America is increasingly diverse, but challenges remain

In gateway areas defined by a large foreign-born population, only about one-fourth of these neighborhoods are still mixed as of 2010. UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. America's communities are becoming increasingly diverse, but there are still important concerns about racial and ethnic integration in the future, according to researchers. A new US2010 report shows whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians are increasingly sharing American communities, said Barry Lee , professor of sociology and demography, Penn State. Lee, who co-wrote the report with John Iceland , professor of sociology and demography, Penn State, and Chad Farrell, associate professor of sociology, University of Alaska Anchorage, said that a universal trend toward greater diversity has been underway across metro and micro areas since 1980, fueled by Hispanic and Asian growth. During the same period, a large majority of the areas exhibit declines in the segregation of their black and white populations. The number of mixed neighborhoods - areas where no racial-ethnic group constitutes a majority of residents - has more than quadrupled in metro settings, from roughly 1,500 in 1980 to 6,300 in 2010.