Not so welcome here? Modelling the impact of ethnic in-movers on the length of stay of home-owners in micro-neighbourhoods

an article by Sue Easton (University of Leicester, UK) and Gwilym Pryce (University of Sheffield, UK) published in Urban Studies Volume 56 Issue 14 (November 2019)

Abstract

This paper considers the length of stay of home-owners with white British names in the 40% most-deprived census areas of Glasgow, Scotland. We estimate the impact of ethnically ‘other’ name-group inflows through property purchases at the micro-neighbourhood level.

We use a novel longitudinal data set, constructed from the population of home-buyers recorded in all property transaction records from 2003 to 2014, from which we impute ethnicity using name-matching software.

We estimate how the survival time (length of ownership) of home-owners with white British names is affected by in-migration of house-buyers from different ethnic name-groups into the micro-neighbourhood, defined as a 50 m radius around each home.

Results suggest a complex set of associations between ethnically ‘other’ purchasers/in-movers (based on name groups) and duration of home-ownership for white-British named owners. The most consistent finding is for in-moving purchasers with Pakistani (primarily Muslim) names, which tend to have a relatively large accelerant effect on the moving propensity of home-owners who have white British names. This was true in areas of both high and low non-white ethnic population share.

We also find evidence of nonlinearity in this relationship: the accelerant effect diminishes with each additional in-move from purchasers with Pakistani names. The name group with the largest overall accelerant effect was for in-movers with non-white Other names, which were also primarily Muslim in origin, though this effect was less consistent across models.

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Planning for healthy ageing: how the use of third places contributes to the social health of older populations

an artgicle by Sara Alidoust (Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia) and Caryl Bosman and Gordon Holden (Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia) published in Ageing & Society Volume 39 Issue 7 (July 2019)

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on creating age-friendly cities to accommodate the changing needs of older people and to promote their overall health and wellbeing.

This paper focuses on some of the urban planning implications related to maintaining the social health, as a main component of overall health and wellbeing, of older people. Specifically, we look at the role and accessibility of third places (popular public places where many people go to socialise) in relation to older people living in different neighbourhood built-form patterns, and how these factors impact on the formation of absent, weak and strong social ties.

The data draw upon interviews with 54 older people living in different neighbourhood built-form patterns on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

Our findings demonstrate the significant role third places have in affording older people opportunities to engage in the social lives of their local communities, thus contributing to their social health and overall wellbeing.

This research supports previous studies relating to the accessibility of amenities by re-emphasising the importance of planning for the provision of third places that are conveniently located and easily accessible by older people.

The paper concludes by arguing for the planning of transport and third-place interventions in Australia's sprawling suburban landscapes to allow older people more opportunities to be socially connected.

Hazel’s comment:
I can relate to this. I can no longer get a bus that takes me to the public library so I rarely, if ever, visit it.

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Positive local externalities of immigration on entrepreneurship: Evidence from the UK East Midlands region

an article by Frederick Wedzerai Nyakudya (Coventry University, UK) published in Local Economy: The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit Volume 34 Issue 3 (May 2019)

Abstract

This article examines the effects of immigration on entrepreneurship, making a distinction between the individual level and the neighbourhood characteristics.

The study combined individual level drawn from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data with neighbourhood level data for the English Index of Multiple Deprivation East Midlands region in the UK and applied a maximum likelihood logit model to test the hypotheses. The empirical evidence suggests that there is no direct link between the internal immigrants and start-ups on the one side; yet, there is direct link between the external immigrants and start-ups on the other side.

However, the findings point to the importance of indirect effect of neighbourhood characteristics, as external immigrants have a significant effect on an individual’s perception of new entrepreneurial opportunities which predicts start-up activity. Their presence in the neighbourhood has a positive monotonic effect on individual entrepreneurship.

Therefore, the critical factor is not that external immigrants come with unique knowledge and skills they utilise in the creation of their own businesses, instead they produce positive local externalities enabling others to start-up businesses.

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Destination dumping ground: The convergence of ‘unwanted’ populations in disadvantaged city areas

an article by Lynda Cheshire (The University of Queensland, Australia) and Gina Zappia (University of Tasmania, Australia) published in Urban Studies Volume 53 Number 10 (2016)

Abstract

Academic and lay discourses around disadvantaged urban areas often draw on the language of ‘dumping grounds’ to encapsulate the poverty, marginalisation and social problems often found there. Yet the concept of a dumping ground remains insufficiently theorised.

This paper addresses this issue by identifying five constituent features of the dumping ground:

• the perception of people as waste whose fate is to be discarded;
• the need to accommodate this human ‘waste’ and the logic by which places are selected for this purpose;
• the mechanisms through which this spatial sorting occurs as problem populations are moved to their ‘rightful’ place;
• the relations of power which enforce or encourage this mobility; and finally,
• the reactions of incumbent residents in neighbourhoods that are compelled to host unwanted social groups.

In the second part of this paper, these themes are illustrated via a case study of the Australian city of Logan where residents complain that their city has been treated as a dumping ground in order to explain its poor reputation.

Full text (PDF)

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