A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON RACIAL RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION - AMERICAN AND CANADIAN EXPERIENCES

This article takes a first step to compare the residential segregation of blacks and Asians from whites in American and Canadian cities. The analysis is based on census data from 404 American and 41 Canadian ci ties. African Americans in the United States experience a higher level of residential segregation than Asians in U.S. cities. On the other h and, blacks in Canada experience the same low level of segregation as Asians. To explain the. different experiences of blacks in the United States and Canada, a multivariate model is proposed and tested. The re sults reveal several patterns. First, African Americans are consistent ly obstructed much more than Asian Americans by their proportion in th e city. In contrast blacks in Canada are not. Second, the residential segregation patterns of African Americans are affected strongly by the labor market and strucutral changes of the economy in the city. Howev er, the structural change of the economy in the city has a very weak e ffect on the level of residential segregation of Asian Americans, blac k Canadians, and Asian Canadians.