Ethnic Neighborhood Segregation and the Dynamics of Residential Mobility Among Immigrants and Natives: Panel Evidence From Norway, 1993–2013

Adrian Farner Rogne , University of Oslo
Are Skeie Hermansen, University of Oslo
Torkild Hovde Lyngstad, University of Oslo
Torbjørn Skardhamar, University of Oslo
Gunn Elisabeth Birkelund, University of Oslo

This study examines the relationship between ethnic neighborhood composition and residential mobility among natives and immigrants in Norway. Using longitudinal panel data covering more than two decades, we measure year-to-year mobility from one neighborhood to another and estimate the effect of the initial neighborhood’s ethnic composition on the probability of moving out. The panel structure of our data allows us to use fixed-effects techniques to adjust for selection biases related to unobserved characteristics at both the neighborhood and individual level. Our preliminary findings suggests that natives have a tendency to move out of neighborhoods with high concentrations of non-Western immigrants and into neighborhoods with lower immigrant concentrations (i.e., native flight). This tendency is particularly pronounced among parents of pre-school children. Among immigrants, there is a weaker relationship between neighborhood outmigration and residential concentration of non-Western immigrants. Finally, we find a tendency towards ethnic avoidance patterns in natives’ residential mobility patterns.

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 Presented in Session 7. Migration & Urbanization