The International Comparability of Ethnicity and Collective Identity; Implications for Segregation Studies

The study of residential segregation has gained prominence in the social sciences over the last decade across the developed world. However, there is a lack of international comparative work that assesses the level of segregation between cities and ethnic groups across countries. This is largely a consequence of the serious methodological barriers faced by scholars in this area. These pertain to different issues derived from the use of inconsistent units of analysis between countries, or even within countries when making comparisons over time. The majority of the literature in this area focuses on the problems related to the comparison between geographical units of analysis, namely; scale and extent of urban areas. However, there are other and largely understudied issues with the comparison of the population unit of analysis, that is, incompatible classifications of distinct populations. Such populations are typically classified along one or several dimensions into migrant, racial, ethnic or religious groups. This chapter addresses methodological issues in the comparison of definitions and measurements of ethnicity, identity and migration. It primarily focuses on comparing the 2010/11 Censuses round across 20 countries. It analyses the census forms to extract 27 questions on identity, grouped them into six themes. It then proposes four clusters of countries that should be useful to facilitate intra-cluster international comparisons of segregation. Only if national statistical agencies provide the necessary means for analysing flexible cross-tabulations between those questions, and calculate segregation indices at small area level in a 'controlled access room' type of setting, will the benefits of creating such new representations of human difference and minority groups be reached. We hope to have made a contribution to this debate and sparked interest in overcoming traditional stereotypes by creating new, internationally comparable, alternative groupings of people for the study of residential segregation