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Residential Mobility, Gentrification and Neighborhood Change in Spanish Cities: A Post-Crisis Perspective

Spatial Demography volume 8, pages 351–378 (2020)Cite this article

A Correction to this article was published on 02 November 2020

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Abstract

Urban neighborhoods in Barcelona and Madrid are currently experiencing intense social transformations, with exclusive (and excluding) areas expanding (more or less rapidly) in resurgent central spaces. Recent literature suggests that, in parallel with urban expansion and latent re-urbanization, the most vulnerable population segments are being displaced and concentrated in suburban areas with worse access to all types of services. By proposing a comprehensive analysis of annual data on migration and residential mobility based on municipal population registers, the present study outlines the role of an increasing participation of highly qualified individuals in migratory and residential flows to explain changes in social composition at the intra-urban spatial scale. For the first time in Spain, we have been able to consider the impact of an individual variable assessing ‘education level’ on migration and residential mobility patterns, allowing a better characterization of interconnected processes of population substitution, polarization and segregation.

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Fig. 1

Source: Own elaboration. Atlas of income distribution—Spanish National Institute (INE)

Fig. 2

Source. Own elaboration. In-flows from the Population Register. Barcelona and Madrid city councils

Fig. 3

Source. Own elaboration. In-flows from the Population Register. Barcelona and Madrid city councils

Fig. 4

Source. Own elaboration. In-flows from the Population Register. Barcelona and Madrid city councils

Fig. 5

Source. Own elaboration. In-flows from the Population Register. Barcelona and Madrid city councils

Fig. 6

Source. Own elaboration. In-flows from the Population Register. Barcelona and Madrid city councils

Fig. 7

Source. Own elaboration. Dwelling changes within the municipality and out-flows from the Population Register. Barcelona and Madrid city councils

Fig. 8

Source. Own elaboration. In-flows and dwelling changes within the municipality (not including movements within the neighborhood) from the Population Register. Barcelona and Madrid city councils. Kriging interpolation

Fig. 9

Source. Own elaboration. In-flows and dwelling changes within the municipality (not including movements within the neighborhood) from the Population Register. Barcelona and Madrid city councils. Kriging interpolation

Fig. 10

Source. Own elaboration. Out-flows (only within province) and dwelling changes within the municipality from the Population Register. Barcelona and Madrid city councils

Change history

Notes

  1. Barcelona’s City Council approved the division in neighborhoods in 2006, after two years working in the project The Barcelona of the Neighborhoods that had the objective of establishing a delimitation of the City in significant neighborhoods from the urban and social point of view, as a territorial framework for the development of urban actions and the provision of certain levels of municipal equipment and services (proximity services). https://www.bcn.cat/estadistica/angles/terri/index.htm[Retrieved in May-2020].

  2. We are including in-flows arriving from outside the municipality and movements arriving from other neighborhoods within the municipality. We are excluding here movements within the neighborhood.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the editors of the journal and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback. We are also very grateful to the departments of statistics of Barcelona and Madrid City Councils for their support providing us the data.

Funding

This research received financial support from: Talent Program (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona); Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, MOVIPOL (CSO2014-60967-JIN) and Programa Cerca of the Catalan Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona & Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics, Facultat de Lletres, Campus UAB, Barcelona, Spain

    Antonio López-Gay

  2. Department of Sociology, Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain

    Andrea Andújar-Llosa

  3. Department of Economics and Law, University of Macerata, Macerata, Italy

    Luca Salvati

Authors
  1. Antonio López-Gay
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  2. Andrea Andújar-Llosa
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  3. Luca Salvati
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Correspondence to Luca Salvati.

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The original online version of this article was revised: The presentation of figures 4, 5, 6, 8 and Appendix 1 has been corrected.

Appendix 1. Neighborhoods by District in Barcelona and Madrid

Appendix 1. Neighborhoods by District in Barcelona and Madrid

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López-Gay, A., Andújar-Llosa, A. & Salvati, L. Residential Mobility, Gentrification and Neighborhood Change in Spanish Cities: A Post-Crisis Perspective. Spat Demogr 8, 351–378 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40980-020-00069-0

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Keywords

  • Residential mobility
  • Skilled migration
  • Gentrification
  • Neighborhood change
  • Southern Europe