Residential Segregation of the Foreign Population: the Case of Bilbao

Abstract

If we talk about the great social transformations of the 21st century, we must mention in an inescapable way the international migratory flows. Bilbao (Spain), as well as other cities in the world, also participates in the global dynamics that are gradually forming a new city. In fact, its large size (the largest in northern Spain) as well as its migratory diversity makes Bilbao a very interesting case of study in the field of urban sociology. The main aim of this article is to measure and analyse the settlement tendencies of foreign citizens in the urban space through segregation indexes, paying special attention to the citizens of Bolivia, Senegal, Morocco and China. The results for Bilbao show, that citizens of China and Senegal are most subject to the segregation, whereas Latin American origin people have lower indexes of segregation. The possible reasons of those differences are economic vulnerability, as in the case of migrants from Senegal, Morocco and Bolivia, and housing preferences as in the case of China citizens. Discrimination in the property rental market also is an important factor that affects uneven settlement of the foreigners in the urban space.