Partnering 'out' and fitting in: residential segregation and the neighbourhood contexts of mixed-race households

This analysis considers how racial segregation affects the residential geographies of households headed by mixed‐race couples. We also become interested in assessing whether diverse households live in diverse places. To measure neighbourhood diversity, we develop a new index of diversity based on the exposure index. The analysis of 12 large US metropolitan areas finds that race (in tandem with status markers like income) and nativity provide some of the best understandings of the neighbourhood geographies of mixed‐race households. The study also reveals that instead of fitting into and thus reinforcing the existing racialised urban spatial structure, some households formed by ‘partnering out’ live in spaces characterised by their racial diversity. We focus on the mixed‐race household because such a collective constitutes a scale at which mixed‐race contact takes place and a site for identity construction of individuals, partners, and the surrounding neighbourhood. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.