Aboriginal Settlement Patterns in Canadian Cities: Does the Classic Index-Based Approach Apply?

Based on the evidence obtained in qualitative studies, Massey and Denton argued in their 1988 paper (“The dimensions of residential segregation†Social Forces 67 281–315) that the residential segregation of ethnic or racialized groups is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon and, therefore, should be measured along several dimensions simultaneously. In a systematic review and analysis of all segregation measures proposed to that date, they identified five conceptually distinct dimensions of ethnic segregation—evenness, exposure, concentration, centralization, and clustering—and ‘best indices’ to measure them. This index-based approach has achieved a ‘canonical’ status and has been employed in numerous studies of segregation patterns. However, it is often overlooked that the structure of ethnic residential segregation uncovered by Massey and Denton is specific to the context in which segregation takes place—that is, the residential segregation of ethnic and racialized groups in US cities. This paper attempts to assess the utility of Massey and Denton's five-dimensional structure of segregation for the study of settlement patterns of Aboriginal people in Canadian metropolitan areas. We find that the application of the Massey and Denton model to the urban Aboriginal population in Canadian cities produces a significantly different structure of segregation.