Barriers to Integration: Institutionalized Boundaries and the Spatial Structure of Residential Segregation* Elizabeth Roberto Princeton University Jackelyn Hwang Princeton University Abstract Despite modest declines in residential segregation levels since the Civil Rights Era, segregation remains a defining feature of the U.S. landscape. We use population data and corresponding shapefiles from the 2010 decennial census and a novel approach to measuring and analyzing segregation that allows us to incorporate physical barriers and municipal boundaries. We show how physical barriers in urban space and municipal boundaries that separate central cities from surrounding suburbs contribute to higher levels of residential segregation across 14 U.S. cities. The findings demonstrate an important mechanism that exacerbates residential segregation for city residents and contributes to its persistence. Keywords: segregation, boundaries, race and ethnicity, cities, methods * Direct correspondence to Elizabeth Roberto, Department of Sociology, Princeton University, 108 Wallace Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544; email:
[email protected]. The authors thank Julia Adams, Richard Breen, Jacob Faber, Scott Page, Andrew Papachristos, and Jacob Rugh for helpful feedback. This research was supported in part by the James S. McDonnell Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship Award in Studying Complex Systems, the facilities and staff of the Yale University Faculty of Arts and Sciences High Performance Computing Center, and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (NIH; Grant No. T32HD007163). Barriers to Integration: Institutionalized Boundaries and the Spatial Structure of Residential Segregation A long line of research shows that residential segregation by race—the extent to which racial groups reside in distinct places—plays an important role in perpetuating racial stratification in the U.S.