Noin-Ula burial site
Many immigrants lived in the Xiongnu pasturelands, but at first they did not mix with the Xiongnu. To be a Xiongnu, one had to be a member of a clan, born of Xiongnu parents. The newcomers were well off, but were outsiders, and could marry only among themselves, not the Xiongnu. Only later did they intermix, increase in numbers, even created a state that existed from 318 to 350 AD.
Huns
Since Joseph de Guignes in the , modern historians have associated the Huns who appeared on the borders of Europe in the with the Xiongnu who had invaded China from the territory of present-day Mongolia between the and the . Due to the devastating defeat by the Chinese Han dynasty, the northern branch of the Xiongnu had retreated north-westward; their descendants may have migrated through Eurasia and consequently they may have some degree of cultural and genetic continuity with the Huns. Scholars also discussed the relationship between the Xungnu, the Huns, and a number of people in central Asia were also known as or came to be identified with the name "Hun" or "Iranian Huns", the Chionites, the Kidarites, and the Hephthalites (or White Huns) being the most prominent.