The Unique Case of Minneapolis–St. Paul, MN: Locational Attainments and Segregation in the Twin Cities

Abstract

The Minneapolis–St. Paul Metropolitan Area has a rapidly growing foreign-born population in part due to its high levels of refugee reception and migrants drawn to the burgeoning high-tech and manufacturing industries. As a result, the Twin Cities are unique in that every major racial group has a sizable foreign-born segment with a wide range of U.S. entry experiences and thus the area offers an opportunity to investigate the dynamics of locational attainments and segregation of a highly diverse non-White population. Accordingly, we examine the residential outcomes of Blacks, Latinos and Asians, investigate how nativity, socioeconomic gains, and acculturation translate into residential contact with Whites, and draw the link between these micro-level locational attainments and overall segregation patterns for the area. We find Latinos and Asians experience traditional spatial assimilation dynamics but a different pattern is seen for Blacks wherein foreign-born Blacks are less segregated than U.S.-born Blacks, reversing the expected role of nativity and acculturation and suggesting a more complicated story of ethnic stratification and assimilation supported by the segmented assimilation framework.