ABSTRACT
In international literature the dominant view is that residential segregation has negative consequences, in particular for poor people. These views are heavily influenced by the stereotype of the American black ghetto. The situation of the American-born poor black population is historically connected to long-lasting oppression and discrimination and is maintained by a set of institutional arrangements, all of which have caused the special characteristics of the spatial concentrations of these residents. At first sight this seems to justify the notion that the American black ghetto will not manifest itself very easily elsewhere, for instance, in Europe. As an example, in the United States, the percentage of blacks in areas identified as black ghettos appears to be over eighty percent. In Europe the concentrations are much lower, and in the United States other poor population categories do not show such high concentrations, either. European immigrants in the United States, for instance, hardly concentrate in particular areas; the Irish ghetto of Burgess contained only three percent of the Irish population in Chicago, while the black ghetto contained 93% of the black population of that city (Musterd, 1996).
