Residential Integration but Social Segregation: Community Boundaries in a Multi-Cultural Society

Stephen Appold, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Vincent Chua, University of Toronto

Residential spatial integration is often held to be an indicator – and sometimes cause – of social assimilation. That contention forms the basis of much housing policy but has rarely been tested. Singapore, a multi-cultural city-state in tropical Southeast Asia provides an excellent laboratory for informing theory and policy concerning residential distribution and social interaction. Combining evidence from Census summary data and a unique survey of the social networks of adult (25-55) residents that places inter-ethnic social ties in the context of a range of functional and intimate relationships, this paper finds no support for a general linkage between special proximity and the formation of relationships. Singaporeans live in spatially interpenetrating but largely socially separate worlds. Beginning with the impact of ethnic category size, social homophily, and the crowding out effect of family dependence, the paper will attempt to understand why Singaporean adult social networks are not more integrated.