From dusk till dawn: the residential mobility and location preferences of immigrants in France

Michel Dimou, Samuel Ettouati () and Alexandra Schaffar
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Samuel Ettouati: LEAD, University of Toulon

The Annals of Regional Science, 2020, vol. 65, issue 2, No 1, 253-280

Abstract: Abstract This paper provides an original analysis on residential mobility and locational choices of immigrants in France by using a unique database containing individual characteristics for 19 million French inhabitants in 2014. Residential mobility is studied at the level of the 304 metropolitan zones d’emploi, which is a very narrow spatial level of analysis taking into account worker’s commutes, local productive specializations and the spatial dimensions of the local labor markets. The paper shows, first, that when living in a zone with a high proportion of immigrants, an immigrant is less eager to move elsewhere. Second, the location decisions of settled immigrants who relocate do not exhibit path dependence: the immigrants do not move to zones where other immigrants cluster. The paper also provides evidence that newcomers tend to locate to areas with low real estate prices and a high percentage of immigrant households within the local population. This is an original study of the locational behavior of migrants based on ethnic origin; it shows that the presence of other immigrants with the same or different ethnic origin affects the location decision of newcomers.

JEL-codes: J10 R23 R53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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DOI: 10.1007/s00168-020-00984-6

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