Residential Dynamics in Ethnic Concentrations

In many countries and cities there is fear that large residential concentrations of ethnic minorities will hinder integration and give rise to sub-societies that may eventually come to have little to do with each other. However, while governments develop policies aimed at spatial mixing of various population categories, the actual knowledge about ethnic concentrations and their development is rather thin. This paper intends to contribute to filling this gap in knowledge about ethnic concentrations and related dynamics using very detailed spatial data on settlement patterns in the city of Amsterdam. It focuses on residential concentrations of Moroccans and Turks and analysed the changes with regard to these concentrations between 1994 and 2004. In general no indications were found that one of these groups is consciously strengthening the ethnic identity of the residential areas they live in. Although the existing Moroccan clusters did appear to have become somewhat more Moroccan, the Moroccans themselves experienced a negative migration balance in those areas. Turkish clusters became even less Turkish and there was also a negative migration balance among Turks. Furthermore, concentrations within the 1994 boundaries were, in 2004, less Moroccan and Turkish than would be expected, given the developments that took place in Amsterdam as a whole. Detailed analysis of the clusters demonstrated no clear systematic increase or expansion of existing clusters. Analyses of associations with housing supply support the assertion that the residential dynamics of immigrants must be seen primarily as resulting from a number of steps in the residential career. Residential behaviour that has been described for the immigrant categories in question can be assumed to reflect a development toward integration.