A comparative approach towards ethnic segregation patterns in Belgian cities using multiscalar individualized neighborhoods

ABSTRACT

Levels of spatial segregation in Western European cities are persistent over space and time. To demonstrate the degree or appearance of spatial segregation, most studies on urban residential patterns still rely on fixed spatial units, aspatial measures and single scales. However, a spatial or temporal comparison of patterns and levels of segregation based on such units or metrics is not without problems. To that end, this paper takes an explicit geographic approach and considers individualized neighborhoods using EquiPop-software, allowing various scales. Using the k-nearest neighbors for all individuals increases international comparability and facilitates interpretation, so far often hampered in segregation research. This multiscalar, multigroup comparative approach on ethnic urban geographies – using Belgium as a case study – provides an empirical illustration of a valuable method and tool applicable in segregation research, thereby furthering the comprehension of the increasingly diverse urban geographies and building on emerging work in the US, Europe and beyond.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnic segregation
• EquiPop
• individualized neighborhoods
• urban areas
• Belgium
• census data

Acknowledgments

We thank the anonymous referees for their useful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of the paper. Additionally, we thank Statistics Belgium for preparing and providing the geocoded census data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

1. The five dimensions were reduced to only two dimensions, i.e. concentration-evenness and clustering-exposure. Note other junctions are suggested, see for example Johnston, Poulsen, and Forrest (2007).

2. BCR is an administrative unit (corresponding to the NUTS 1 level) that consists of 19 municipalities.

3. Source: Legal resident population by country of birth, from 1880 to 2008; Statistics Belgium, calculations by ADSEI (period 1880–1981) and GéDAP-UCL (period 1991–2008).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek [FWOTM670]. The work of the third author was part of and financed by JPI Urban Europe [ResSegr]: “Residential segregation in five European countries – a comparative study using individualized scalable neighbourhoods”.