Studies on residential segregation of foreign population in Southern Europe usually focus on capital cities, omitting the metropolitan dimension and paying less attention to use of comparable analysis’ spatial scales. These issues, together with the dominant use of two-group segregation indexes, prevent identification and classification of metropolitan patterns of residential segregation in such contexts. To overcome these key issues, the spatial segregation of foreign population in 16 Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) was investigated in Italy and Spain using global and local multi-group segregation indexes based on a regular geometry (100 m grid) and confronted with socioeconomic indicators profiling the local context. Results of this study reveal the absence of common metropolitan patterns of residential segregation in both countries. In turn, a greater level of residential segregation is correlated with a lower presence of immigrant population and depressed socioeconomic conditions of each FUA, suggesting the existence of a downward spiral toward social vulnerability in the most disadvantaged cities. These results finally indicate the increasing difficulties faced by foreigners in order to access the real estate market in Southern European cities.

在南欧，外国人口居住隔离的研究通常集中在省会城市，忽略了大都市的维度，而较少关注可比分析的空间尺度的使用。这些问题，加上主要使用两组隔离指数，阻止了在这种情况下对大都市居民隔离模式的识别和分类。为了克服这些关键问题，在意大利和西班牙使用基于规则几何体（100 m网格）的全球和本地多组隔离指数，调查了16个功能性城市区（FUA）的外来人口空间隔离，并对其进行了社会经济指标分析分析本地环境。这项研究的结果表明，两国都没有常见的大都市居民隔离模式。反过来，较高的居住隔离度与移民人口的减少和每个FUA的社会经济状况低落相关，这表明在最弱势的城市中存在着向社会脆弱性下降的螺旋式增长。这些结果最终表明，外国人进入南欧城市房地产市场面临的困难越来越大。