Previous studies show households' selective residential mobility as a principal cause of residential segregation. However, a less studied aspect of residential segregation has been how foreign newcomers affect those mobility patterns and consequently residential segregation trends. This paper extends previous investigations by evaluating the effects of newly arrived immigrants on ethnic residential segregation from a dynamic perspective. Unlike previous studies, this study analyzes newcomers' neighborhood choices together with their direct, indirect, and cumulative effects on segregation. Results show that immigrant settlements not only exacerbate residential segregation by landing in already segregated areas (direct effect) but by triggering segregating promoting movements in households living in destination neighborhoods (undirect effect). Both results contribute to producing a higher level of segregation compared with a situation where newcomers would have been randomly allocated across the residential areas (cumulative effect). These findings highlight the importance of reception strategies in host cities to palliate segregation levels and demonstrates its cumulative effects.
Measuring the changing pattern of ethnic segregation in England and Wales with Consumer Registers
