The Ethnic Dimensions of Suburbanisation in Estonia

Abstract

Large-scale suburbanisation is a relatively recent phenomenon in East Central Europe and is responsible for major socio-spatial changes in metropolitan areas. Little is known about the ethnic dimensions of suburbanisation, despite the existence of often sizeable Russian minority populations in some member-states of the former Soviet Union. We use individual-level Estonian census data from the year 2000 in order to investigate the ethnic dimensions of suburbanisation. The results show that ethnic minorities have a considerably lower probability of suburbanising compared to the majority population, and minorities are less likely to move to rural municipalities—the main sites of suburban change—in the suburban ring of cities.

Keywords:

• Suburbanisation
• Ethnicity
• Census Data
• East Central Europe
• Estonia

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the valuable comments of two anonymous JEMS referees, and for the financial support provided by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Science (Institutional Research Grant No. IUT2–1), the Estonian Science Foundation (Grant Nos 7588 and 8774 and 9247) and the NORFACE research programme Migration in Europe—Social, Economic, Cultural and Policy Dynamics.