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Understanding Immigrant Population Growth Within Urban Areas: A Spatial Econometric Approach

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Abstract

During the last two decades, many studies have described the evolution of the spatial distribution of immigrant groups within an urban area (for example, by using segregation indexes). Nevertheless, the factors that could explain the growth of the immigrant population within an urban area have not yet been fully explored. Moreover, the studies referred to have mainly been conducted in countries that have traditionally received large populations of immigrants, such as the USA, Canada, the UK and Northern Europe. In regard to European cities, the case of the Barcelona metropolitan area (BMA) is particularly relevant: the percentage of immigrants in the total population has increased significantly within a very short period of time (from 5.05 % in 2001 to 15.16 % in 2008, 12.03 % in 2013). Consequently, the main objective of this study is to examine the factors influencing the relative variation in the percentage of non-EU immigrants during the period of stronger growth (2001–2008). From a methodological point of view, we constructed two spatial models at the census tract level: the spatial lag and spatial error models. The predictors that we selected encompass several dimensions: socioeconomic status (unemployment, low education, household income and blue-collar workers), immigrant diversity (entropy), housing (small dwellings and condition of dwelling), and population density and distance to the central business district (CBD). According to the results of the spatial models, the most important factors explaining the growth of immigrant populations are, in descending order: household income, small dwellings and immigrant diversity.

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Notes

  1. (a) Plan Nacional de I + D + I 2011 ¿De la complementariedad a la exclusión? Análisis sociodemográfico del impacto de la crisis económica en la población inmigrada (Ref. CSO2011/24501). (b) Plan Nacional de I + D + I 2011 Proyecto Movilidad y Reconfiguración Urbana y Metropolitana (Ref.CSO2011/29943).

  2. We consider the CBD as the oldest district (District I) in the City of Barcelona (Ciutat Vella): it is the location of the City Hall, the headquarters of the autonomous government and the offices of many large companies, and is the site of major commercial activities.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on the original version of this paper. This paper was first presented at the 5th World Conference of the Spatial Econometrics Association (SEA) in Toulouse, France, in July 2011. We are grateful to the participants for their comments and to Jesus Mur for his valuable suggestions on various drafts of the paper. The study has been funded by the ARAFI2008 program of the Catalan Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Business, University of Vic, Sagrada Família, 7, 08500, Vic, Barcelona, Spain

    Joan Carles Martori

  2. INRS Centre Urbanisation Culture Société, 385, rue Sherbrooke Est, Montréal, H2X 1E3, Canada

    Philippe Apparicio

  3. Centre de Réadaptation en Dépendance de Montréal, Institut Universitaire, 950, rue de Louvain Est, Montréal, H2M 2E8, Canada

    André Ngamini Ngui

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Martori, J.C., Apparicio, P. & Ngui, A.N. Understanding Immigrant Population Growth Within Urban Areas: A Spatial Econometric Approach. Int. Migration & Integration 17, 215–234 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-014-0402-0

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