From local municipalities to the campaign trail, immigration is a hot-button issue. And with the United States in the midst of a historic wave of immigration, the topic will continue to influence voters and policies for years to come. In Twenty-First-Century Gateways, a multidisciplinary group of top-flight analysts focuses on the fastest-growing immigrant populations in metropolitan areas with previously low levels of immigration—places such as Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C. These places are typical of the newest, largest immigrant gateways to America, characterized by post-WWII growth, recent burgeoning immigrant populations, and predominantly suburban settlement.

More immigrants, both legal and undocumented, arrived in the United States during the 1990s than in any other decade on record. Many continued to move into traditional urban centers such as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, but burgeoning numbers were attracted by the economic and housing opportunities of fast-growing metropolitan areas and their largely suburban settings. Today, one in five immigrants in the United States lives in one of these twenty-first-century gateways. The pace of change in this new geography of immigration has presented many local areas with challenges—social, fiscal, and political.

Edited by Audrey Singer, Susan W. Hardwick, and Caroline B. Brettell, Twenty-First-Century Gateways provides in-depth, comparative analysis of immigration trends and local policy responses in America's newest gateways. The case examples explore the challenges of integrating newcomers in the specific gateways, as well as their impact on suburban infrastructure such as housing, transportation, schools, health care, economic development, and public safety.

The changes and trends dissected in this book present a critically important understanding of the reshaping of the United States today and the future impact of immigration.