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Abstract
In 2009, Sweden experienced a wave of urban unrest concentrated in areas with large foreign-born populations. This episode was seen by many as reflecting a trend towards increased ethnically based residential segregation, in line with scholarly literatures that correlate inequality and rising segregation with increases in unrest or rebellion. In this paper, we analyze the empirical connection between ethnic residential segregation and episodes of urban unrest in Sweden. Unrest is measured by the number of car burnings reported to police between 2002 and 2009. We find a positive and statistically significant link between residential segregation and car burnings at the scale of municipalities and metropolitan districts. Unrest/rebellion is also correlated with high proportion of young adults and social welfare assistance.
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Acknowledgements
Research funding from the Swedish Research Council is gratefully acknowledged.
Notes
2It is possible that some instances of car burnings are not related to urban unrest, but to idiosyncratic or legal/regulatory factors (e.g., avoiding junk yard fees). These instances do not invalidate a regression analysis so long as there is no systemic spatial pattern correlated with variables of interest in our analysis.
