MINORITY ACCESS TO WHITE SUBURBS - A MULTIREGIONAL COMPARISON

What are the locational processes that underlie racial residential Seg regation? This study analyzes the residential patterns of non-Hispanic whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians in eleven suburban regions usin g a multilevel model of locational attainment: the racial composition of a person's place of residence is determined by the person's individ ual characteristics (e.g., socioeconomic status and cultural assimilat ion) and aggregate variables including his or her racial/ethnic group, characteristics of the region in which he or she lives, and average c haracteristics of the group in that region. With some exceptions, find ings for individual effects are more consistent with assimilation theo ry for Hispanics and Asians and with racial stratification theory for blacks. Having controlled for individual effects, disparities with whi tes are greatest for blacks, and for all three minority groups they ar e greatest in regions with large minority populations.