The trajectory of the colour line in a US immigrant gateway: hyperdiverse spatialization in Los Angeles

Abstract

ABSTRACT Focusing on LA, we show that 1) socioeconomic inequality in LA has increasingly emerged since the 1970s along two axes, Black-Latino and White-Asian, and that 2) the structure of residential segregation in LA intersects immigration dynamics to create unique patterns of isolation within groups and exposure between groups, setting distinctive conditions for interaction and identity formation. Two case studies — South LA and the San Gabriel Valley (SGV) — shed light on the mechanics of spatialization amid hyperdiversity. In South LA, Latino immigrants live alongside Black residents. Shared experiences of racism and socioeconomic deprivation widen Black-Brown linked fate to create novel platforms for place-based identity formation and political resistance. In SGV, Chinese immigrants of diverse class and ethnic backgrounds carve out a different path to residential assimilation by building an American ethnoburb without much contact with Whites. Despite clear inequalities across the Black-Latino and White-Asian axes, neither case converges uniformly towards Whiteness.