Ethnic drift and white flight: A gravity model of neighborhood formation

Abstract

Most research on ethnic relocation at the neighborhood level focuses on either in-migration or out-migration, considering characteristics of either the origin or the destination neighborhood. Gravity models consider characteristics of both the origin and destination of movers, but are mostly used to explain international or interregional migrant flows. We estimate a gravity model at the neighborhood level to identify the role of ethnic heterogeneity across space in two Dutch cities, explaining both size and ethnic composition of mover flows within cities. Our findings suggest a preference for living with the own ethnic group in an otherwise diverse neighborhood.

Homophily horizons and ethnic mover flows among homeowners in Scotland

“…There is much research on other cities and countries that support the results we find for Glasgow. Bakens et al (2018) find similar effects for the role of homophily, the presence of the own ethnic group, for ethnic groups in the city of Amsterdam and the Hague in the Netherlands. Ibraimovic & Masiero (2014) find homophily in neighbourhood choice in Switzerland, i.e.…”

“…We find that the homophily horizon is relatively short, indicating that it is the ethnic mix of the immediate locality, rather than the spatial ordering of ethnicity in the surrounding neighbourhoods, that dominates homophily behaviour. In line with Bakens et al (2018) for Amsterdam and the Hague in the Netherlands, the role of the own ethnic group in the neighbourhood seems important for the size of ethnic mover flows.…”

“…To explore the size of the homophily effects, we first interpret the results by calculating the marginal effects at specific points of the distribution of the share and LCI (following Bakens et al, 2018). Table 5 shows the marginal effects at the 5th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 95th percentiles.…”

“…The inflow f of house owners of a specific ethnic group x into a neighbourhood i for a given 5-year period (2001-2005 following the census year 2001) is given by: Silva & Tenreyro (2006); Bakens et al, 2018). The probability of observing a number of specific counts is given by a Poisson probability function (Long, 1997;Winkelmann, 2008).…”

“…In this article we attempt to explore the idea of homophily horizon while taking into account some of these complexities by analysing relocation patterns of homeowners in Glasgow. We use a partial gravity model of mover flows based on Bakens et al (2018) and focus on inflows into neighbourhoods. 2 We aim to describe (i) at what spatial distance (i.e.…”