An Analysis of the Residential Segregation of Foreigners in the Municipality of Palermo

Abstract

Ethnic residential segregation in Italy is emerging as a key question, which will be crucial in the definition and implementation of both urban and social policies. This paper focuses on this phenomenon in the Italian metropolitan area of Palermo. We use individual data for all the population residing in the city on 31 December 2011, organised by ethnicity and neighbourhood to describe the spatial distribution and the residential segregation of foreigners in the city, applying many different segregation measures. Results show that the top ten nationalities in Palermo are not uniformly spread across the different parts of the city, but tend to cluster in specific areas. The most segregated nationalities are people from China, Côte D'Ivoire, and Bangladesh, while Romanians present the lowest level of segregation.