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The predominant post-1965 immigrant groups have established distinctive settlement areas in many American cities and suburbs. These areas are generally understood in terms of an "immigrant enclave" model in which ethnic neighborhoods in central cities serve relatively impoverished new arrivals as a potential base for eventual spatial assimilation with the white majority. This model, and the "ethnic community" model, are evaluated here. In the ethnic community model, segregated settlement can result from group preferences even when spatial assimilation is otherwise feasible. Analysis of the residential patterns of the largest immigrant groups in New York and Los Angeles shows that most ethnic neighborhoods can be interpreted as immigrant enclaves. In some cases, however, living in ethnic neighborhoods is unrelated to economic constraints, indicating a positive preference for such areas. Suburban residence does not necessarily imply living outside of ethnic neighborhoods. Indeed, for several groups the suburban enclave provides an alternative to assimilation-it is an ethnic community in a relatively high-status setting.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD has long been Considered a key facet of immigrant life. Despite dispute over the importance of neighborhoods for the average urban resident (Kasarda and Janowitz 1974; Logan and Molotch 1987; Wellman 1979; Wirth 1938), there is wide agreement that neighborhoods continue to have an important function for new arrivals. This is particularly evident for people whose customs or language set them apart from the majority population. A longestablished line of thought holds that concentrated immigrant settlement areas arise and are maintained because they meet newcomers' needs for affordable housing, family ties, a familiar culture, and help in finding work (e.g., Thomas and Znaniecki [1927] 1974). We call attention to another kind of ethnic neighborhood, one based more on choice than on constraints.
According to the well-known model of "spatial assimilation" (Massey 1985), segregation is natural as a group enters the United States. In the beginning, people's limited market resources and ethnically bound cultural and social capital are mutually reinforcing; they work in tandem to sustain ethnic neighborhoods. But these are transitional neighborhoods-they represent a practical and temporary phase in the incorporation of new groups into American society. Their residents search for areas with more amenities as soon as their economic situations improve, their outlooks broaden, and they learn to navigate daily life...