Spatial Assimilation in U.S. Cities and Communities? Emerging Patterns of Hispanic Segregation from Blacks and Whites

Abstract

This article provides a geographically inclusive empirical framework for studying changing U.S. patterns of Hispanic segregation. Whether Hispanics have joined the American mainstream depends in part on whether they translate upward mobility into residence patterns that mirror the rest of the nation. Based on block and place data from the 1990–2010 decennial censuses, our results provide evidence of increasing spatial assimilation among Hispanics, both nationally and in new immigrant destinations. Segregation from whites declined across the urban size-of-place hierarchy and in new destinations. Hispanics are also less segregated from whites than from blacks, but declines in Hispanic-black segregation have exceeded declines in Hispanic-white segregation. This result is consistent with the notion of U.S. Hispanics as a racialized population—one in which members sometimes lack the freedom to join whites in better communities. Hispanic income was significantly associated with less segregation from whites, but income inequality alone does not explain overall Hispanic segregation, which remains high. The segmented assimilation of Hispanics that we observe supports two seemingly contradictory theories: both the idea that spatial assimilation can come from economic and cultural assimilation and the notion that economic mobility is no guarantee of residential integration.

Divergent Pathways to Assimilation? Local Marriage Markets and Intermarriage Among U.S. Hispanics

“…That intermarriage is subject to local‐level marriage market opportunities and constraints is both self‐evident and clearly revealed in the geographic dispersal of Hispanics from traditional immigrant gateways (e.g., Los Angeles or Houston) to other metropolitan areas where Whites or other minority populations are predominant and where immigrant institutions are weak or underdeveloped (Lichter et al, ; Waters & Pinceau, ). Indeed, the new spatial diffusion of Hispanics may lead to higher levels of intermarriage in new destinations if spatial assimilation reflects and reinforces social and economic integration.…”

Emerging Patterns of Hispanic Residential Segregation: Lessons from Rural and Small‐Town America

“…The recent Hispanic diaspora—the movement from immigrant gateways to new destinations—has raised new concerns about immigrant integration, community disorganization, and local political and economic fragmentation (Crowley and Lichter ; Miraftab ; Saenz and Torres ). As we argue here, the new rural growth of Hispanics overall does not mean that immigrants and natives necessarily share the same spatial and social arenas (Lee, Iceland, and Farrell ; Lichter, Parisi, and Taquino ). We regard residential segregation—or its absence—as a key indicator of integration, that is, of spatial assimilation within counties or local communities.…”

Geographic and Spatial Assimilation of Immigrants from Central America's Northern Triangle

“…As an assimilative trajectory, the spatial assimilation model holds that with time in the country, immigrants translate social progress (i.e. economic or occupational gains) into improved residential locations where the dominant population is U.S‐born white Americans (Lichter et al., ).…”