An ethnoburb is a suburban residential and business area with a notable cluster of a particular ethnic minority population, which may or may not be a local majority. That can greatly influence the social geography within the area because of distinct cultural and religious values. Ethnoburbs allow for ethnic minority groups to maintain their traditional identity, forestalling cultural assimilation.

According to Dr. Wei Li, the author of many writings on the subject, the ethnoburb has resulted from "the influence of international geopolitical and global economic restructuring, changing national immigration and trade policies, and local demographic, economic and political contexts."

Although many assume that an ethnoburb is composed of immigrants with a lower economic status, that may not always be the case, as many ethnoburbs are made up of wealthy and high economic status individuals in more expensive neighbourhoods and communities.

The term was first coined in 1997 by Dr. Wei Li, then assistant professor of geography and Asian American studies at the University of Connecticut, in a paper examining the suburban Chinese population in Los Angeles. She further examines and delineates the difference between "Chinatowns" and "ethnoburbs" in "Ethnoburb versus Chinatown: Two Types of Urban Ethnic Communities in Los Angeles."

Ethnoburbs emerge in combination or as separate entities for reasons like significant changes in world politics and the world economy, policy changes in the US, and demographic shifts in individual or in local connecting neighborhoods. Such communities have substantial external connections to the globalised mainstream economy, leading to higher socioeconomic levels in its residents. An ethnoburb functions as a social hub and a place in which immigrants may work and do business within their own networks. That definition of an ethnoburb closely resembles that of the ethnic enclave as defined and studied by sociologists Wilson and Portes. Though the terms are different, the types and functions of these hubs are nearly identical. The formation of ethnoburbs also have an effect on the cultural and political characteristics of a city. In cities like San Francisco, Vancouver, and Toronto; in the New York City-Philadelphia and Washington, DC areas; and in the San Gabriel Valley, for example, Chinese immigrants have built large houses and malls catering to Chinese businesses, changing the landscape of the communities and a significant number of smaller ones throughout Canada and the US.

Ethnoburb: The New Ethnic Community in Urban America explores in depth the phenomenon of ethnoburbs scattered through the United States. The book used the term "ethnoburb" for the first time, in 1997, to describe the new formation of contemporary suburban Asian settlements, and the author continues her studies in larger metropolitan areas in the US and in Canada.

The term has become widely used in academia and is slowly gaining usage in the popular vernacular.

Ethnoburbs present interesting benefits and disadvantages to those within the community. They can be shaped to meet the specific cultural and social needs of those who live there because of the high degree of ethnic similarities. That can be seen as a benefit as it aids in the adaptation of immigrants to a new environment in terms of language, culture, education, and job training. Also, the sharing of common cultural traditions and new experiences encountered allows a greater sense of community to be developed. An ethnoburb not only contributes to the fostering of cultural preservation particularly amongst immigrants but also can play an important role in the larger cultural tapestry of a greater regional area or country as a whole.