RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION OF CHINESE AND JAPANESE-AMERICANS IN THE UNITED STATES SUBURBAN AREAS: 1960, 1970, AND 1980

This research undertakes an analysis of Chinese and Japanese American suburbanization in an effort to determine how patterns observed for these groups compare with those of blacks. Specifically, three related issues are addressed by this research: (1) To what degree are Chinese and Japanese in the fringe residentially segregated from each other and from blacks and whites? Is the segregation pattern longitudinally changing and what are the determinants of change? (2) To which type of suburbs are Chinese and Japanese Americans moving to? and why? What are the determinants of change in suburbanization? (3) Is an invasion-succession process occurring in suburbs where Chinese and Japanese are increasing their numbers? Is there a tipping-point process or one of a parallel growth? This research found that first, the level of Chinese/Japanese segregation from whites is much less than that of blacks from whites. Chinese/Japanese segregation from whites shows a more pronounced decline from 1960 to 1980 than that of blacks. More importantly, the level of segregation between Chinese and Japanese is much less than that between either Chinese and blacks or Japanese and blacks. Second, the findings do not support the so called flight and tipping-point hypotheses. Findings of this research suggest that transition in the suburbs appears to involve parallel growth of Chinese/Japanese and white population in the same units. Third, Chinese and Japanese suburban segregation pattern is found to be persistent and there is little significant effect predicting change. Finally, it appears that Chinese are strongly attracted to suburbs which have relatively large Chinese population. The same phenomenon holds true for Japanese. Inconsistent with the suburbanization patterns of blacks, Chinese and Japanese are moving to relatively younger and higher status suburbs