Contemporary cities are becoming highly diverse on an unprecedented scale due to accelerating urbanization, international migration and mobility. Research on urban diversity commonly focuses on ethnicities and countries of origin, disregarding equally informative characteristics, such as information on languages and language use, which might reveal new aspects of urban diversity. In this paper, we analyse the development of urban diversity in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area between 1987 and 2019 using language information retrieved from the Finnish population register and examine the extent to which linguistic diversity captures urban diversity. We focus on two population groups, speakers of Estonian and Somali, to analyse how linguistic diversity and socioeconomic characteristics have changed in their residential neighbourhoods and to estimate to what extent these population groups have integrated into the host society. We measured linguistic diversity using Shannon entropy, performed spatial clustering analyses and used Markov chains to examine the likelihood of changes in linguistic diversity. We found clear spatial patterns and high spatial variability in the development of linguistic diversity, which shows that geographical space is a central component in linguistic diversity. Our results suggest that linguistic diversity is more likely to change in more segregated neighbourhoods and show that linguistic diversity is a suitable proxy for urban diversity. Understanding urban diversity is a key element for supporting social sustainability and cohesion in urban areas now and in the future. Mapping the spatio-temporal and intersectional patterns of urban diversity is crucial for managing its negative effects, but more importantly, in leveraging its positive effects.

中文翻译：

---

通过语言捕捉城市多样性：赫尔辛基大都市区多语言住宅区的长期变化

由于城市化、国际移民和流动性的加速，当代城市正以前所未有的规模变得高度多样化。关于城市多样性的研究通常侧重于种族和原籍国，而忽视了同样信息丰富的特征，例如有关语言和语言使用的信息，这些信息可能揭示城市多样性的新方面。在本文中，我们利用从芬兰人口登记中检索到的语言信息，分析了 1987 年至 2019 年间赫尔辛基大都市区城市多样性的发展情况，并考察了语言多样性在多大程度上体现了城市多样性。我们关注爱沙尼亚语和索马里语这两个人口群体，分析其居住社区的语言多样性和社会经济特征如何变化，并估计这些人口群体融入东道国社会的程度。我们使用香农熵测量语言多样性，进行空间聚类分析并使用马尔可夫链来检查语言多样性变化的可能性。我们发现语言多样性发展过程中存在明显的空间格局和高度的空间变异性，这表明地理空间是语言多样性的核心组成部分。我们的结果表明，在隔离程度较高的社区中，语言多样性更有可能发生变化，并表明语言多样性是城市多样性的合适代表。了解城市多样性是支持现在和未来城市地区社会可持续性和凝聚力的关键要素。绘制城市多样性的时空和交叉模式对于管理其负面影响至关重要，但更重要的是，对于利用其积极影响至关重要。