Wirth points out that we can think of them either as case-study in isolation or accommodation.

• It is usually considered to be sociologically interesting case study in isolation.

• But it could also be seen as a form of accommodation through which a minority community has effectively been subordinated to a dominant group. To some extent it could also be toleration through which two very different groups co-exist.

• Ghetto gave a possibility to give expression to the heritage of the people when they were transplanted to a strange habitat. Communities blend with the larger population but at the same time reappear in various altered guises of its old and unmistakable atmosphere.

• Wirth wants to find out not only the origin of Jewish Ghetto but that of segregated areas in general—Little Sicily, Little Poland, Chinatown, Blackbelts.