Close Together but Worlds Apart? Residential Integration and Interethnic Friendship in Houston

Why-and under what conditions-is residential integration positively associated with interethnic friendships between adults in large, diverse metropolitan areas? Both macrostructural and contact theories predict such an association. Yet integrated neighborhoods sometimes resemble "worlds of strangers" (<link rid="b40">Lofland, 1973), in which much interaction involves fleeting contacts that may increase the salience of stereotypes. Some prior research suggests that a positive association between integration and interethnic friendship may obtain even under such less than ideal circumstances. By analyzing how the association between integration and friendship varies among Anglos, Blacks, and Latinos, this article offers a more nuanced perspective informed by group position theory. Net of selection bias and more intensive forms of intergroup contact, living in an integrated area is only positively associated with having interethnic friendships when integration provides exposure to groups that occupy privileged positions in the larger society's racial-ethnic hierarchy relative to a resident's own group.