Spatial Aspects of Intraurban Migration Behaviour in a Mixed Housing Market

This paper examines the validity of J S Adams's propositions concerning the spatial properties of overt migration behaviour in the context of a British city (that is, Birmingham) with a significant public housing sector. Samples of migration moves associated with separate housing submarkets, identified on the basis of tenure/dwelling type criteria, are tested for sectoral, directional, and distance biases. Mean movement distances are computed to measure distance bias, and sectoral and directional biases are assessed by two move-angle models: (1) a uniform vacancy model, and (2) a weighted vacancy model which controls for the effects of a vacancy surface on migration patterns. In general, the results suggest that support for Adams's propositions is limited to moves associated with submarkets either in the private or in the public housing sectors characterized by relatively high levels of tenure security. It is concluded that locational preferences usually assume a low priority in migration decisionmaking when households are only temporarily committed to their current dwellings.