Trasformazioni urbane e distribuzione spaziale degli immigrati stranieri a Messina

event interrupted the economic prosperity of the nineteenth century reflected in the urban framework, and after that, the city seems to undergo rather than manage the port and commercial activities that influence economy and demography. The urban morphology divided into several poles is also reflected in the location of foreign migrants. The residential segregation among foreign migrants has become an international issue, central to the debate that connects it to urban policies reducing social exclusion and sometimes urban identity. This paper focuses on the residential segregation among foreign migrants, distinguishing among «enforced» and «voluntary» segregation. To this end, we use point patterns analysis to assess the residual clustering of migrant households after having adjusted for economic inhomogeneity within the urban area, noticeably in the cost of rents and the availability of specific types of jobs. Sri Lankan and Romanian communities showed the highest voluntary segregation, as Filipinos exceeding one kilometre do, contributing to the creation of a spatial aggregation that strengthens the polycentric model of Messina’s identity