Ethnic Segregation and Assimilation

Abstract

An ecological conceptualization of the processes of immigrant adjustmen permits a demonstration of close correlations of residential segregation and centralization with selected indicators of assimilation, socioeconomic status, and social distance ranking of ethnic groups. Changes in residential patterns in Chicago between 1930 and 1950 were in the direction expected on the basis of a positive relationship between assimilation and lenghth of residence; but such changes did not disrup a pattern of differential segregation and spatial separation of ethnic colonies, this pattern exhibiting remarkable stability over the twenty-year period.