Does Socioeconomic Status Matter? Race, Class, and Residential Segregation

Abstract

Spatial assimilation theory predicts that racial and ethnic residential segregation results at least in part from socioeconomic differences across groups. In contrast, the place stratification perspective emphasizes the role of prejudice and discrimination in shaping residential patterns. This article evaluates these perspectives by examining the role of race and class in explaining the residential segregation of African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians from non-Hispanic whites in all U.S. metropolitan areas over the 1990 to 2000 period. Using the dissimilarity index and various indicators of socioeconomic status (SES), we find that in both 1990 and 2000 high-SES racial and ethnic groups were significantly less segregated from non-Hispanic whites than corresponding low-SES groups, especially among Hispanics and Asians-much as the spatial assimilation model would predict. Consistent with the place stratification model, African Americans of all SES levels continued to be more segregated from whites than were Hispanics and Asians, and this changed little between 1990 and 2000. However, the importance of SES in explaining the segregation of African Americans from whites increased over the period, while not for Hispanics and Asian Americans, providing support for a modest increase in the applicability of the spatial assimilation model for African Americans in the 1990s.

Ethnic Residential Concentrations with Above-Average Incomes

“…In other words, members of ethnic groups living outside ethnic concentrations tend to have greater educational attainment, better jobs, and/or higher incomes than members of the same groups living within ethnic concentrations. Although most of the large body of research on residential segregation does not distinguish populations in terms of socioeconomic status, in one major study across all U.S. metropolitan areas Asians and Hispanics of higher socioeconomic status were found to be less segregated from Whites than lower-status members of the same ethnic groups (Iceland and Wilkes, 2006). This, too, is consistent with widespread findings that most residents of ethnic concentrations have lower incomes than those living outside concentrations.…”

Segregación residencial de ingresos en el Gran Santiago, 1992-2002: una estimación robusta

“…Tanto en 1992 como en 2002, la segregación del 10% de mayores ingresos presenta niveles del índice de disimilitud en torno a 0,53, es decir, más de un 53% de este grupo debería cambiar su residencia a sectores menos homogéneos para lograr una integración perfecta en el espacio. Al mismo tiempo, si bien la segregación de los pobres en el Gran Santiago ostenta niveles comparables con los de áreas metropolitanas en Estados Unidos (Iceland & Wilkes, 2006), la medida cgi es sustancialmente mayor, análoga solo a la de las áreas metropolitanas más segregadas de Norteamérica (Watson, 2009). Finalmente, y en contraste con Sabatini et al (2010), nuestras estimaciones sugieren un alza estadísticamente significativa de la segregación residencial entre los años 1992 y 2002.…”

Are the walls giving way to fences? Is racial integration within Kwadukuza municipality leading to income-based class segregation?

“…When aiming to distinguish between different social classes, scholars have used a variety of combinations of indicators such as income, education, occupation and employment (Farley, 1977;Schwirian, 1983;Santiago and Wilder, 1991;Morrill, 1995;Iceland and Wilkes, 2006;Freeman, 2009). As income is the common indicator across most class-based studies, this study will make use of individual monthly income as a way to measure class.…”