Residential Segregation among Nicaraguan Immigrants in Costa Rica in 2000

Gilbert Brenes, University of Wisconsin at Madison

The article analyzes residential segregation among Nicaraguan immigrants in Costa Rica, in three of its dimensions: non-uniformity, isolation, and agglomeration. The source of the data is Costa Rica's 2000 Population Census. The values of the indices were used as dependent variables for OLS models (corrected for spatial autocorrelation), in order to determine factors associated to residential segregation. The paper finds that residential segregation of Nicaraguans is relatively moderate, very similar to the levels for Hispanics in US cities. Two variables were consistently correlated to the three different dimensions of segregation: the proportion of Nicaraguans living as squatters in the "canton" and to live in the Central Region. Moreover, in the municipalities with the highest indices, the proportion of Nicaraguans with High School education or more, the proportion of Nicaraguans naturalized as Costa Rican citizens, and the proportion of these immigrants that live in extended households, are all lower.