The Rise of Asian Ethnoburbs: A Case of Self-Segregation?

Abstract

The past several decades have seen the rise of the Asian “ethnoburb”—communities retaining a disproportionate Asian presence in middle-class and suburban settings. Recent explanations have suggested that ethnoburbs may manifest as a function of “resurgent ethnicity” that indirectly leads to Asian self-segregation. In this study, I examine whether Asian ethnoburbs can also arise as a function of stratification, where White population exodus coincides with Asian population growth. To evaluate this argument, I use census data from 2000 to 2020 to examine the history of White and Asian population change for 1,299 neighborhoods defined as Asian ethnoburbs in 2020. The results suggest, on one hand, that many ethnoburbs experienced White population exit in a fashion consistent with racial turnover. These patterns of White population decline were unexplained by socioeconomic deficits and, in fact, rose in likelihood with socioeconomic status (SES) increases. On the other hand, a near-comparable number of ethnoburbs did not experience White exit in the face of Asian in-migration. However, this tended to be the case when Asians began as a relatively small presence and White households remained the dominant group. These findings suggest that arguments of self-segregation provide a poor explanation for ethnoburb formation. Instead, Asian ethnoburbs appear to emerge as a function of spatial assimilation and ethnic stratification: though Asian households tend to grow most prominently in the Whitest neighborhoods, the prospect of racial turnover looms once Asian households start to comprise a greater share of neighborhood residents.