Measuring the spatial concentration of the main foreign communities residing in Italy using a new approach

Abstract

In the field of population studies the spatial concentration of population reflects many issues. Surely one of the most important is the residential segregation of the foreign populations which is closely linked to the settlement pattern of the population. Starting from previous research on spatial concentration proposed by Mucciardi and Benassi (2023) and subsequently by Benassi et al. (2023a), the present paper develops new insights into spatial concentration applied to the main foreign communities in Italy. The aims of the contribution are as follows: (i) to detect the level of spatial concentration of the main foreign communities residing in Italy in 2003, 2011 and 2021; (ii) to evaluate the role of country of citizenship in shaping such levels and dynamics. To achieve aims (i) and (ii) we applied a spatial version of the Gini index, called the Spatial Gini Index (SGI) and the relative curve called Spatial Lorenz Curve (SLC). The results show that the level of the spatial concentration for each foreign group remains almost stable over time (with rare exceptions). In contrast, the level of the spatial concentration for the main foreign communities is lower than the Italian population.