Tracking Incidence of Residential Mobility Among Poor Families in Upstate New York Through Public School Enrollments: Economic Change, Housing Insecurity, and "Poverty Migration"

Author: Kai A. Schafft

Dissertation School: Cornell University

Pages: 288

Publication Date: July 2003

Availability:
Available from the HUD USER Helpdesk P.O. Box 23268 Washington, DC 20026-3268 Toll Free: 1-800-245-2691 Fax: 1-202-708-9981 Email: oup@oup.org

Access Number: 10765

Abstract:

This dissertation investigates migration selectivity by socioeconomic status and its implications for community development and cumulative disadvantage for economically marginal places. In this thesis, I will examine incidence of "poverty migration" (Fitchen 1995) of poor families into areas experiencing economic hardship and decline, documenting the effect on the economic status and social service capacity of receiving communities. Taking Upstate New York as the focus of my inquiry, I aim to complete a two-phase project incorporating both quantitative and qualitative approaches to:

• identify economically marginal places which appear to have experienced or are in the process of experiencing patterns of in-migration of poor families.
• Indicate the patterns of such movement over both time (the 1990s through the present) and geographical space in order to develop a typology of places which appear more "at risk" of experiencing such in-migration.
• Determine the effects of in-migration of poor families upon communities in terms of community social service carrying capacity, local housing and labor markets, and impacts on social fabric of receiving communities.

In drawing empirical linkages between localized economic change, change in housing markets, and factors leading to a cumulative disadvantage of communities, this work is motivated by and strongly relevant for both public policy and social theory.

Back to Search Result of DDRG Dissertations