The role of large-scale demolition in neighborhood change: selective migration and upgrading

In the last few decades, large-scale urban restructuring programs have been implemented in many Western European cities with the main goal of combating a variety of socio-economic problems in deprived neighborhoods. The main... [ view full abstract ]

In the last few decades, large-scale urban restructuring programs have been implemented in many Western European cities with the main goal of combating a variety of socio-economic problems in deprived neighborhoods. The main instrument of restructuring has been housing diversification and/or tenure mixing. The demolition of low-cost (social) housing and the construction of owner-occupied or private-rented dwellings was expected to change the population composition of deprived neighbourhoods through the in-migration of middle-class households. Many studies have been rather critical with regard to the success of such policies in actually upgrading neighbourhoods. Focusing on Dutch cities, this study analyses to what extent selective migration as a result of restructuring has led to neighborhood upgrading over the period of 1999 to 2013. We compared neighborhoods with high demolition rates to a set of control neighborhoods with similar socioeconomic characteristics, to assess the effects of demolition on the average neighborhood income. We found that high demolition neighborhoods have experienced significantly more socioeconomic upgrading than the control neighborhoods and are catching up to the national trend. The in-migration of middle and higher income households is the driving force behind this process, which suggests that large-scale demolition has been effective in stimulating neighborhood upgrading through selective migration.