The Residential Mobility of Ethnic Minorities: A Longitudinal Analysis

Abstract

Studies of ethnic minority settlement in major cities usually depend upon snapshot evidence derived from periodic population censuses. The objects of such research are usually city regions, neighbourhoods or census tracts, and changes through time can not be undertaken as process studies but only as comparisons between given dates. In discussing the residential mobility experiences of ethnic minority populations it would be extremely valuable to be able to use individuals as the research units instead of geographical areas. This possibility exists for the study of ethnic minority residential mobility in the Paris region through the secondary analysis of a major survey carried out in 1986 by the French National Demographic Research Institute (INED). The results of such an analysis lead to a questioning of certain established ideas on the importance of the inner city for residence, but provide confirmation of higher-than-average mobility rates.