Dissertation by Åsa Bråmå, IBF and Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University:

Studies in the Dynamics of Residential Segregation

Geografiska regionstudier NR 67.

Swedish cities are characterized by a spatial division between the native population and different immigrant minorities. This ethnic residential segregation also has socio-economic connotations. Residential segregation intensified during the 1990s, which led to an increased awareness of the problems of residential segregation, among scholars as well as in the political sphere. There is a great demand for knowledge about the causes and effects of residential segregation, and for solutions to problems associated with segregation.

This thesis aims to shed light on the dynamics of the segregated city. In four scientific papers, the thesis investigates the processes, in terms of movements of individuals, that have produced, reproduced and transformed patterns of residential segregation in Swedish cities between 1990 and 2000. The studies focus specifically on the migration flows to and from neighbourhoods that can be regarded as distressed or 'immigrant-dense' (or both). The results show that it is the selective nature of the migration flows to and from these neighbourhoods that produces, reproduces and enhances the character of distress and immigrant concentration. The out-migration flow mainly consists of relatively well-off persons, native Swedes and established immigrants, who leave the neighbourhoods for other parts of the city, while the immigrants to a large extent are newcomers to the country and/or the city with much more limited social and economic resources.