Leslie D. Meyer

The New West: Patterns of Internal Migration Leslie D. Meyer

The New West, located in the interior West of the United States and includes the states of Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, is experiencing a large and growing population of internal migrants. This book analyzes migration patterns at both the structural-contextual level and the individual-level in the New West. Focus is placed on amenity-based characteristics and sustenance organization in order to predict net migration rates. Findings suggest that areas with flourishing sustenance producing activities and more amenity-based characteristics are experiencing higher levels of in-migration. A sample of residents living in the state of Nevada is used to determine the likelihood of an individual migrating to the New West. Individuals having recently migrated to Nevada were found to be older, having obtained higher levels of education, and of Hispanic or Asian descent. These findings confirm that both structural-contextual level and individual-level predictors are essential in the understanding the patterns of migration occurring in the New West.