The Spatial Integration of Immigrants in Europe: A Cross-National Study

Abstract

Throughout much of Europe, new waves of immigration have raised concerns about cultural fragmentation and disunity, interethnic conflict, and growing antipathy toward immigrants. Our goal is to provide evidence of uneven patterns of immigrant population distribution and residential integration, both within and between countries of the European Union. Our analyses focus on the spatial concentration of the foreign-born population in 27 countries and 1396 sub-regional areal units (called NUTS3), which in turn are nested within larger economic and cultural regions (i.e., NUTS2). Estimates of new forms of multiscale segregation (i.e., using the index of dissimilarity) are calculated from data drawn from Eurostat and a variety of other sources. Descriptive multivariate models of population concentration or macro-segregation center on key economic (i.e., GDP per capita), social (i.e., education), and ecological (i.e., urbanization) predictors of segregation within and between European countries. New forms of spatial segregation are expressed demographically in substantial regional heterogeneity among immigrants throughout Europe. Multivariate analyses indicate that immigrant-native patterns of population concentration and distribution vary widely between and within European countries with very different economies, demographic conditions, and histories of immigration. In almost all European countries, immigrants from outside of Europe are less spatially integrated with the native population than are immigrants from other countries within Europe. Differences in immigrant-native spatial integration are clearly reflected in the large numbers of immigrant regional “hot spots,” which are driven by public policy and idiosyncratic political considerations at the national and regional levels. Our comparative approach provides an overview of country-to-country differences in European immigrant settlement patterns and multiscale patterns of integration and segregation.