Woodrow-Lafield, Karen A. 2006. “New Citizens and Internal Migration,” Presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, Los Angeles, March 29-April 1, 2006.

This analysis explores internal migration in the period between admission as lawful permanent resident and naturalization. Internal migration of foreign-born residents is more important to consider because the foreign-born population is more dispersed to communities not traditionally receiving immigrants. For adult immigrants of 1978-1991 who became U.S. citizens, the majority was living in the states of initial residence, but 22 percent had moved to another state. From logistic regression analyses, the likelihood of making this type of interstate migration varies by visa class of admission, manner of entry, initial residence, and place of origin. Men are more likely to have made this move than women, and this approach may be more revealing for their experiences. Further investigation is needed to explore the feasibility of this approach for supplementing existing sources on internal migration.