Yet some blacks moving north from Detroit see Southfield as a new beginning. They are the Detroiters who could wait no longer for citywide revitalization. They get a lot of things here that they don't get in the inner city. What the next census will find Southfield's only real hope for continued integration, demographers said, is that a new ethnic group establishes within city limits, like the Hispanic population in Detroit's southwest corner. That's not happening in Southfield.
Demographers say the community is too small and insular to have a stemming effect.
And the Rev. Manuel Boji, pastor at the Mother of God Chaldean Catholic Church, said the Chaldean population that was once strong in the city is moving into the Bloomfields, Farmington Hills, and Commerce and Waterford townships. Yet city leaders say they are keeping to their belief that Southfield's racial balance will hold. They'll know if they're right tomorrow.