Immigration and residential segregation in the city of Madrid

Abstract

Residential segregation for ethnic reasons is found in Spanish cities from the last decade of the 20th century with the arrival of a strong international immigration current. The main objective of this article is to measure the level of inequality of the distribution of the immigrant population in the city of Madrid, considering segregation and dissimilarity indices, as well as the presence of immigrant neighborhoods in the city. After the identification of the most segregated neighborhoods, there is an analysis in order to assess the degree of "ghettoization" existing in Madrid. The results suggest that segregation in Madrid is quite moderate, except in some neighborhoods where it is more appropriate define ethnic enclaves than ghettos.