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Residential Profiles of Surinamese and Moroccans in Amsterdam

Amsterdam Study Centre for the Metropolitan Environment, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130, 1018 VZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands, .c.deurloo{at}frw.uva.nl

Sako Musterd

Amsterdam Study Centre for the Metropolitan Environment, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130, 1018 VZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands, s. musterd@frw. uva.nl

At present, politicians in the Netherlands tend to pay more attention to bridging cultural gaps between various ethnic groups than reducing class differences. In that context, it is frequently assumed that ethnic integration processes can be facilitated by establishing a mixed population. In order to reach that objective, municipalities and local housing associations are encouraged to realise heterogeneous residential areas. However, this kind of policy rests on the assumption of a clear relationship between a spatial mix of the population in ethnic terms and the level of integration in society. The validity of this assumption is challenged in this paper in its investigation of housing profiles for areas containing varying immigrant densities in Amsterdam. Micro-level spatial data for all (over 16 000) postal-code areas in the city were compiled to substantiate this claim. The rich data-set allowed a detailed comparison to be made of the housing situation outside, within and between various ethnic group concentration areas which were constructed from the postal-code areas. This paper discusses the findings for Surinamese and Moroccans, the two largest non-native groups in Amsterdam. It is shown that, in general, all the residential neighbourhoods identified have heterogeneous housing profiles. The results suggest that other factors should be taken into account in order to understand the spatial segregation of immigrant groups. Such factors particularly include economic restructuring, the welfare state—especially redistributive mechanisms—urban history, general housing policy and cultural orientation.

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