Samuel M. Otterstrom

Spatial Patterns of Migration and Income Change in the Mountain West: The Dominance of Service-Based, Amenity-Rich Counties

One of the most recognizable and important changes occurring in the West is rapid population growth. This article intends to address questions associated with whether patterns of population growth and income migration are associated with “new” and “old” West economies. Rural restructuring in the U.S. has created a group of counties with service-based economies. In the Mountain West, a number of counties with service-based economies are located in areas with high levels of environmental or natural amenities, creating what has been termed the “New West.” Migration to the rural parts of the Mountain West, and the income transfers associated with migration, are increasingly concentrated within these New West counties. Rapid population growth, the changing characteristics of in-migrants, and their spatial concentration in New West counties provide a basis for conflicts over what the rural West is becoming.

Deserts and oases: the continuing concentration of population in the American Mountain West

Abstract The Mountain West is a region that seems to be simultaneously rural and urban. With its wide-open spaces, many national parks, monuments, and forests, and high degree of federal land ownership the West appears as the quintessential rural area. However, over 70 percent of the Wests population live in metropolitan areas. This simultaneous rural and urban nature of the West is important in understanding the changing population geography of the region. We examine this by focusing on changing patterns of population concentration among metro and nonmetro counties. Unlike other regions in the US, the Mountain West has never experienced a period of counterurbanization or population deconcentration. Not only is current in-migration to the region increasingly concentrated in old and new metro areas, it is also concentrated in a select number of nonmetro areas as well—particularly nonmetro counties adjacent to metro areas, in retirement destinations, and in recreation centers.

Mapping, Measuring, and Modeling Urban Growth

Immediately after World War II, developers in the United States took advantage of market demand and government incentives to build new housing subdivisions for returning soldiers anxious to marry, begin families, and resume civilian life. New developments such as Levittown (New York), Park Forest (Illinois) and Lakewood (California)1 sprang up and were quickly filled with affordable cookie-cutter homes for veterans seeking the American Dream of suburban home ownership (Hayden 2003). The baby boom followed. As a result of the boom and international immigration, the U.S. population grew from 151 million to 300 million between 1950 and 2007. To accommodate this expanding population growth, cities and towns in the U.S. rapidly spread into their rural hinterlands.

Environmental Hazards as Disamenities: Selective Migration and Income Change in the United States from 2000–2010

An emerging area of migration research is the complex relationship between migration and environmental hazards, broadly defined. Environmental hazards are best viewed through a vulnerability lens, which has two components. The first is exposure—the frequency and duration of the hazardous events—and the second is adaptive capacity—the ability of communities to mitigate, deflect, or absorb the effects of exposure. Because migration is selective of individuals and places, it changes both the populations size and composition, thus affecting its exposure and adaptive capacity. In this article we examine how migration varies among sets of counties that experience significantly different exposures to all environmental hazards in the United States. We create an environmental hazards impact index in an attempt to measure the impacts of environmental hazards at the county level over a period of years. We found that counties that experience the greatest impacts from environmental hazards are losing income as a result of the migration. In counties with the highest impacts, income is lost through both net outmigration as well as income loss through out-migrants having higher incomes than in-migrants.

Trends in national and regional population concentration in the United States from 1790 to 1990: from the frontier to the urban transformation

Abstract The United States has undergone sizable changes in its population geography since 1790. A major component of these population shifts has been the rapid movement of the frontier westward as settled area increased. This research shows the population deconcentration effects of the great migration from relatively high densities along the eastern seaboard to the sparsely populated west. This dispersal was followed by concentration stemming from massive urbanization across most of the country after the general “closure” of the frontier during the first decade of the 20th century. This paper examines these levels of population deconcentration or dispersion and concentration in the nation and among regions from 1790 to 1990. Additionally, this research supports the argument for a 1910 date of frontier “closure” through evidence from national population concentration trends. A three-phase model of population concentration and dispersion at the regional and national levels is also proposed. The Hoover index is employed to measure population concentration using county-level population data and digital county maps aggregated at the regional and national levels from all decades from 1790 to 1990.

Population concentration in United States city-systems from 1790 to 2000: historical trends and current phases

Among the industrialised nations of the world, the USA has a relatively short history of urbanisation. This fact and the ready availability of reliable historical data have made the USA a fertile place for studying the nature of urban and regional growth from its earliest beginnings. This paper analyses the patterns of city and hinterland, or city-system, population concentration in the United States from 1790 to 2000. The Hoover index is employed to calculate population concentration in 46 city-systems for each federal census. A model showing three phases in city-system population concentration is proposed. Recent population trends are then used to map the current concentration phases of the US city-systems. Much of the central part of the country and the mountain west should concentrate in population during the next decade while many of the Northeastern, Florida, and Californian city-systems are more likely to experience population deconcentration. Copyright (c) 2003 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.

The Settlement of the United States from 1790 to 1990: Divergent Rates of Growth and the End of the Frontier

The timing of the American frontiers closing can be determined through an analysis of the patterns and rates of settlement growth in the United Statesbased on historical county boundaries, population data from U.S. censuses, and a minimum of two people per square mile to classify a region as settled. Trends in the settlement of the contiguous areas of the country indicate three periods of population settlement1790 to 1840, 1840 to 1910, and 1910 to 1990. The first period of rapid frontier growth ended in 1840, and a second, more moderate, one ended in 1910, marking the final closure of the frontier.

Genealogy, Migration, and the Intertwined Geographies of Personal Pasts

Genealogical data have tremendous potential to reveal the geographic web of past family connections. In this article we propose a genealogical geography paradigm that utilizes queries of a database containing more than 800 million names to analyze historical migration patterns. Our conceptual model considers hourglass-shaped community ancestry and descendancy hinterlands that spread out from a local place and incorporates the ideas of diaspora, gathering, community stability, and genealogical mixing. In the process we introduce a set of statistical measures that define the migration geographies of multigenerational movements of related people. Three case studies utilizing these methods give an indication of what can be done with this analytical approach. The first case study examines the ancestry of Midwestern U.S. cities of 1900, illustrating multiple migration trajectories projecting eastward over four generations. The second considers patterns of migration to the Gold Rush–impacted areas of northern California (1850–1900) and highlights increasing community stability and shifting migration distances among mining and commercial centers. The third analyzes the geographic congruence of Fischers (1989) four cultural pathway origins of people who migrated to Colonial America and lends mixed support of his claims. This research approach enriches our understanding of the migration and family processes that formed the geographically interconnected settlements and regional structures of the world.

Nicaraguan Migrants in Costa Rica during the 1990s: Gender Differences and Geographic Expansion

After Nicaragua began a new era of democracy in 1990, the flow of civil war refugees fleeing to neighboring countries stopped. However, emigration of economic refugees to Costa Rica continued at a strong pace during the 1990s. The main demographic and geographic characteristics of nearly 400 illegal immigrants in Costa Rica, supplemented by government and private reports, are analyzed within the scope of gender-related patterns. An increasingly widespread presence within the country coupled with the distinctively different, yet persevering, natures of both the women and men indicate that Nicaraguan migrants are becoming an even more significant and less transitory minority within Costa Rica.

Income Change and Circular Migration: The Curious Case of Mobile Puerto Ricans, 1995-2010

Puerto Rican migration patterns are often circular with Puerto Ricans leaving to work on the mainland for a number of years before returning to the island. This paper explores the varied geography of Puerto Ricans migrating to and from mainland U.S. The growth of the Orlando, Florida metropolitan area as a hub for Puerto Rican migration is particularly highlighted. Using Internal Revenue Service county-to-county migration data, the income characteristics of Puerto Ricans migrating to the mainland U.S. are compared to those returning to Puerto Rico. The most consistent findings indicate that from 1995 to 2010 in-migrants from Puerto Rico had lower incomes than out-migrants to Puerto Rico as well as other migrants not moving to Puerto Rico.