Abstract
After decades of massive family suburbanisation, we have observed a steady increase in family households in various European capitals, including Amsterdam. Currently, the number of Amsterdam families is still increasing, however the number of families leaving the city is also growing and again on the rise. How can we explain this change, particularly for settled families that used to avoid outmigration? Empirical results are obtained from a qualitative study of urban middle class parents with children of primary school age who have recently moved out of Amsterdam. The results reveal that the shortage in the supply of family housing at a reasonable price for all families is the prime incentive to move. Underneath shared financial argumentations, however, we can distinguish three types of families that have specific motivations to move: pragmatic movers, displaced families and happy movers. The motivations to move are strongly related to different parental narratives of a ‘good childhood environment’. The results reveal further that the current displacement patterns are not only class-driven but include highly educated double-income family households. This paper ends with a short discussion of how to prevent cities from becoming homogeneous, rich non-family places.
Highlights
In recent decades, we have observed a considerable increase in urban family households in several European capital cities (Butler 2003; Boterman et al 2010; Rerat 2012; Authier and Lehman-Frisch 2013; Frank and Weck 2018)
Many locals are complaining about the ‘invasion’ of tourists, residents who have been living in the city for years (Pinkster and Boterman 2017). It may not come as a surprise, that parallel to a growing number of Amsterdam family households, we have observed a growing outmigration of family households
This paper reports on a small-scale research that sought a deeper understanding of a renewed development of families that move out of the city. This moving out applies to a minority of the family households in Amsterdam (Booi and Karsten 2019), but it is a slightly growing minority
Summary
We have observed a considerable increase in urban family households in several European capital cities (Butler 2003; Boterman et al 2010; Rerat 2012; Authier and Lehman-Frisch 2013; Frank and Weck 2018) These new urban families are indicated in the literature as young urban professional parents (YUPPs) to distinguish this group from the urban-oriented childless yuppies (Karsten 2007). The literature learns that settled people do not move (Fischer and Malmberg 2001) as they do not want to relinquish established life with children in primary school, arranged day care, and well-known school friends We assumed that they would have strong reflections on the decision to leave. This paper ends with conclusions, additions to the literature and a short discussion on urban housing policies
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