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

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 in-migration present a distinctive and complex portrait of the on-going suburbanisation processes. Housing choice was found to be a key motivation for suburban migrants.