Patterns and Motivations of Intra-Urban Residential Mobility in a Southern European Metropolis. The Case of Filipino Migrants in Rome

Abstract

This paper focuses on residential mobility of Filipino migrants within Rome in the 2000s. The aim is to contribute to explaining the patterns and motivations behind the intra-urban mobility of ethnic minorities highlighting the role of the socioeconomic background of the neighbourhood. We used an interdisciplinary quanti-qualitative approach combining descriptive and multivariate analyses performed on original population register microdata on residential moves and ethnographic fieldwork to understand the dynamics of relocations from a multifaceted perspective. Rome is an interesting case study because it is a Southern European metropolis and the capital of Italy, a country with a welfare regime and a housing system that peculiarly affects the residential segregation and mobility patterns of ethnic groups. The findings show that the socioeconomic situation of the Filipinos' previous neighbourhood ‘predicts’ the characteristics of the neighbourhood where they move, with a growing propensity of family groups to head to more peripheral, poorer neighbourhoods with a low–medium concentration of co-nationals. Moreover, belonging to a socio-occupational niche influences their choices and motivations for mobility and settlement, therefore the concept of ‘ethnic employment-driven residential mobility’ is proposed.