A review of a number of studies of intra-urban migration suggests that, for a variety of reasons, most moves are only for short distances and are directed away from the city centre. In-migrants from outside the city generally first reside in the central residential areas, where mobility is greatest, and then move towards the suburbs according to the housing requirements of their families. Five hypotheses relating to these processes are tested on recent data for the Melbourne Metropolitan Area, and all are basically confirmed. Some deviations from the anticipated patterns occur because of marked social and economic variations among in-migrants to the city, however, and while the general patterns are as expected, a considerable portion of the total population is not involved in the migration process.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
L. Winnick in N.N. Foote et al., Housing Choices and Constraints, New York , 1960, p. 64. See also C. Goldschieder , 'Differential Residential Mobility of the Older Population', Journal of Gerontology, Vol. 21, No. 1, 1966, pp. 103-8.
2.
Calculated for the County of London from Tables 1 and 4 of Census 1961, Migration Tables, London, 1966.
3.
For other studies of intra-urban migration in Australia the reader is referred to E.G. Moore, 'Models of Migration and the Intra-Urban Case', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, Vol. 2, 1966, pp. 16-37, and Peter Scott, 'Population Origins in a Hobart Suburb', Australian Geographer, Vol. 10, 1967, pp. 197-203.
4.
On the work of the Chicago school see the introductory chapter to E.W. Burgess and D.J. Bogue, Contributions to Urban Sociology, Chicago, 1964.
5.
E.W. Burgess , 'The Growth of the City: An Introduction to a Research Project', Publications of the American Sociological Society, Vol. 18, 1924, pp. 85-97. See also the exegesis and critique in L.F. Schnore, 'On the Spatial Structure of Cities in the Two Americas', in P. M. Hauser and L. F. Schnore (eds.), The Study of Urbanization, New York, 1965, pp. 349-56.
6.
E.W. Burgess , 'Residential Segregation in American Cities ', Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 140, 1928, p. 105.
7.
H. Hoyt, The Structure and Growth of Residential Neighbourhoods in American Cities , Washington, 1939.
8.
The apparent groups are generally international immigrants, who are separately counted in many censuses, and clear ethnic groups who migrate within countries, such as Negroes and Jews.
9.
As in R.L. Morrill , 'The Negro Ghetto: Problems and Alternatives ', Geographical Review, Vol. 55, 1965, pp. 339-61, and K.E. Taeuber and A.F. Taeuber, Negroes in Cities , Chicago, 1965.
10.
For example P.F. Cressey, 'Population Succession in Chicago', American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 44, 1938, pp. 59-69, and R.G. Ford, 'Population Succession in Chicago', American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 56, 1950, pp. 151-60.
11.
W. Firey, 'Sentiment and Symbolism as Ecological Variables', American Sociological Review, Vol. 10, 1945, pp. 140-8.
12.
The model also is relevant only to Western cities, although Schnore (op. cit., ref. 5) has attempted to give it more general applicability.
13.
For an interesting discussion see R.T.M. Whipple, Structural Aspects of the Housing Market-A Review, unpublished paper.
14.
The distribution of rental markets in Melbourne is discussed in R.J. Johnston, Residential Structure and Urban Morphology, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Monash University, 1966.
15.
J. Abu-Lughood and M.M. Foley in Foote et al., op. cit, ref. 1, p. 99.
16.
Winnick in Foote et al., op. cit., ref. I, p. 41.
17.
One of the problems in this model sequence is how sufficient rental homes will become available if all families pass through stage 2.
18.
Abu-Lughood and Foley, op. cit, ref. 15, p. 80.
19.
J.T. Davis , 'Middle Class Housing in the Central City', Economic Geography, Vol. 41, 1965 , pP. 238-51.
20.
R.J. Johnston , 'The Location of High Status Residential Areas ', Geografiska Annaler, Vol. 48, Series B, 1966, pp. 23-35.
21.
As suggested by R. J. Johnston in verbal presentation of the above paper to the Institute of Australian Geographers, Sydney, 18 August 1966.
22.
Firey, op. cit., ref. 11.
23.
Winnick, op. cit., ref. 1, p. 18.
24.
As suggested in C.D. Harris, 'Suburbs', American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 49, 1943, pp. 1-13, and L.F. Schnore, 'Satellites and Suburbs', Social Forces, Vol. 36, 1957, pp. 121-7.
25.
R. Dewey, 'Peripheral Expansion in Milwaukee County', American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 53, 1948, p. 419.
26.
T. Caplow, 'Incidence and Direction of Residential Mobility in a Minneapolis Sample ', Social Forces, Vol. 27, 1949, pp. 413-17.
27.
W. Bell, 'Social Choice, Life Styles and Suburban Residence', in W. M. Dobriner (ed.), The Suburban Community , New York, 1958, pp. 225-47.
28.
H.L. Ross, 'Reasons for Moves to and from a Central City Area', Social Forces, Vol. 40, 1962, pp. 261-3.
29.
S. Goldstein , 'Repeated Migration as a Factor in High Mobility Rates', American Sociological Review, Vol. 19, 1954, pp. 536-41, and S. Goldstein, 'The Extent of Repeated Migration: An Analysis based on the Danish Population Register ', Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 59, 1964, pp. 1121-32.
30.
Only 3.5% of all dwellings in the Melbourne Metropolitan Area are rented from the State Government.
31.
Melbourne Metropolitan Transportation Study, Travel in Melbourne: A Summary of the Consultant's Report, Melbourne, 1966.
32.
I.D. Richards , Deputy Director of the Metropolitan Transportation Study, personal communication, 8 March 1967.
33.
Collectors' district data has been used in several studies of Melbourne to date; see Johnston, op. cit., ref. 14.
34.
See ibid. for a discussion on the actual definition of the zones.
35.
This index is described in D. Timms, 'Quantitative Techniques in Urban Social Geography', in R. J. Chorley and P. Haggett (eds.), Frontiers in Geographical Teaching, London, 1965, p. 242.
36.
The districts shown are those with a ratio of 1-50 or greater between the percentage of the in-migrants living in the district and the percentage of the total population, plus all districts with more than 1-50 percent of the in-migrants providing that the ratio was not less than i-o.
37.
C.D. Harris and E.L. Ullman, 'The Nature of Cities', The Annals, Vol. 242, 1945, pp. 7-17.
38.
An interesting investigation into attitudes to international in-migrants in Melbourne is given in O. A. Oeser and S. B. Hammond, Social Structure and Personality in a City, London, 1954.
39.
F.L. Jones, 'Ethnic Concentration and Assimilation: An Australian Case Study', Social Forces, Vol. 45, 1967, pp. 412-22.
40.
For a study of one such community see F.L. Jones, 'Italians in Carlton: The Growth of an Ethnic Concentration', Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol. 10, 1964, pp. 83-95.
41.
R. Freedman, 'Cityward Migration, Urban Ecology and Social Theory', in Burgess and Bogue, op. cit., ref. 4, pp. 92-113.
42.
Johnston, op. cit., ref. 14.
43.
Maltese are classified as British nationals.
44.
On the basis of the F-test. For full results see Johnston, op. cit., ref. 14.
45.
H. Blumenfeld , 'The Urban Pattern', in The Modern Metropolis, Cambridge, Mass.1967, p. 57.
46.
'Have been' is used because there is no indication in the data source of the time lapse between the move and the interview in 1964.
