Exposure of foreign population to industrial pollution - A comparison of German cities

What is it about?

Research demonstrates that in many countries, areas with large minority shares tend to have more environmental pollution. Also in Germany, we find a relatively large correlation between the percentage of foreigners and the amount of air pollution, documenting a severe dimension of social inequality given the impact of exposure to environmental pollution on health and other social outcomes. However, as can be seen below, the magnitude of the correlation between minority share and pollution (i.e. the disadvantage of minorities) varies considerably between the cities. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate why some cities exhibit high levels of environmental inequality while others do not.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

The results reveal that the city-level predictors derived from the standard strand of theoretical reasoning do a rather poor job of explaining the varying level of environmental inequality. The geographic centrality of industrial facilities, in contrast, exhibits a highly robust and strong correlation with the level of environmental inequality: The closer the polluting facilities to the city centre, the higher the environmental burden of minorities. Does this finding mean that minority share and environmental pollution are not causally linked but driven by the proximity to the city centre? Interestingly, the centrality of industrial facilities is not statistically related to the geographic centrality of the foreign population. Consequently, environmental inequality could be the unintended consequence of two independent processes: minorities agglomerate around the urban core across all cities because of better network and other infrastructural opportunities, and many cities exhibit a high level of pollution in central areas. The crucial question is then, why do some cities manage to displace industrial facilities to peripheral areas while others do not? Having a closer look at the spatial distribution of environmental hazards within the urban space might help to reduce the persisting disadvantage and environmental burden of minority groups.

Perspectives