In fact, this is the kind of process that is occurring within the UK where the segregation of ‘minority’ groups is decreasing as they spread out from the areas in which previously they were concentrated into more mixed neighbourhoods.
Figure a process of spatial diffusion.
To introduce potential users to the MLID, a tutorial is greece rcs data available at which also provides an overview of the MLID package in R.
It is a case study using census data to consider patterns of ethnic segregation at a range of scales – for example, the differences between London and the rest of the country but also the internal heterogeneity of London.
Further information (the slides from the Research Methods Festival) is available at here.
Better measurement, better models and better data are not a complete panacea for understanding how and why segregation is created nor its consequences.
The challenge of understanding how patterns relate to processes and to outcomes remains but the hope is that a (relatively) easy to use, multiscale measure of segregation will help to enhance our understanding of segregation as a geographical outcome and as a geographical contributor to geographical processes that are therefore better measured geographically.