Residential segregation of ethnic minorities and geographic analysis of name origins

The geodemographic study of the composition and distribution of ethnic minority communities has turned into a high priority need for public authorities in the main immigration countries and regions. This paper presents a new methodology, originally developed for the United Kingdom, that allows the classification of a population in ethnic groups according to the geographic, linguistic, religious or cultural origin of their surnames and forenames (ethnic origin). This method offers several advantages over traditional statistical sources currently available, such as the Census of Population, amongst them, a continuous update frequency and a greater nominal and spatial resolution. The paper applies this methodology to the geodemographic study of the distribution of ethnic minorities and residential segregation in Spain, using a telephone directory as a name register of the total population. It uses Geographic Information Systems at a national and regional scales of analysis to measure the unequal spatial distribution of ethnic minorities, pointing out to the limitations and future potential of this method.