Immigration flows and social inequalities reflect increased social and multi‐ethnic segregation in contemporary urban Europe. For a better understanding of these processes, the present study investigates the main strengths of the multi‐group residential indices, testing sensitivity and reliability under different metropolitan contexts in five European countries. These indices focus on different research dimensions and approach multi‐group residential segregation conceptually and mathematically in a different way. A multivariate exploratory data analysis was adopted to classify the observed segregation patterns into a few homogeneous types and to delineate the multivariate relationship between the indices. The results of principal component analysis demonstrate that the indices assessing uniformity and disproportionality of the social groups analysed (H and D) contribute largely to the diversification in today's multi‐ethnic communities, clarifying the importance of the dimension of evenness. Our results highlight how segregation is more evident in economically disadvantaged metropolitan regions with high levels of social vulnerability.

Immigrants’ neighbourhood choices are key to understanding today’s dominant socio-territorial dynamics, especially in urban areas. We analysed the factors involved in the housing search at the early stages of the economic migrant influx in Seville, Spain (Andalusia region, Europe’s southern border) and their impact on the development of residential segregation in this city. Using a qualitative methodology approach based on focus groups, unstructured interviews and discourse analysis, the implicit and explicit social determinants that influence economic migrants’ residential behaviours were examined. In line with previous studies, the results highlight the importance of socio-economic determinants and a trend towards self-segregation. Social discourse analysis reveals how the host society’s ethnoracial preferences and prejudices – from the outset of the economic migrant influx – translate into barriers to accessing the housing market, which plays a crucial role in understanding economic migrant residential mobility and its impact on and consequences for the residential segregation process.

This study presents a spatial analysis of suburban inequalities (residential concentration and income inequalities) among the main foreign-born population groups resident in Spain (Italians, Britons, Chinese, Moroccans and Romanians) in Madrid and Barcelona. Through a local spatial approach at census tract level, a number of relevant issues are highlighted, including the existence, both in Madrid and in Barcelona, of a divided space that shows a marked contrast between the city of the rich and that of the poor. The former includes the foreign-born population from more developed countries, while the latter contains Moroccans and Romanians. The Chinese population seem to follow their own pattern, which cannot be compared to that of the other population groups. It therefore seems that country of birth determines the outcome of spatial distributions and the degree of integration in spatially divided, and therefore more fragile, contexts. The emergent theme of divided cities, especially in its ethnic and spatial dimension, is gaining increased importance in ‘old Europe’.