Ethnic Residential Segregation: Evidence from Two Italian Functional Urban Areas

Luca Daconto () and Maria Grazia Montesano
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Luca Daconto: Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
Maria Grazia Montesano: Laboratory of Social Sciences PACTE, University of Grenoble Alpes, 38100 Grenoble, France

Social Sciences, 2024, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-13

Abstract: This article aims to update the analysis of the residential segregation of the foreign population in European cities by considering the most recent 2021 census data for two different Italian metropolitan areas, Milan and Bologna. The diachronic analysis (2001–2021) of several indices of residential segregation (i.e., dissimilarity index, two group and multigroup; location quotient; and kernel density estimation) at the metropolitan scale (i.e., functional urban area) will contribute to the debate on the residential settlement patterns of foreign populations, highlighting the specificities of Southern European cities. Despite the significant differences between the two cities considered, the same desegregation trends (i.e., reduction in segregation indices) are identified in both cases. The results show a decrease in residential segregation over time in both core and commuting areas. Furthermore, phenomena of peripheralisation related to overrepresentation in metropolitan municipalities emerge, although core areas remain where the foreign population is most concentrated. The complexity and ambivalence of residential dynamics in the two cases suggest that residential segregation can also take “unusual forms” in Southern European cities that are not always related to the macro-concentration phenomena. In this sense, the “urban diaspora” hypothesis seems to be a suitable concept for capturing the new distributional trend of the foreign population in the Southern European context.

Keywords: ethnic residential segregation; functional urban area; Southern European cities; Italy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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