Macro-, Meso- and Microscale Segregation: Modeling Changing Ethnic Residential Patterns in Auckland, New Zealand, 2001–2013

Abstract

Most world cities can now be characterized as multiethnic and multicultural in their population composition, and the residential patterning of their major component ethnic groups remains a topic of substantial research interest. Many studies of the degree of residential segregation of ethnic groups recognize that this is multiscalar in its composition, but few have incorporated this major feature into their analyses: Those that do mostly conclude that segregation is greater at the microscale than at the macroscale. This article uses a recently developed alternative procedure for assessing the degree of segregation that differs from all others in that it analyzes the geography of all groups simultaneously, providing a single, synoptic view of their relative segregation; can incorporate data for more than one date and therefore evaluate the statistical significance of the extent of any change over time; operates at several geographical scales, allowing appreciation of the extent of clustering and congregation for the various ethnic groups at different levels of spatial resolution; and—most important—is based on a firm statistical foundation that allows for robust assessments of differences in the levels of segregation for different groups between each other at different scales over time. This modeling procedure is illustrated by a three-scale analysis of ethnic residential segregation in Auckland, New Zealand, as depicted by the country's 2001, 2006, and 2013 censuses.