• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.175-195
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• 1997

This study attempts to understand new immigrants' socio-economic adaptation by linking them with the restructuring economies in large US metropolitan areas. Selecting Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Atlanta, we examine the industrial distribution of employed Hispanic and Asian immigrant groups with respect to the industrial change experienced between 1980 and 1990, and residential concentration represented by higher location quotients. The findings are that new immigrant groups are employed in overall industrial sectors close to that of total population and their large residential concentrations are displayed near downtown as well as outlying areas. These suggest that new immigrant groups experience different socio-economic adaptation from those generalized in the previous European immigrants, concentrated in manufacturing sector and near downtown area. This study proposes that divergent economic restructuring across metropolitan areas and new immigrants' backgrounds should be considered for better understanding of immigrants' economic adaptation in the current economic restructuring and its spatial manifestation in the US contexts.