La périurbanisation renforce-t-elle la ségrégation résidentielle urbaine en France ?

Abstract

This paper aims at assessing the effects of urban sprawl (urban spread or periurbanization) on socio-spatial inequalities within French cities. The recent literature linking urban spread and segregation highlights that the former may be an important source of the latter. We built a social inequality index that allows us to identify these inequalities within urban agglomerations, by distinguishing cities and their peripheries. This index is calculated for national censuses in both 1990 and 1999. We first note the large deviation of this segregation index among French agglomerations. We also observe a strong correlation between the agglomeration size and the increase of the segregation level. We then show that, despite the weakness of urban sprawl flows comparing to internal migrations within the centre, the urban spread of managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals explains the degree of segregation observed in French cities either in 1999 or 1990. The residential migrations within the cities do not lead to a social sorting in these cities, as one could imagine since they represent the main flow of residential migrations. When it occurs, this sorting is mainly due to the leaving of the middle and upper classes from the city centre

Keywords

• urban segregation
• french city
• urban spread
• residential migration