Metropolitan areas in the United States attract thousands of immigrants annually. However, these rates of immigration still provoke active debates in the society because of concerns associated with the role of immigrants for developing the economies of the metropolitan areas. The lack of empirical data on the relationship between the intensive immigration and changes in the median household income influences the authorities’ abilities to analyze the tendency completely and provide effective legislation to regulate the process.
Having no adequate data and research on the role of immigrants for the metropolitan areas’ economies, authorities cannot use the economic benefits of immigration appropriately. Thus, it is important to analyze what costs and contributions are associated with increased rates of immigration in the US metropolitan areas.
To address the current immigrant trends appropriately, it is necessary to answer the following research question: Is there any association between the number of immigrants and the dwellers’ household income in the US metropolitan areas? The aim of this research is to provide the answer to the question while hypothesizing that the elevated rates of immigrants of different origins contribute to increasing the median household income in metropolitan areas.
This study is based on 2000 US Census Bureau data in order to state whether there is the relationship between the concentration of immigrants in the US metropolitan areas, the median household income in these areas, and the general status of economies in the studied regions. The current study also aims to refer to the problem of economic disparities and differences in wages in relation to such groups of immigrants as the Latino and Asian immigrants which can also affect differences in the median household income.