Exurbanization as a Component of Migration: A Case Study in Oxford County, Ontario

In this paper exurbanization is regarded as a process involving the movement of a household from an urban area to another location beyond the contiguously built‐up urban region but within its extensive commuting field. The primary definitive feature is that one or more persons within the household retains regular employment ties with the urban area. Although various influences on the inter‐and intra‐urban migration of households have been considered extensively in the migration literature (Clark 1982), exurbanization has yet to be placed in the context of this literature and examined with similar rigour. The issue, to paraphrase Rossi and Shlay (1982), is not just why households move, but why they choose to move where they do ‐ that is, why have some become exurbanite households?