Even as the United States becomes more diverse, residential segregation still divides many American cities. Though the problem has historically centered on the stark separation between lower-income black and higher-income white neighborhoods, immigrants have added a new dimension to the picture, particularly after the past four decades of increased immigration from across Latin America and Asia.

Just like US-born white, black, Hispanic, and Asian residents, immigrants from different world regions sort into neighborhoods across cities in patterns strongly shaped by the racial and ethnic and socioeconomic characteristics of those neighborhoods. Here, we present the patterns of racial segregation of immigrants in several cities by socioeconomic status (SES) and how this varies by the key characteristics of each city.

Where immigrants live matters for several reasons. It affects how parents pass on opportunities or disadvantages to their children, such as whether families are close to high-quality schools, needed services, safe outdoor spaces for play and exercise, and grocery stores with affordable, nutritious food. Neighborhoods can shape how easily immigrants can access products, services, and assistance in a way that fits with their cultural and language needs. And neighborhoods shape families’ social networks and the resources, influences, and help available through those networks.

Using the Neighborhood Change Database, we identified seven cities (technically, seven commuting zones: regions of metro and rural areas connected by a local economy) that exemplify three patterns of how immigrant families sort into neighborhoods.