Moving In and Out of Areas of Deprivation: Evidence from the New Zealand Census.

One of the important intersections between social policy and demography is the role migration plays in the social mobility of people on one hand and the socio-economic ranking of places on the other. The essential message of this paper is that the socio-economic context people start from when they move has a major influence on where they move to. We use the New Zealand Index of Deprivation to rank neighbourhoods at two census dates 2001 and 2006 and show that the socio-economic rank of the neighbourhood of origin is closely related to the rank of the destination. Among prime age adults for example, the probability of ending a move in a low decile neighbourhood is inversely related to the level of deprivation prevailing at their neighbourhood of origin. Similarly, those who live in relatively deprived areas of the country are more likely to move to areas with either the same or very similar levels of deprivation. The dynamics of internal mobility and migration therefore tend to perpetuate rather than counter the pre-existing geography of social deprivation. These empirical patterns we present by age and ethnicity have potentially important consequences for social mobility and the ability of people to improve the social and economic contexts in which they live. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]