Globalization and Residential Segregation by Race

Abstract

The United States has long been characterized by racial segregation in residence. As the country moves into a period of increasing global interaction, these questions might be posed: Will globalization effect change in U.S. residence patterns by race? If so, how? If not, why not? To consider these questions, we briefly review segregation in the United States and present data for eight metropolitan areas to illustrate the extent of residential segregation. Next, we examine four leading conceptions of globalization and consider whether these suggest ways in which globalization may affect residential segregation in the United States. We conclude that globalization falls low on a long list of factors related to residential segregation. In particular, we argue that desegregation would require deliberate steps in domestic public policy.

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References

1. Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton , American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993).

2. The authors use five dimensions for measuring the extent of segregation: unevenness of distribution, racial isolation, neighborhood clustering to form enclaves, concentration versus sparseness of settlements, and spatial centralization around the urban core. Hypersegregation means that an area is “very highly segregated on at least four of the five dimensions at once.” Massey and Denton , American Apartheid, p. 74.

3. Nancy A. Denton , “Are African-Americans Still Hypersegregated?” in Residential Apartheid: The American Legacy, ed. R. D. Bullard , J. E. Grigsby , and C. Lee (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994), pp. 49-81.

For a more popular introduction, see Joel Garreau , Edge City: Life on the New Frontier (New York: Doubleday, 1991).

Massey and Denton , American Apartheid.

6. Non-Hispanic whites are a majority in the suburbs of all eight metropolitan areas. In fact, the suburbs are more than 80 percent white in all the metropolitan areas except Los Angeles, San Francisco—Oakland, and Washington-Baltimore.

7. There are others. The four we have chosen are radically different from one another and, together, provide what we believe might be the broadest base by which globalization's impact might be assessed.

See also idem , The Future of Capitalism: How Today's Economic Forces Shape Tomorrow's World (New York: William Morrow, 1996).

9. Thurow , Future of Capitalism, pp. 239-240.

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10. Thurow , Head to Head, p. 52.

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11. Massey and Denton , American Apartheid.

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12. This section is based on Paul Krugman , Pop Internationalism (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996).

13.

13. Ibid., p. 193.

14.

14. Ibid., p. 195.

15.

15. Ibid., p. 17.

16.

16. Ibid., p. 45.

17.

See also idem , The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991).

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18. Sassen , Global City, pp. 300-307.

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19. Ibid., p. 337.

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20. Malcolm Waters , Globalization (New York: Routledge, 1995).

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21. Ibid., p. 3 (italics in original).

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22. Krugman , Pop Internationalism, p. 207.

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23. Waters , Globalization, p. 9.

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24. Ibid., p. 161.

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25. Vilna Bashi and Antonio McDaniel , “A Theory of Immigration and Racial Stratification,” Journal of Black Studies (in press).

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26. Douglas Massey , “The Age of Extremes: Concentrated Affluence and Poverty in the Twenty First Century,” Demography (in press).

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27. For a more complete discussion of administrative geography, see Mark Alan Hughes and Sally A. Hart , Safety Net or Safety Maze: The Administrative Geography of Federal Assistance in the Ten Largest Metropolitan Areas (Philadelphia, PA: Public/Private Ventures; Washington, DC: Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research, 1996).

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28. U.S. General Accounting Office , Welfare Programs: Opportunities to Consolidate and Increase Program Efficiencies (GAO/HEHS-95-139), 31 May, 1995, p. 34.

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29. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development , HUD Reinvention: From Blueprint to Action (Mar. 1995).