Unrestricted data and statistical code for the findings presented in Hwang, J. and H. Yoon. 2026. "Shifting and Persisting Neighborhood Hierarchies: Immigrant Influx and the Gentrification of Black Neighborhoods in the Twenty-first Century"

This repository contains replication material for Jackelyn Hwang & Hesu Yoon's (2026) "Shifting and Persisting Neighborhood Hierarchies: Immigrant Influx and the Gentrification of Black Neighborhoods in the Twenty-first Century" in Sociological Perspectives.

Article Abstract: In recent decades, U.S. cities have experienced an increasing prevalence of gentrification,
especially in Black urban neighborhoods, and the growth and dispersal of new immigrants.
Although scholarship suggests links between immigrant settlement and gentrification, few
quantitative studies examine this relationship and consider differences across neighborhood
ethnoracial contexts and city-level contexts of immigrant reception. This study draws on U.S.
Census and American Community Survey data from 1990 to 2019 to examine this relationship
across the United States. We find that higher shares of recent immigrants lower the likelihood
that neighborhoods gentrify, except in Black neighborhoods. In Black neighborhoods, the share
of recent immigrants is positively associated with gentrification, particularly since the 2000s and
in newer immigrant destination cities. Findings suggest that new immigrants serve as pioneers
of gentrification and buffers in Black neighborhoods but that this pathway is contingent on the
broader context of immigrant reception.