Residential Segregation and the Assimilation Process: the Case of Asian Americans in 1980.

Abstract

The effects of acculturation and socioeconomic status on the residential segregation of Asian Americans are examined with data from the 1980 Census. Comparisons are made with blacks, Hispanics, and European ethnic groups. The data are used initially to describe the overall extent of Asian segregation, and the level and pattern of residential segregation between Asians and groups of similar social and economic backgrounds. Segregation is analyzed further within an assimilation framework which, in part, is based on ecological theory. The principal hypotheses are that greater acculturation or socioeconomic status should lead to lower levels of residential segregation from the majority population. The hypotheses are tested using three different units of analysis: the neighborhood, the metropolitan area, and pairs of racial or ethnic groups. Asian Americans are moderately to highly segregated from the non-Hispanic white population. As social and economic status increases, there is some decline in segregation of Asians from whites with similar social or economic backgrounds. However, segregation persists at a moderate level even for Asians and whites in the highest socioeconomic categories. When the neighborhood is the unit of analysis, it is found that as socioeconomic status increases, the probability of Asian contact with whites also increases. When pairs of groups are the units of analysis, differences in socioeconomic status between Asian groups and the English are found to be directly related to segregation levels. Comparing metropolitan areas reveals that acculturation is the only significant predictor of Asian residential segregation. In contrast, socioeconomic status influences segregation for blacks, Hispanics, and Europeans, and in most instances it has a stronger influence than acculturation. These results suggest that Asian American may be adhering to a structural pluralistic form of assimilation. The sources of data are Summary Tape File 3A and the five percent sample version of the Public-Use Microdata Samples from the Census of Population and Housing for 1980. Data are assembled for the 38 metropolitan areas in the contiguous United States containing the largest Asian American populations. Residential segregation is measured with the index of dissimilarity and the P('*) index, which assesses potential interracial contact.