Abstract

The five-county metropolitan region of Los Angeles has such large ethnic populations that it can show ethnic geography trends and patterns not easily identified in smaller places. I use Los Angeles to illustrate three dynamics that seem neglected in the urban literature. First, significant out-movement from poor, more central areas of Los Angeles into suburbs means that Blacks, Latinos, and Asians are no longer trapped in such neighborhoods, as was the case a half century ago. Second, many suburbs, particularly those built after about 1970, contain racially and ethnically diverse populations, some with very low levels of residential segregation between groups. Last, rates of ethnic group intermarriage with other groups are higher outside each group's area of residential concentration, and Blacks and Whites in Los Angeles are more likely to be married outside their respective groups than in the U.S. as a whole. All this evidence suggests the value of studying Los Angeles and suburbs as indicators of the nation's future ethnic geography.

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