ABSTRACT
The dominant theory on how immigrants settle when they arrive, and over the course of time including following generations, is called the spatial assimilation theory. The spatial location of immigrants is assumed to be closely connected with their social, cultural and economic assimilation in the host society. The theory claims that newly arrived immigrants will tend to cluster in certain neighbourhoods, dominated by their own ethnic group, and that they over the course of time will be more dispersed in the city in pace with their integration/assimilation. This dispersal can be unleashed by two different reasons. The first is that immigrants over time will improve their economic situation, which creates a demand for better housing not found in the ethnic neighbourhoods. The other is that immigrants’ preferences for living in ethnic enclaves decrease in pace with their social and cultural integration. In this chapter we will review the American and European literature on spatial assimilation and try to draw some conclusions on its usability in a European context. In the last section results from an advanced study of spatial assimilation in Denmark will be reviewed.
