Immigration, sustainability, and alternative mode use:Ten hypotheses from a qualitative study in New Jersey, USA

摘要

Research investigating travel behavior differences between immigrants and US-born residentshas established that immigrants are much more likely to use alternative modes than the US-bornpopulation. However, this research has not established why there remain persistent differencesbetween immigrants and the US-born when controlling for demographic characteristics such asincome and age, nor has it explained why immigrants rapidly abandon alternative modes for cars.These questions are critical for sustainable urban growth in the US since most urban growth willbe driven by immigration in the decades to come.In this paper we describe focus groups that we conducted in New Jersey with immigrants fromthe Philippines, India, and Latin America. We explored reasons for changes in habitual dailytravel over time, and in particular how immigrants decided where to live and where to workwhen first coming to the US and in subsequent moves. Unlike almost all previous quantitative orqualitative work on immigrants and travel, we focused on residential location decision makingand the roles of occupational and family changes.We suggest ten novel hypotheses warranting further research, based on findings from the focusgroups. We found little support for cultural explanations for transit persistence, home countryhabitual travel patterns, or culturally based spatial assimilation within the US.