Spatial residential patterns of selected foreign groups. A study in four Italian cities

What are the spatial residential patterns of the main foreign groups residing in some large Italian cities? Using data from the last Italian demographic census (2011) at sub-municipality level, the study investigates on this research question. A spatial approach is applied to analyze the geographical distribution of the main foreign groups enumerated in the cities of Milan, Rome, Naples and Palermo. The results provide some interesting insights: the distribution of foreign groups coming from central and eastern European countries is quite scattered and shows a comparative low level of dissimilarity to the spatial distribution of Italians. Conversely, foreign groups coming from more distant countries (like China, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) show spatial distributions characterized by a comparative low level of dispersion and a comparative high level of dissimilarity to the spatial distribution of Italians.