Ethnic residential segregation in German cities: the impact of individual socioeconomic status

The causes of residential segregation of immigrants become relevant with regard to its effects for integration processes. This paper analyzes the degree of residential segregation in five German cities (Dortmund, Kassel, Munich, Oldenburg und Stuttgart) and disentangles the effects of migration status and socioeconomic background. Kalter (Zeitschrift fur Soziologie 30: 452-464, 2001) proposed a procedure to control for independent variables in the measurement of segregation. We adapt this method by integrating a decomposition method for nonlinear probability models (Kohler et al. Stata Journal 11: 420-438, 2011). Our empirical results show that about one fifth of the degree of spatial inequality (as measured by the index of dissimilarity) can be explained by measures of socioeconomic background. These findings suggest that dynamics of immigration as well as possible discrimination seem to be the main determinants of residential segregation of immigrants.