This chapter examines the locational distribution of immigrant groups with an emphasis both on diversity among nationalities and types of migration, and on the unequal distribution of the foreign-born population in space. The roots of the locational patterns of immigrants arriving today are often found in events that took place earlier in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The settlement decisions of contemporary immigrants are decisively affected by the ethnic concentrations established by their compatriots in the past. A first significant factor was geographical propinquity. For other foreign laborers, the decisive factor was recruitment either in the home country or at ports of entry. Pioneer migrants — whether settling close to places of arrival, following labor recruiters inland, or charting an independent course through farming and urban trade in different locations — had a decisive influence on later migrants. Once a group settled in a certain place, the destination of later cohorts from the same country often became a foregone conclusion. Migration is a network-driven process, and the operation of kin and friendship ties is nowhere more effective than in guiding new arrivals toward pre-existing ethnic communities. This process may continue indefinitely and accounts for the high concentration of most foreign groups in certain regions of the country and their near absence from others. The influence of preexisting networks on locational patterns is decisive among contemporary labor migrants because they are guided not by recruiting agents but by spontaneous individual and family decisions, usually based on the presence in certain places of kin and friends who can provide shelter and assistance. Exceptions to this pattern are found most often among other types of immigrants. Professionals, such as physicians, engineers, and scientists, tend to rely less on the assistance of preexisting ethnic communities than on their own skills and qualifications. They often come only after securing job offers from U.S. employers and tend to be more dispersed throughout the country than manual labor migrants. Entrepreneurial minorities tend to settle in large urban areas that provide close proximity to markets and sources of labor. Like working-class migrants, foreign entrepreneurs are often found in the areas of principal ethnic concentration because of the cheap labor, protected markets, and access to credit that they make available. Finally, the early locational patterns of political refugees and seekers of political asylum are often decided for them by government authorities and private resettlement agencies. In the past, the goal of official resettlement programs was to disperse refugee groups away from their points of arrival to facilitate their cultural assimilation and attenuate the economic burden they are supposed to represent for receiving areas. This official decision accounts for the multiplicity of locations in which groups such as the Cubans and the Vietnamese are found today, as well as more recent arrivals from Somalia, Iraq, and Burma. Gradually, however, refugees tend to trek back toward areas closer to their homeland and more compatible in terms of climate and culture. The presence of ethnic communities of the same nationality or a related one has frequently played a decisive role in promoting these secondary migrations
