Rethinking the analysis of ethnic residential patterns: Segregation, isolation, or concentration thresholds in Auckland, New Zealand?

Data from the 1996 New Zealand Census on ethnicity in Auckland Urban Area are used to illustrate a new approach to measuring spatial separation. The traditionally employed single-number indices are found wanting and a method based on thresholds is introduced. This provides more detailed information on the geography of ethnic groups that is consistent with the requirements for testing hypotheses regarding the relationship between social and spatial distance. The results show that (with a few exceptions) Polynesian groups were more encapsulated groups in Auckland than were Asian and European groups, and that most of the European groups-along with the "host society," the New Zealand Europeans-were not spatially exposed to members of the Polynesian and Asian groups.