White Migration and Socio-Economic Differences Between Cities and Suburbs

Large cities are apparently becoming increasingly differentiated from their suburban rings in socio-economic status. It has been speculated that this results from an influx of low-status migrants to cities and an outflow of high-status persons from cities to suburbs. Analysis of census data on migration patterns between 1955 and 1960 for 12 large metropolitan areas indicates a different and more complex pattern. Nearly all streams of migrants are of higher average socio-economic status than non-migrants. Large cities contribute to their suburbs and to other metropolitan areas more high-status migrants than they receive, whereas suburban rings receive more high-status migrants than they lose. This circulation of persons of higher levels of educational attainment and occupational status has the net effect of diminishing the socio-economic level of central city populations and augmenting the socio-economic level of suburban populations.