Multiethnic Neighborhoods on the Ground: Resources, Constraints, and Sense of Community

• In Event: 148 - Regular Session. Racial and Ethnic Inequality

Abstract

As our nation and our neighborhoods increasingly diversify, we should understand how to sustain integrated communities that are equally-beneficial for all residents. Though our policies encourage diversity as a theoretical social good, we actually know little about what happens on the ground in multiethnic neighborhoods. We conduct a comparative case study of the only two Boston neighborhoods to be consistently multiethnic - maintaining at least 10% representation of four racial and ethnic groups - over the past two decades. Using survey data and ethnographic field observations, we examine residents’ experiences in these two very different, yet both consistently multiethnic, neighborhoods. We find that neighborhood socioeconomic and racial inequality and disadvantage matter for residents’ access to neighborhood resources and constraints, and their perceptions of sense of community. Notably, in the highly-unequal South End, whites and homeowners perceive greater access to amenities and a sense of community compared to racial and ethnic minorities and renters. Socioeconomic disadvantage matters in Fields Corner, demonstrated by lower overall perceptions of sense of community and greater exposure to safety concerns among all groups compared to residents of the South End. In the end, we argue that having multiple groups simply sharing neighborhood space does not overcome the social problems associated with residential segregation and isolation. In order to support equitable neighborhood integration, consistent representation of multiple groups over time is not enough; rather, we should take cues from “diverse by direction” neighborhood models that include active organization and coalition-building among dissimilar racial and ethnic groups.

Author

• Emily Walton, Dartmouth College