Local Inequality in the Geography of Class-Differentiated Migration.

摘要

This study examines the relationship between inequality in motion and inequality in place. It is argued that the aggregate effects of household migration have an impact on communities that is more substantial than commonly recognized. Of particular interest, here, is the association between income dispersion in place, as manifest in local income inequality and segregated residential patterns, and income dispersion between places, affected by income inequality within the population of domestically migrating households.; A conceptual framework originally developed to explain migration in terms of an interaction between household and local characteristics (Cadwallader, 1992; Massey, 1990) is applied here as a basis for evaluating class-based differentials in migration. It is argued that social class affects qualitatively distinct migration patterns through each of the following components: 1) individual or household level decision-making, 2) objective characteristics of the places where households move to and from, 3) the interpersonal and interorganizational networks in which households are situated, and 4) the geography of interlocal networks through which households move.;Following the argument that class-differentiated migration patterns are distinct spatial structures, the second question turns to the issue of causality. Specifically, it asks how classdifferentiated migration patterns affect locales. The relationship between migration and local context has largely been theorized and studied in terms of how locales affect migration. The converse remains as an underdeveloped area of research (Cushing & Poot, 2004; Ellis, 2012; Greenwood, 1985; Massey, 1990; Plane & Bitters, 1997). Two possible explanations for the lack of attention to migration's affect on locales -- namely, the significant decline in migration rates since the mid-1980s (Figure 1), and the assumption that migration is epiphenomenal relative to economic base-- are discussed, as are theoretical bases for understanding how migration affects locales. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).;This first chapter introduces two questions concerning household mobility and migration. First, to what extent are the household and structural conditions that affect migration differentiated on the basis of social class? Migration research, as it is largely concerned with the question of why people move, has tended to approach group difference in terms of the individual or household characteristics that distinguish migrants from nonmigrants. In contrast, the primary question addressed here is less concerned with why people move than how social class affects distinct patterns of movement.