Southeastern Geographer Vol. XXXVIII, No. 2, November 1998, pp. 125-141 RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION OF ASIAN AMERICANS IN THE ATLANTA METROPOLITAN AREA, 1990 Qian Zhang The residential segregation patterns of Asian Americans in U.S. metropolitan areas have changed over time and have also varied in different urban settings. Atlanta, unlike major immi gration centers, has virtually no long-established ethnic enclaves and no traditional immigra tion networks. It thus provides a different urban setting for the study of Asian-American residential segregation patterns. The validity of previous conclusions about Asian-American segregation patterns, which are based on studies of traditional immigration centers in earlier time periods, needs to be tested in different urban settings such as Atlanta. In the Atlanta MSA in 1990, the most recently arrived Asian-American group, the Vietnamese, display the highest levels of segregation from Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and other Asian-American groups. The well-established Asian group, the Chinese, are the most integrated with Whites. All AsianAmerican groups are highly segregated from Blacks in the Atlanta MSA; they are also, to a con siderable extent, residentially segregated from each other. Their segregation levels from His panics are relatively moderate. INTRODUCTION. The 1980 census provided a full set of cross-tabulations at the census-tract level for persons who identified themselves as Asians or Pacific Is landers. These data formed the basis for a number of studies of Asian-American residential segregation (Denton and Massey, 1988; Lanberg and Farley, 1985; Massey and Denton, 1987). It was in the 1970s that Asian Americans, as a group, emerged as an important object of the study of urban residential patterns, and some common attributes of Asian Americans, in terms of their residential pat terns, were found. Asian Americans display low to moderate segregation from Whites, and the levels of Asian-White segregation have fallen steadily over time (Lanberg and Farley, 1985; Massey and Denton, 1987). However, Asians, like Whites, displayed a high degree of residential segregation from Blacks, which cannot be simply explained by the two groups’ difference in socioeconomic status (Lanberg and Farley, 1985; Massey and Denton, 1987; Denton and Massey, 1988; Massey and Fong, 1990; Fong, 1996). The better established Asian ethnic groups, such as the Chinese and the Japanese, had lower segregation levels com pared to more recent immigrants such as the Vietnamese (Denton and Massey, 1988; Massey and Denton, 1992). Asian Americans have also been successful in obtaining suburban residences and are becoming more spatially integrated into the suburbs (Alba and Logan, 1991). In their path from residential segregation to spatial assimilation, and then to economic and cultural assimilation, Asian Mr. Zhang is a doctoral student in the Department o f Sociology at Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520. 126 S o u t h e a s t e r n G e o g r a p h e r Americans have largely conformed to the basic tenets of spatial assimilation the ory, 1they have confronted fewer barriers, and they have displayed lower levels of segregation compared to many other ethnic and racial groups (Massey and Denton, 1992). The intergroup difference within the broad category “Asian American,” nev ertheless, is notable in two aspects. First, their segregation patterns from AngloWhites , Blacks, and Hispanics are different (Lanberg and Farley, 1985). Each group’s specific history of immigration to the United States has had its impact on residential patterns. Usually, the well-established groups show lower levels of segregation from Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics, while recently arrived groups are more segregated. Second, the residential segregation among different AsianAmerican groups is remarkable (White et al., 1991; Zhou and Logan, 1991). For instance, the three East Asian (Chinese, Korean, and Japanese) groups’ segrega tion levels from each other are lower than their segregation levels from other Asian groups (Massey and Denton, 1992). Moreover, there is also notable geo graphic variation of Asian-American segregation patterns within the United States, as those in metropolitan areas of the Northeast and Midwest differ from those in the West and the South (Alba and Logan, 1991). PURPOSE. The purpose of this study is to identify the Asian-American residen tial segregation patterns for 1990 in the Atlanta metropolitan area. This study...