The Significance of Segregation in the 21st Century

Researchers have vigorously debated the significance of the reductions in residential segregation by race that U.S. metropolitan areas have experienced. While some argue that we have witnessed the “end of the segregated century” (Vigdor and Glaeser 2012; Vigdor 2013), others highlight the persistence of high levels of segregation in many areas (e.g., Logan 2013). There has been far less debate about the relationship between segregation and access to opportunity in the 21st century. Yet such exploration is critical to a richer understanding of the significance of segregation. Almost two decades ago, David Cutler and Edward Glaeser (1997) found that in 1990 a one-standard-deviation reduction in levels of residential segregation would eliminate one-third of the gap between whites and blacks in high school graduation rates, earnings, rates of single motherhood, and the likelihood of being simultaneously out of work and out of school. Cutler and Glaeser (1997) also found that only one-third of the effects of segregation could be explained by exposure to less educated neighbors, distance from jobs, or parental background. Analyzing data from 1940 through 1980, however, William Collins and Robert Margo (2000) subsequently found that some of the negative socioeconomic effects of segregation identified by Cutler and Glaeser (1997) were actually a relatively recent development. For instance, Collins and Margo (2000) identified no significant relationship between segregation and the likelihood of employment or single motherhood between 1940 and 1970. These findings suggest that some of the negative effects of black–white residential segregation emerged primarily with the economic restructuring and dramatic neighborhood change of the 1970s (Wilson 1996). Together, these results indicate that the effects of segregation vary over time in relation to broader social, economic, and political developments. There are at least three key questions to explore about the effects of segregation in the 21st century. First, does segregation continue to constrain economic and social mobility for minority groups? Second, are the effects similar for the two largest non-white groups in the United States, African Americans and Latinos, despite their different historical experiences of segregation? Third, and perhaps most importantly, how does segregation