The GIS data obtained from the Census
Bureau and other agencies such as
American Community Survey were
manipulated to make attributes consistent.
Maps and data were obtained from the
Minnesota’s Metropolitan Council website
to acquire estimates of Metro’s immigrant
populations.
GIS data sets of important features
were also obtained. These were comprised
of shapefiles and database files. These
shapefiles contained data representing (a)
study areas (basemaps), (b) Census Block
tracts, and (c) Population Census count
data. The polygon layers were used to
estimate, locate, and analyze where
immigrants reside in the seven county
metro area (Figure 1).
ArcGIS’s Geoprocessing and
Spatial Analyst tools were used to convert,
import, merge, and clip these data.
Database files were joined across section
IDs. When done, all data layers were
examined to make sure they were
consistent and contained: