Neighborhood Dynamics of Race and Ethnicity in the 21st Century: Residential Segregation and Poverty Concentration within Chicago, Illinois; 2000-2010

Abstract

Residential landscapes throughout the urban United States have long been associated with high levels of racial and ethnic segregation. The increased ethnic diversification occuring across many larger urban areas has somewhat altered this dynamic. Chicago, Illionois is one major city possessing a long history of being highly segregated residentially. The city is especially noted for the exceptionally high levels of separation that have always existed between African-Americans and whites. Like many major cities the last few years, it has increasingly became home to larger numbers of Hispanics and Asians, a trend that has altared its residential geography. This research investigates the impacts that increased diversity had on levels of residential segregation among racial and/or ethnic groups within Chicago from 2000 to 2010. Empirical analysis entailed the measurement of two dimensions of segregation evident among Non-Hispanic whites, African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians. We focus particular attention to the role that segregation has in terms of influencing degrees to which these different groups are exsposed to poverty residentially. During the decade, African-American Chicagoans as a group became slightly less residentially isolated. Conversely, results confirm that both Asians, and Hispanics appear to be exhibiting forms of “ethnic (or racial) self-selectivity” that functioned to spatially concentrate them within their own neighborhoods. The demographic composition of the city’s extremly poor neighborhoods changed during the decade, yet they remained predominantly black. Findings lead us to conclude that in 2010 Chicago was still a highly segregated, albeit increasingly diverse, city.