AFTER URBAN RESTRUCTURING: RELOCATIONS AND SEGREGATION IN DUTCH CITIES.

Numerous studies have been devoted to documenting the shifting patterns of ethnic segregation in the cities of the Netherlands during the past few decades. But an analysis of residential mobility that would reveal the mechanisms of change has rarely been included. In this paper such household mobility is studied against the background of the current urban restructuring policy. This policy consists of the selective demolition of inexpensive rented housing and the construction of homeowner dwellings in its stead, leading to changes in the social make-up of neighbourhoods. The change is caused by the displacement of ethnic and other low-income households, the result of their decisions how to use the incentives to move offered by the policy. Thus, this paper deals with the question how urban restructuring affects segregation patterns. Ethnic and socio-economic variables are at the core of the analysis. The outcome is that while the social make-up of neighbourhoods is altered, and low-income households shift in space, the displacement does not contribute to desegregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]