Residential segregation in Swedish cities is often explained by where people choose to live within a city and where newly arrived immigrants first settle. However, recent Swedish research indicates that these processes account for only a limited share of the changes observed. The project therefore examines the role of internal migration, that is, movements between cities and regions, in the development of ethnic residential segregation.
Using Swedish register data for the period 1990–2022, the researchers will examine which groups move between Swedish cities, where they move and which individual and local factors influence their choice of destination. The project will also study how in-migration and out-migration affect the residential mobility of people already living in an area, and how such changes over time can affect segregation in other cities as well.
The project combines statistical models with empirically calibrated agent-based simulations. This will enable the researchers both to analyse actual migration patterns and to simulate how different changes may affect migration and segregation across an interconnected system of cities.
Project purpose
The purpose of the project is to increase knowledge of how internal migration affects ethnic residential segregation in Swedish cities. The project is based on the premise that cities are not isolated from one another but form part of a system in which population changes in one place can have consequences elsewhere.
Project objectives
The project will:
- map migration patterns between Swedish cities and identify which migration flows contribute to increasing or reducing segregation
- examine which individual and local factors influence where people move
- analyse how in-migration and out-migration affect the residential mobility of existing residents and how these changes affect segregation over time
- examine how changes and interventions in one city can affect segregation in other cities
- simulate how, among other factors, housing market interventions and local economic conditions may affect migration flows and segregation across several cities simultaneously.
