Residential Segregation

Why do we observe residential segregation in cities?

Introduction

In this essay I will discuss various reasons and explanations for observable residential segregation in cities. Firstly, I will explore historical collective action racism and the influence of path dependency on urban segregation. Secondly, I will discuss segregation as a result of racism within individuals and the impact of this on housing information and availability. Thirdly, I will discuss the impacts of residential segregation on education, economic outcomes, and health metrics to advocate for policy intervention.

Collective Action Racism as a Reason for Residential Segregation in Cities

Historically, residential segregation in cities has been attributed to collective action racism. Collective action racism can be defined as the use of official instruments (legal, policy, and economic) to instigate segregation within urban spaces (Glaeser, Cutler, Vigdor, 1999). This, in turn, resulted in a path-dependent persistence of urban segregation that can still be observed despite the removal of legal pathways permitting collective action racism (Heringa, 2017). Examples of collective action racism can be seen in Chicago, where the Hyde Park Improvement Club blacklisted real estate agents who sold properties to African-Americans. As a result, the housing supply in more desirable neighbourhoods (usually suburbs) was only reserved for residents of a white background, which meant that the only housing supply available to ethnic minorities was in the city centres creating residential segregation (Glaeser, Cutler, Vigdor, 1999). Estimates suggest that during period of collective action racism, eighty percent of deeds in parts of Chicago had racially restrictive covenants (Clark Philip, 1948). Even after the banning of collective action racism, the impacts of historical segregation remain persistent due to the influences of path-dependency with the literature suggesting that the formation of social networks and segregation . For example, Chicago was the most segregated American city in 1980 and still remains the fourth most segregated city in 2019 (Othering Belonging Institute, 2019). The persistent nature of historical segregation has vast negative social impacts which exemplify the need for effective policy interventions which will be discussed towards the end of this essay. In summation, a prominent reason for modern observable residential segregation is the collective action racism of the past, and the persistent nature of its influence in the present as seen in the case of Chicago.

Decentralised Racism as a Reason for Residential Segregation in Cities

Furthermore, another reason for observable residential segregation can be attributed to decentralised racism (Glaeser, Cutler, Vigdor, 1999). For the purposes of this essay, decentralised racism will be considered to cause or instigate segregation in two ways. Firstly, residential segregation that comes about due to personal prejudices of individuals in a position of residential decision-making power, e.g. estate agencies and landlords. Secondly, residential segregation that comes about due to the preferences of white people to live in predominantly white neighbourhoods and their willingness to pay higher prices for it. With regards to the former, there has been a proven historical and present trend of housing information and supply discrepancies for ethnic minorities when compared to their white or ethnic majority counterparts. For example, in 1986 it was found that people from AfricanAmerican backgrounds were provided with housing information on 30% fewer properties than their white counterparts (Yinger, 1986). Whilst some might suggest that this sort of racism has become less pertinent in a digital age, since the physical factor of prejudices has disappeared through innovations such as email, it s important to remember that just a name is enough to trigger prejudices. This has been observed in a study where the authors responded to housing advertisements via email with three different aliases (a typically Swedish male name, typically Swedish female name, and Mohammed ), Mohammed is 24.8% less likely to receive return correspondence than the typically Swedish male name alias and 35.2% less likely than the typically Swedish female name alias (Ahmed Hammarstedt, 2008). This sort of discrimination feeding into racial segregation (since landlords and estate agents are essentially selectively sorting who gets allocated where) can be categorised into taste-based discrimination and statistical discrimination. Taste-based discrimination in this example would be landlords discriminating (and therefore facilitating residential segregation) due to personal prejudices. Statistical discrimination in this example would constitute landlords and estate agents treating applicants from (seemingly) certain groups differently due to their believe that some observable features correlate with certain beliefs. For example, from the name Mohammed , the landlord or estate agent might assume that the applicant is from an ethnic minority, and since minorities are usually poorer poverty rates amongst the black community is 11.3% higher than the white community in America (Shrider, Kollar, Chen, Semega, 2021) it is not financially efficient for the landlord to focus on, or pursue Mohammed s requests, since he believes that Mohammed would not be able to pay for the accommodation. This sort of decentralised racism suggests that we observe residential segregation due to the limitations of the housing supply available to ethnic minorities, meaning that they cluster in very specific areas. To summarise, another reason for residential segregation observed in cities is due to decentralised racism the prejudices of residential decision-makers manifesting itself in housing choices (tastebased and statistical discrimination) and the preferences for white communities to live amongst other white neighbours.

Impacts of Residential Segregation

This section of the essay will explore the impacts of the residential segregation observed in cities as reasons to explain the need for policy solutions. Residential segregation has far and wide impacts on employment (and therefore poverty levels) and crime, education, and health. Some authors have found that whilst the location of segregated ghettos and slums (Glaeser, Cutler, Vigdor, 1999) are found in city centres, there is a discrepancy between the abilities of local workforce and the needs of the jobs found there. High-skilled jobs are usually found in urban cores, but the jobs and work tailored towards the local, usually less-skilled, workforce in segregated neighbourhoods are statistically found in the suburban areas that they are excluded from, through decentralised racism and former collective action racism (Jargowsky, 2011). This creates conditions for the segregated minority communities that works to lower their effective wages due to what Jargowsky refers to as reverse commuting (having to commute away from the urban core, work, and then travel back to the ghettos ). This means that minority workers experience a spatial mismatch from where their skills are needed due to discriminative forces that further exacerbates their poverty, suggesting that residential segregation creates a negative positive feedback loop. This is pertinent since there is a clear link between poverty and crime (Lederman, Fajnzylber, Loayza, 2002). Increased levels of violent crime deter investment (Brown Hibbert, 2017), which could potentially be incentivised through policy to try and minimise residential segregation. Additionally, residential segregation has a negative impact on schools in the poorer neighbourhoods. The strain on resources comes about due to the out-migration of white families to the suburbs which leaves schools with an insufficient taxation basis (Massey Denton, 1988). This has an impact on the culture of education within poorer communities teachers tend to avoid developing ambitious academic expectations and households lack the resources at home to bridge the gap between their white counterparts (Jargowsky, 2011). This leads to another negative positive feedback loop as families that can afford to base their location decisions on school performance consequently, poor school performance means fewer richer (typically white) families locate within the poorer community, which further exacerbates resource strains, and results in more residential segregation and continued poorer academic performance. This is pertinent because there is a proven link between education and economic productivity (Canals, 2017), suggesting that not addressing residential segregation is creating a missed opportunity for national improvements in economic output and efficiency. Finally, residential segregation has detrimental impacts on health outcomes. Living in a poorer neighbourhood (a consequence of residential segregation) increases one s likelihood of depression and behavioural problems. This is pertinent again, due to its economic impacts. Increased levels of depression and mental health disorders are linked with increases in sick days another instance of loss economic productivity that could be utilised to further reduce residential segregation (Mental Health Foundation, 2016). Additionally, residents in disadvantaged neighbourhoods are at a higher risk of communicable diseases, e.g. tuberculosis (Jargowsky, 2011). This is especially pertinent due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on health statistics poorer residentially segregated neighbourhoods would therefore be more susceptible to the impacts of the pandemic than their white counterparts.

Conclusion

In conclusion, residential segregation is a destructive force that has vast impacts on physical health, mental health, economic productivity, crime, investment, and education. Policies to incentivise integration should be developed from the bottom-up to ensure that the negative externalities of this force do not become even more embedded in path-dependency.