A Comparative Analysis of High-Status Residential Segregation And Neighborhood Concentration In Five Metro Areas, 1980-90

Recent research has documented the increased spatial polarization between the rich and poor, providing evidence of the harsh effects of the ìhavesî living apart from the ìhave-notsî (Massey, 1996). Little research, however, has looked at the spatial dynamics within racial and ethnic groups, for purposes of determining whether broader changes in the spatial relations between the haves and have-nots are reflected within specific groups. For this reason, I propose a comparative analysis of high-status segregation within the black, white, Hispanic, and Asian populations of Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and San Francisco for the 1980 and 1990 periods. Using the Census Summary Tape Files 3A data, I find that advantaged whites and Asians live in neighborhoods most comparable with their high status, areas in the suburbs and most concentrated with other well-off groups and few lower-status groups. Despite the fact that high-status Hispanics are able to live farther from their own lower-status counterparts than are high-status blacks from theirs, both groups remain concentrated in neighborhoods less consistent with their status attainments, which implies that racial and ethnic status matters in the residential configuration of these advantaged minorities in selected urban areas.

Key words: residential segregation, racial and ethnic group, high-status

Dataset(s): Census: U.S., 1980 and 1990 Summary Tape Files 3A.