Neighborhood Attachment in the Multiethnic Metropolis." City and Community

According to population projections, European Americans ’ majority status in the United States may be endangered by the disproportionate growth of the black, Latino, and Asian populations while, concurrently, the proportion of native-born Americans continues to drop (Alba, 1999). Many Americans feel concerned about how these changes in race, ethnicity, and nativity will alter the resources, culture, and collective identity of their nation and their neighborhoods (Espenshade and Hempstead, 1996; Espenshade and Calhoun, 1993). Will this influx of diverse newcomers alter current residents ’ neighborhood attitudes and interactions? Will the new residents form meaningful attachments to their neighborhoods and defend them from threat, or will lingering homeland ties and lack of citizenship diminish their local interest? These questions essentially point to the same issue, namely whether growing complexity in racial and ethnic composition will jeopardize neighborhood attachment and perhaps neighborhoods themselves. Americans are not equally affected by increased diversity. Since immigrants are highly concentrated in specific regions, metropolitan areas, and neighborhoods, diversit