Post-socialist Urban Trends: New Patterns and Motivations for Migration in the Suburban Areas of Rīga, Latvia

Abstract

Suburbanisation is the most typical characteristic of the spatial distribution of the population in many countries of central and eastern Europe. Furthermore, a characterisation of residents is of key importance in explaining the process of suburbanisation. The study contributes to an understanding of post-socialist suburbanisation by clarifying the motivations and groups behind the population shift to the suburbs. The analysis is based on an extensive survey of the Rīga metropolitan area, Latvia. The results show that suburbanisation is a socially polarised process and that those with high and low social status are more likely to move to the suburbs than those with middle social status. Similarly, the motivations behind suburban inmigration present a distinctive and complex portrait of the on-going suburbanisation processes. Housing choice was found to be a key motivation for suburban migrants.

Specific Issues of Urban Sprawl in Bulgaria

“…About one third (36.4%) of the respondents believe that the typical buyers of peri-urban properties are intellectuals, and slightly more than one sixth (18.2%) put the locals in the group of buyers. An unexpected result is that nearly four-fifths of the realtors put on the second and third place the low-income buyers -results similar to those of a study of the preferences and motivations in suburbanisation processes around Riga (Krisjane and Berzins, 2012). Most likely, the cause for this difference with the study of Hirt is because she analyzed only the settlers in the southern districts, while in the present study the realtors refer to all peri-urban areas, including northern ones, where property prices are twice lower.…”

“…As it was established in section 3 -for twenty-six years the population of Sofia central areas has decreased by 47,000 people or 32%, while the population of the attractive peri-urban areas (Suburban Districts A) has increased by 61,000 people or 90%. However, the statistics for the recent years (NSI 2009(NSI , 2012b) and the complementary surveys -the inquiry among real estate agencies and the new data from Sofia Municipality, give grounds to conclude that, as evident and explicit suburbanization may be, it is many times weaker than the similar trends in/around other former socialist capitals -Prague or Riga, for example (Stanilov and Sykora, 2012;Krisjane and Berzins, 2012). In Bulgaria the preferences of most customers (including many affluent buyers) are still towards central areas and the so-called 'wide centre' rather than the city peri-urban areas.…”

Peripheralisation trends in rural territories: the case of Lithuania

“…Becker and Bloom, 1998;Krisjane, 2001;Sobotka et al, 2003;Nagy, 2005;Nagy, 2006;Burneika et al, 2013;Otto and Chmielewska, 2014) claim that the growth of territorial imbalances and the degradation of networks of settlements in the CEE countries are consequences of the transition period. When switching from a planned to a market economy, power was given to entrepreneurs (Scott and Storper, 2003), as entrepreneurship was thought to be the engine that would lift the country to a higher economic level.…”

Commuting Patterns in Riga Agglomeration: Evidence From a Survey Analysis of Youth

“…The studies of the everyday movement of local residents, not only reflects the level of economic advantages and the development of social and transport infrastructure, but also links which exist among everyday activity places and help through diversity, intensity and nature of these links, demonstrate the extent to which local residents seek opportunities of work, education, health care, social and cultural amenities (Krišjāne, Bērziņš, 2009). In previous studies the commuting to work was used as an indicator to describe the people movement within Riga metropolitan area (Pierīga), process of suburbanization as well as development and changes of Riga agglomeration (Krišjāne et al, 2007;Krišjāne, Bērziņš, 2011;Krišjāne, Bērziņš, 2009, Krišjāne et al, 2012.…”