Immigrants are expanding beyond their established enclaves or settling in unexpected places in Brooklyn, according to a recent city report, "The Newest New Yorkers 2000: Immigrant New York in the New Millennium."

Chinese immigrants in particular have made homes beyond Sunset Park - New York's third Chinatown, after ones in downtown Manhattan and Flushing, Queens - by settling in Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst and Gravesend.

The second-largest immigrant group in Brooklyn with 86,064 members, Chinese also have expanded to the outskirts of Borough Park, a predominantly Hasidic Jewish neighborhood that now has 7,746 Chinese living there.

"At some point, the expanding boundaries of each community will touch each other, which will be really interesting," said John Mollenkopf, director of CUNY's Center for Urban Research.

In another census tract dominated by Hasidic Jews - in this case, the Satmar community of Williamsburg - more than 20% of the population is Chinese, with 1,194 residents living along Broadway north of Flushing Ave.

"It's very unexpected," Mollenkopf said, noting that the Williamsburg Chinese group wasn't near any other large Asian settlements.

Other surprises included the flourishing Hispanic community in Park Slope, a result of the expansion of the Mexican and Dominican enclaves along Fifth Ave. in Sunset Park.

There are now 18,700 foreign-born residents living in the established white, upper-middle class community. More than 20% of those immigrants are from Mexico or the Dominican Republic.

"This is a better neighborhood with better housing than some of the poorer Latino zones of initial settlement," such as Williamsburg or Bushwick, Mollenkopf said.

Former Italian-American strongholds Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge are now home to the largest numbers of foreign-born residents in Brooklyn, with 78,600, according to the report.