Although many studies claim that the residential context is an important factor in shaping the ethnic identity of minorities, there are few studies which actually measure this relationship. This study contributes to filling this gap by investigating the relationship between the ethnic composition of neighbourhoods and changes in the self-reported ethnic identity of Russian-speaking minorities living in post-Soviet Estonia. Additionally, we observe Estonians who have changed their ethnic identity to Russian. We used data from the 2000 and 2011 Estonian censuses, which were geo-coded and linked at the individual level, enabling us to follow individuals over time. We estimated multi-level and fixed effects regression models to explore the relationship between the neighbourhood context and changes in ethnic identity. The main results show that ethnic minorities who live in majority-dominated neighbourhoods and regions, are the most likely to change their ethnic identity. We also show that members of the majority population who live in minority-dense neighbourhoods are more likely to change their ethnic identity than other majority group members. The results suggest that opportunities to meet people from other ethnic groups are important in processes of integration and assimilation, and it affects members of the majority and minority population alike. ... Read more

Background: Most studies of the ethnic composition of destination neighbourhoods after residential moves do not take into account the types of moves people have made. However, from an individual perspective, different types of moves may result in neighbourhood environments which differ in terms of their ethnic composition from those in which the individuals previously lived.

Objective: We investigate how the ethnic residential context changes for individuals as a result of different types of mobility (immobility, intra-urban mobility, suburbanisation, and long-distance migration) for residents of the segregated post-Soviet city of Tallinn. We compare the extent to which Estonian and Russian speakers integrate in residential terms.

Methods: Using unique longitudinal Census data (2000-2011) we tracked changes in the individual ethnic residential context of both groups.

Results: We found that the moving destinations of Estonian and Russian speakers diverge. When Estonians move, their new neighbourhood generally possesses a lower percentage of Russian speakers compared with when Russian speakers move, as well as compared with their previous neighbourhoods. For Russian speakers, the percentage of other Russian speakers in their residential surroundings decreases only for those who move to the rural suburbs or who move over longer distances to rural villages.

Contribution: By applying a novel approach of tracking the changes in the ethnic residential context of individuals for all mobility types, we were able to demonstrate that the two largest ethnolinguistic groups in Estonia tend to behave as ‘parallel populations’ and that residential integration remains slow.
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