Concentration to disadvantaged neighbourhoods may hinder immigrants’ opportunities for social integration, so equal chances of translating available economic resources into mobility to less disadvantaged neighbourhoods are important. This paper adds to existing research on exits from poor neighbourhoods by focusing on the effects of income increase on residential mobility. We analyse intra-urban residential mobility from low-income neighbourhoods into non-low-income neighbourhoods among immigrants and nativeborn residents in three urban regions in Finland. We use longitudinal register data for the 2004–2014 period for the full Finnish population, allowing a dynamic analysis of changes in income and neighbourhood of residence. Based on multinomial logit modelling of migration outcomes, we found that an increase in income is associated with moving both to low-income and non-low-income areas even when controlling for initial income level. Upward income mobility was connected to exit from low-income areas in a quite similar way among immigrants and native-born Finns. The findings suggest that policies e.g. improving the labour market opportunities of immigrants are effective in reduction of residential segregation. However, we were not able to completely explain the differences between native-born Finns and immigrants in moving patterns. The differences between the cities were opposite for immigrants and native-born Finns, corresponding to differences in immigration history and levels of ethnic segregation. Therefore, the local context matters for spatial integration outcomes.@en

The spatial concentration of immigrants in disadvantaged neighbourhoods may hinder their opportunities for social and economic integration. It is therefore important that immigrants can translate their available economic resources into mobility to less disadvantaged neighbourhoods. This study adds to existing research on the relationship between socioeconomic and spatial integration by focusing on the effects of income mobility on residential mobility. We analyse intra-urban residential mobility from low-income neighbourhoods into non-low-income neighbourhoods among immigrants and native-born residents in three urban regions in Finland. We use longitudinal register data for the 2004–2014 period for the full population, allowing a dynamic analysis of changes in income and neighbourhood of residence. Based on fixed-effects multinomial logit modelling of residential outcomes, we found that upward income mobility is connected to exit from low-income areas, but the effect is stronger among the native-born Finns than among those with an immigrant background. This stronger effect for natives is in contrast to findings of previous European studies, suggesting that these might have been influenced by unobserved individual-level heterogeneity. Our findings imply that both policies improving labour market opportunities of immigrants and policies reducing constraints for spatial integration are needed if the aim is to decrease ethnic residential segregation.@en

Selective intraurban migration of ethnic groups is often assumed to be the main microlevel mechanism reproducing ethnic residential segregation. However, other demographic processes, such as natural change and international migration, also matter. This paper contributes to the literature by unravelling the impacts of different demographic processes to changes in ethnic segregation. It uses longitudinal individual‐level register data on the complete population of the Helsinki region in Finland. We calculate observed changes in exposure indices, segregation indices in counterfactual scenarios, and decompositions of population changes. Results indicate that intraregional migration is the main process affecting segregation between Finnish‐origin and non‐Western‐origin populations, but whereas migration of the former increases segregation, migration of the latter decreases it. International migration and natural change among the non‐Western‐origin population are the main processes increasing exposure of the non‐Western‐origin population to other members of the group. No indication is found of a general tendency to “self‐segregate.”@en