The growth and dispersion of immigrant populations in the United States in recent decades has sparked debate about the effects of immigration on the quality of life. Existing research provides evidence of both positive and negative effects, a result that we contend may reflect differing aspects of immigration. In this paper, we conceptualize immigration in urban areas as having two faces: immigrant concentration (the presence of large, concentrated populations of immigrants) and immigrant diversity (the presence of large, diverse populations of immigrants). For 366 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, we examine how these two faces have influenced four dimensions of quality of life: economic well-being, social well-being, healthy living, and urban mobility. Controlling for appropriate covariates, we find that immigrant concentration tends to have negative effects on urban quality of life, but these effects dissipate when immigrant diversity is considered. On the other hand, immigrant diversity has positive and robust effects on all four dimensions of urban quality of life. We also find little evidence that these findings are an artifact of reverse causality, that is, the influence of quality of life measures on immigrant diversity. © 2018 Western Social Science Association

Metropolitan areas Immigration Immigrant diversity Immigrant concentration Quality of life

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