Irish & American ghettos

The spatial incorporation of African immigrants in the United States and Ireland is examined. By juxtaposing Ireland with the United States, the research problematizes our reflexive assumptions about how residential segregation, immigration and race interact to socially exclude or include immigrants and racial minorities in the larger society. The dissertation consists of a set of analyses that are linked by the causes, consequences and nature of residential segregation in country. Each chapter addresses the issue from different angles. The analysis begins at the cross-national level. Next, the study hones in on each country and examines residential segregation patterns at the national level. Finally, the study takes a local, ground-level approach and shows how the spatial assimilation process plays out for African immigrants in Dublin and Boston. Multiple methodologies and analytical strategies are employed in the study, including multivariate regression analysis, spatial statistics and GIS, qualitative indepth interviews, and neighborhood observations. The cross-national comparison shows that national context is extremely important in shaping residential segregation processes as well as the form of segregation that occurs. The comparison of the United States with Ireland provides a unique view of residential segregation. This is because on the one hand, black immigrants are entering an already entrenched system of racial residential segregation in the United States. Processes of racial residential segregation have been set in motion for more than 80 years now. Black immigrants entering this social environment must negotiate their incorporation process through the dual lens of both race and ethnicity. On the other hand, black immigrants in Ireland enter a society in which residential segregation has historically been organized around class. Without a preexisting, institutionalized system of segregation by race black immigrants in Ireland have in essence a blank slate from which to negotiate their incorporation process. In this way, the study provides some unique insights into the mechanisms as well as the consequences of residential segregation for immigrants in racially stratified and non-racially stratified societies.