Pieter Hooimeijer

Residential relocations in the life course

The life course perspective has proved to be a powerful instrument in developing a general theoretical framework to interpret a variety of phenomena pertaining to residential relocation. The first phenomenon is that relocations are instrumental to goals arising from a specific life course trajectory or “career”. It is important to distinguish between moves triggered by the educational career, the labor career, the family career and the housing career. The second phenomenon is that even those careers that are not the actual trigger for the move, are still pertinent to the relocation decision. These other careers condition the decision by providing the resources for the move and by imposing restrictions on geographical mobility. The third phenomenon is that residential relocation, which has a positive effect on the triggering career, can have a detrimental effect on other careers or on the careers of other household members. The attractiveness of the life course perspective is that it allows for feedback effects between these phenomena, thereby improving the understanding of relocation behavior.

Spatial Flexibility in Job Mobility: Macrolevel Opportunities and Microlevel Restrictions

Disequilibria among regional labour markets persist through spatial inflexibility in job mobility resulting from restrictions in migration and long-distance commuting. This contribution analyses workplace mobility—the acceptance of a job at a great distance from the place of residence—using a direct measure which includes both migration and long commutes as means for covering this distance. Two sources of spatial inflexibility are identified. The first is a low overall chance of general job mobility; the second is a limited search area leading to low workplace mobility. In a two-step analysis we show that workers who find another job are a highly selective group. Within this group the variation in accepting a job at a great distance is wide, because of the individual restrictions that are often gendered. We also show that ample availability of job opportunities stimulates general job mobility and reduces workplace mobility, but only after controlling for individual restrictions. These findings are in line with the spatial mismatch hypothesis.

Residential Experience and Residential Environment Choice over the Life-course

The study reported in this article answers the question: how does experience with a certain type of residential environment contribute to the explanation of residential environment choice? The issues under investigation are whether residential experience with cities, suburbs and rural areas increases the probability of return migration and whether residential experience increases the probability of moving to other places with the same type of residential environment. The probability of moving to a city, suburb or rural area is investigated by applying multinomial logistic regression on a retrospective dataset of life-courses of more than 3000 Netherlands respondents. The results indicate that city experience and suburb experience only increase the probability of return migration, whereas rural experience also increases the probability of moving to another rural area.

Local underemployment and the discouraged worker effect

The effect of poor local labour market opportunities on occupational achievement is an important aspect of the spatial mismatch hypothesis. Much of the research has concentrated on the direct link between geographical access to jobs and employment outcomes. In contrast, little attention has been given to the discouraging effect of poor chances on job search activities. The discouraged worker effect is defined as the decision to refrain from job search as a result of poor chances on the labour market. Discouragement effects can arise from a lack of individual qualifications, from discrimination in the labour market or from a high local level of underemployment. The empirical findings of this paper, based on the Netherlands Labour Force Surveys 1994-97, show that discouragement can enter the job search process both at the stage of deciding to enter the labour force and at the stage of deciding to engage actively in a job search. Gender differentials in discouragement are revealed in the process of self-selection into the labour force. Poor labour market chances lead to less activity in both off-the-job and on-the-job search, indicating a role of discouragement in the spatial mismatch. Individual qualifications and ascribed characteristics turn out to be more decisive than the local level of underemployment.

Capturing Housing Market Segmentation: An Alternative Approach based on Neural Network Modelling

Various location specific attributes cause segmentation of the housing market into submarkets. The question is, whether the most relevant partitioning criteria are directly related to the transaction price or to other, socio-economic and physical, features of the location. On the empirical side, several methods have been proposed that might be able to capture this influence. This paper examines one of these methods: neural network modelling with an application to the housing market of Helsinki, Finland. The exercise shows how it is possible to identify various dimensions of housing submarket formation by uncovering patterns in the dataset, and also shows the classification abilities of two neural network techniques: the self-organising map (SOM) and the learning vector quantisation (LVQ). In Helsinki, submarket formation clearly depends on two factors: relative location and house type. Price-level clearly has a smaller role in this respect.

Ethnic segregation in the Netherlands: new patterns, new policies?

An impressive set of welfare state arrangements has kept ethnic segregation and concentration in Dutch cities to a relatively low level. Indices of segregation have also been relatively stable over the last two decades. This does not mean, however, that concentrations of ethnic minority groups are stable. Some types of neighbourhoods seem to have become less important as housing areas for ethnic minority groups, while others are becoming their main housing areas, especially for Turks and Moroccans. While in some cities this shifting pattern has already been characteristic for more than a decade, in other cities it is of more recent origin. We describe these shifting patterns of ethnic minority groups in the largest cities in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht). We then focus on the policy response to these patterns and we briefly evaluate this response. Our main conclusion is that ethnic concentrations are not problematic in themselves, but that policy can significantly enhance the situation of (the inhabitants of) specific neighbourhoods. Copyright Royal Dutch Geographical Society 2002.

Demand and Unmet Need for Means of Family Limitation in Rwanda

CONTEXT Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa, with substantial annual population growth. The current government seeks new policies for family limitation as a way to facilitate more sustainable development. METHODS Data from the 2005 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey were used for a two-step analysis; binary logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with desiring to stop childbearing and having unmet need. RESULTS Eighty-seven percent of women aged 15-49 approve of family planning, but only 64% believe that their partner approves of it. There is a high level of unmet need for family limitation; 58% of women who want to stop childbearing do not use modern contraceptives. Demand was lower among women who did not approve of family planning, those who did not know their partners attitude toward family planning and those who had discussed family planning with their partner fewer than three times. Unmet need was higher among women who did not approve of family planning, those who believed their partner did not approve of family planning or who did not know his attitude, and those who had never discussed family planning with their partner or had done so only once or twice. CONCLUSIONS Negative attitudes toward family planning and failing structures of provision are the dominant constraints on the use of modern contraceptives in Rwanda. Community-based family planning services could greatly expand access, especially in underserved provinces.

Migration of Couples with Non- Employed and Employed Wives in the Netherlands: The Changing Effects of the Partners' Characteristics

Data for 1977 and 1995/96 are used to study (changes in) the effects of the partners’ resources on long‐distance migration of couples in the Netherlands. The analyses were performed separately for couples with employed and with non‐employed women. In 1977, couples with non‐employed women showed the classical pattern of family migration, with strong effects of the human capital and labour market characteristics of the male and the females mostly using their power to prevent migration. The couples with employed women, on the other hand, in 1977 already showed a more modern pattern of family migration. The effects of the male’s occupational prestige and sector were not significant for these couples and an age advantage of the male did not lead to more migration. Over time, the position of the employed women seems to have become even stronger and our results suggest that in 1996 at least some of them were able to initiate a move for their own career and hence to turn their husband into a tied mover.

Leaving home in the Netherlands: Timing and first housing

Successive birth cohorts have left the parentalhome at an accelerating pace in the earlypost-war decades in the Netherlands. A secondtrend, starting later but lasting longer, isthat people increasingly leave the parentalhome to live alone. Both trends have hadimplications for the housing market as theycontributed to the continuation of the housingshortage and generated a shift in the type ofaccommodation in which young adults start theirhousing career: an independent rented dwelling,shared accommodation, or home-ownership. Inthis contribution we set out to unravel boththe causes of the changing pattern ofhome-leaving between successive cohorts and therelation with the housing market entry insuccessive periods.The main hypothesis is that educationalexpansion was a major cause of the shift in themix of motives between cohorts, accounted forthe accelerating pace of home-leaving, and alsoaffected the type of housing market entry. Theempirical results support this hypothesis butalso show that the educational expansion doesnot provide a full explanation for eitherphenomenon. Union formation in particular isinvariably also determined by the employmentstatus of the male partner. Leaving home tolive alone, on the other hand, is lesssensitive to the individual income but isclearly stimulated by ample parental resources.In housing choice, the opportunity structureprovides an extra explanation. The wider accessto independent rental accommodation, forinstance, reduces the pent-up demand for sharedaccommodation that results from the educationalexpansion.

The land-use diversity in urban villages in Shenzhen

Chinas dynamic urbanisation since 1978 has led to the proliferation of so-called ‘urban villages’ in many cities. Their development, via a self-help approach by indigenous villagers, delivers low-cost housing and various other social and economic activities. Consequently, urban villages are characterised by growing numbers of buildings and a mix of functions, including residential, industrial, commercial, and public services. These uses enable different activities in urban villages, assimilating migrants into the city by providing an alternative niche for working and living. Variations in land-use diversity in Shenzhens 318 urban villages were analysed using 2009 data, for more than 333 000 buildings. Four statistical models, including three based on a spatial regimes analysis, are used to explain their land-use diversity. The results reveal that an urban villages land-use pattern is linked to its location in the urban fabric, its phase of development, and the development level of its environs. Different patterns are apparent inside and outside the Special Economic Zone of Shenzhen, suggesting that the current uniform redevelopment policy for urban villages may not be appropriate.