Economic segregation can be defined as the extent to which persons of different social classes live amongst each other. A study conducted in 2010 indicates that roughly 76 percent of people in the United States live in middle class. This has changed rapidly overtime. Economic segregation is mostly associated with racial discrimination. Racial segregation on the other hand refers to separation of certain races of people, mostly facilitated by income disparities. In a normal society, the tendency of people to identify themselves with a certain class is common. These classes are based on factors such as social status, income levels, race, among other factors. According to an opinion poll taken in2011 to find out the probability of Americans either falling back or moving ahead economically, there was a n 80 percent chance of an upward mobility compared to a less than 50 percent chance of a back fall. The upward mobility was attributed to factors such as hard work, ambition and most importantly, access to education. The results also provided that individuals from a poor background stood a chance of a better life if one possessed qualities such as hard work, creativity and ambition. Other perceptions are contrary to the finding, arguing that the background of an individual actually affects the economic mobility, which varies by neighborhood, locality and state.
According to the 2009 study, the results showed that an individual with a very poor background stands a high risk of living in worse conditions as an adult. The study also shows that economic mobility also varies among localities (citation needed). The 2012 report, an analysis of America’s economic mobility, provided that Mideast and new England regions had higher mobility than states in the south, that experienced low mobility.(citation needed). This study has opened an avenue for more research on the role of localities in prospects of rising or falling back from the economic ladder. This analysis emphasizes on a specific factor that influences mobility; economic segregation. This can be explained as the gap between the rich and the poor in layman’s terms.
In a research conducted to understand the factors influencing mobility prospects in America, it advocated for focus on local and regional drivers of mobility and points of actions that reduce economic segregation through expansive options for low income families. Two measures were put into place in relation to movements up the economic ladder; absolute mobility-which examined the possibility of adults earning more than their parents at their age, and relative mobility- that compared the adults income level with that of their parents. The intergenerational elasticity of income(IGE) report , whose findings range between 0 and 1 indicated that; the IGE in a metro area was 0.43, classifying metro areas as above average mobility.
The question as to whether neighborhood economic segregation matters for economic mobility arises. In a metropolitan area where families of different social and economic backgrounds are dispersed, the economic status of the household is not related to the income levels of the same household. In this case, children have an advantage as traits are passed on through work ethics, personality traits, among other ways. Parents pass on these traits through enrichment activities, private schooling, high quality childcare, private resources. Parents on the other hand cannot pass these advantages through means such as providing a home in a higher quality neighborhood, as all neighborhoods are similar in all manners. Such neighborhoods are termed as perfectly equal metro areas.
In another metro area, where some neighborhoods are highly income segregated, it is termed as an unequal area. In other cases, only the rich occupy an area. Advantages in this case can either be passed on through the same means as a perfectly equal metro area, or by selecting a home in a wealthier community that offers better economic opportunities. In such a metro area, the low income households are disadvantaged, where amenities are of low quality, high crime rate and less economic opportunities.
These findings proved the hypothesis that some metro areas are mere economically segregated than others. in the report, economic segregation was measured using the Neighborhood sorting index, that evaluates the correlation between household incomes and neighborhoods or economically integrated areas. high values from the index indicated that family income varied more within neighborhoods, implying high concentration of wealth and poverty. These findings prove that economic segregation rates in metro areas have risen. This means that the degree of the wealthy living apart from the poor has risen. This trend signifies that neighborhoods are true indicators of income, with the capacity to predict income on the basis of residence increasing by over 50 percent. Statistics show that neighborhood economic segregation has been on the rise in metro areas from a range of 15 to 28 percent. This came with an overall increase in income inequality- with the poor being poorer and the rich getting richer.
Conclusion
Increasing economic mobility, in light of the findings discussed above, should be a precedence for policymakers to focus on investing in low income suburbs to promote child development and economic growth.
References
Asante, M. K., & Mattson, M. T. (1998). The African-American atlas Black history and culture--an illustrated reference. New York: Macmillan.
Peach, C. (1975). Urban social segregation. London: Longman.
