Minority Proximity to Whites in Suburbs: An Individual-Level Analysis of Segregation

TLDR

The study applies a novel individual‑level location analysis method, grounded in spatial assimilation and place stratification models, to examine determinants of proximity to non‑Hispanic whites among Asians, blacks, Hispanics, and whites in the suburbs around New York City in 1980. Regression analyses show that proximity to non‑Hispanic whites is driven by locational patterns linking individual characteristics to community majority proportions, with white and black residents’ proximity differing markedly and largely determined by race, while Asian and Hispanic residents’ proximity aligns more with spatial assimilation.

Abstract

A novel method for location analysis at the individual level is used to analyze the determinants of proximity to non-Hispanic whites separately for Asians, blacks, Hispanics, and for non-Hispanic whites themselves. The resulting regression analyses, for which the percentage of non-Hispanic whites in a community serves as the dependent variable, reveal how the familiar P* segregation measure is generated through locational patterns that map racial/ethnic-group members with specific personal and household characteristics into communities with specific mojority-group proportions. The analyses are developed from two complementary theoretical models- spatial assimilation and place stratification-and applied to the suburban communities of the nation's largest metropolitan region, surrounding New York City, as of 1980. Consistent with the place-stratification model, proximity to non-Hispanic whites is very different for members of the white and black groups and little affected by their individual characteristics other than race. By contrast, Asians and Hispanics appear more consistent with the spatial-assimilation model.