized American Community Survey (ACS) data, this paper illustrates howdemographic growth among Dominicans has been accompanied by a deconcentrationprocess where we see Dominicans moving in large numbers to states outside ofthe northeast, where the highest concentration of Dominicans have historicallyresided.
The methodology for thestudy consisted of disaggregating the Dominican population based on past year migrationstatus and nativity over the 2001-2011 period. Researchers compared Dominicansarriving from the Dominican Republic, identified as international migrants, andDominicans who have already been living in the U.S., identified as domesticmigrants. The differentiation of Dominican international migrants from Dominicanswho moved internally within the U.S. allowed researchers to generate separatesocioeconomic profiles for each group and compare their trajectories.
Major differences werefound between international and domestic migrants: (1) whereas international migrantssettle primarily in New York, many Dominicans already living in the U.S. arerelocating from New
York to other states inthe northeast and the south; (2) international migrants have generally attainedlower levels of education as compared to domestic migrants, especially amongfemales and when compared to second or later generation domestic migrants; and(3) average and median earnings were higher among non-migrants, followed bydomestic, and then international migrants.
Old Places, New Places:Geographic Mobility of Dominicans in the U.S., was co-authored by CUNY DSI Director,Dr. Ramona Hernández and CUNY DSI Research Associate, Sarah Marrara.