Gentrification and the Origin and Destination of Movers

Abstract

Gentrification is a process whereby neighbourhoods and their socio-economic composition upgrade through residential moves and social mobility. Relatively little attention has been paid to the spatial aspect of gentrification-induced residential moves. This systematic literature review focuses on the origin and destination of moves to and from gentrifying neighbourhoods, by gentrifiers (movers in) and displacees (movers out). It identifies where, when, and how such research has been conducted and highlights gaps in the literature. Our results suggest that the destination of displaced households has been studied extensively, while an understanding of the spatial origins of gentrifiers is lacking. The few studies dedicated to gentrifiers' origins mostly focus on intra-urban environments, overlooking potential mobility dynamics from outside the city-region. We highlight that capturing both origins and destinations of movers at different spatial scales is necessary to demonstrate how residential mobility creates interactions and demographic interdependencies between neighbourhoods and cities.