Segregation Doesn't Only Harm the Poor

In findings published this spring in the journal Urban Studies, researchers Harrison Campbell, Huiping Li and Steven Fernandez, "found that when poverty rates and segregation are high in metropolitan areas, those regions perform economically worse relative to less segregated places," reports Badger. "Segregated regions – by race as well as skills – have slower rates of income growth and property value appreciation. And this isn’t just true for minority families stuck in segregated pockets of inner-city poverty. It's true for everyone, the suburbs and city alike."

"Most work that's been done in this area looks at the impact of things like segregation on those who are segregated, it looks at their employment probabilities, their wage rates," Campbell says. "The argument that we're trying to make here is that there is reason for everybody in metropolitan areas to be concerned about skills, about education, about housing, about segregation, about integration."