Ecological Contexts of Reception: The Segregation of Hispanics and Asians in New Destination Areas

This paper explores trends in residential segregation, spatial isolation, and poverty concentration for Hispanics and Asians in new, traditional, and low immigration areas. The analysis uses a typology of destination areas derived from an earlier classification scheme developed by Singer (2004). It uses the index of dissimilarity to measure segregation from whites and the P* isolation index to measure both racial isolation and the degree of class isolation experienced by the poor of each group. Trends in segregation and spatial isolation do not differ much between new, traditional, and low immigration areas, though variation in the size and rate of growth of the Hispanic population in different areas does produce differences in the spatial isolation of Hispanics. In general, Hispanic display higher levels of segregation and isolation than Asians, and these conditions combine with elevated Hispanic poverty rates to produce relatively high concentrations of poverty. Although Asian poverty is also spatially concentrated, it is not produced by the interplay of segregation and poverty in the same way as among Hispanics. Given their lower levels of segregation, isolation, and poverty Asians generally experience more favorable contexts of reception than do Latinos in the spatial ecology of metropolitan America.