Abstract
This chapter begins with a discussion of the literatures on the causes of ethnic and racial segregation. It is argued that there are three separate literatures, and that the role of income is underplayed in the literature on differences in neighbourhood choice between ethnic and racial groups. Using data from the US this study shows that choice and sorting outcomes reinforce existing patterns of ethnic and racial segregation in neighbourhoods, that strong ethno centric preferences by race and ethnicity means that racial separation is likely to remain important in cities, and that socio-economic status combined with racial preferences increase the levels of segregation in the urban fabric. The study shows that neighbourhood outcomes by socio-economic status are more diverse than those by race and ethnicity, although most people choose a neighbourhood similar to their previous one. This chapter re-emphasises that sorting within the existing urban fabric is a powerful factor in understanding processes of neighbourhood formation and neighbourhood change. When moving, not all households end up in a neighbourhood with the same characteristics as their neighbourhood of origin and it is this change which changes the urban fabric. There is clear evidence that ethnic and racial groups are advantaged when they have greater resources. Money matters in the choices of ethnic combinations and in moving up the status scale.
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Notes
- 1.
The nomenclature African Americans and Blacks are used interchangeably. Often in tables the term ‘blacks’ is used for space reasons.
- 2.
The “long form” collected data on a wide variety of socio economic variables for small geographic areas.
- 3.
From other research with the PSID we know that the number of moves by any one household in a 2-year period is relatively small (Clark and Withers 2007).
- 4.
A small number of moves are between metropolitan areas but we can still conceptualize these moves as between different kinds of neighborhoods. Later research will unpack the differences across choices within and between neighborhoods.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Philip Morrison, Beate Volker and Maarten Van Ham for comments on drafts of this chapter, and Jeff Garfinkle for data analysis.
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Clark, W.A.V., Rivers, N. (2012). Community Choice in Large Cities: Selectivity and Ethnic Sorting Across Neighbourhoods. In: van Ham, M., Manley, D., Bailey, N., Simpson, L., Maclennan, D. (eds) Understanding Neighbourhood Dynamics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4854-5_12
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