Mechanisms of socioeconomic neighbourhood change: An analysis of School Census data in England
Stephen Jivraj

CCSR, University of Manchester

This paper revisits the debate of competing mechanisms of neighbourhood change by replicating an analysis by Rosenbaum (1995). She finds that household income change contributes more to continued decline in New York City neighbourhood’s poverty profile than selective migration. Selective migration occurs when certain people move more than others. This process results in places which are large net losers or gainers by selective migration seeing their population profiles change significantly (Champion and Fisher, 2003). In the UK, selective migration has been attributed to continued decline in neighbourhood areas which have been the focus of area-based initiatives (Cheshire et al., 2003, Cole et al., 2007). Nonetheless, Bailey and Livingston (2008, , 2007) suggest internal migration has only a minor effect of increasing concentration of deprivation in neighbourhoods nationally. In this paper, data from the School Census in England is used to test whether selective migration or income status change is a more important component of change in the concentration of low income pupils. The School Census is an administrative database collected since 2002 which include records of all state-educated pupils in England. Through the inclusion of a unique pupil identifier records can be match over time to create a longitudinal dataset. A change in home address can indicate residential mobility and a change in Free School Meal registration can indicate income status change.

Keywords: Selective migration, neighbourhood change, School Census.

References

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