The specifics and spatial structure of circular migration in Russia

Abstract

This article aims at distinguishing recurrent population movements within the territory of the Russian Federation between urban localities of different sizes and rural areas in connection to the processes of urbanization, suburbanization, and de-urbanization. Incomplete urbanization and the strong polarization of socio-economic space in Russia have resulted in two powerful contradictory population flows: centrifugal seasonal sub- and de-urbanization and centripetal labor migration from rural and small towns to large urban centers. The article discusses three forms of recurrent population mobility in Russia: (1) daily commuting of urban and rural inhabitants within metropolitan areas; (2) commuting to large cities and their suburbs for long-term employment intervals (weekly, monthly, etc.), (3) second-home commuting to countryside dachas. Unfinished urbanization in Russia not only attracts rural and small towns’ population to major cities but also keeps it within the latter. It slows down the real de-urbanization and induces specific dachas (second-home) suburbanization/de-urbanization, with these processes being closely interrelated. An opportunity to earn money in cities together with the impossibility of moving to major centers due to expensive housing encourages households to remain in small towns and rural areas. Meanwhile, inhabited rural localities (even ones distant from cities) attract seasonal population (dachniks).     

COMMUTING LINKS AT LOWER LEVELS OF RURAL SETTLEMENT

The study of commuting links in rural areas of the Non-Chernozem Zone offers a useful approach to the redesign of settlement patterns. Commuting to work is analyzed in 80 primary settlement systems (farm systems) in five rayons of Vologda Oblast. Most of the commuting streams are found to occur toward the central farm settlements within systems and also between adjacent systems, with rural nonfarm places (both industry-based and transport based) offering the principal opportunities for employment. Commuting is analyzed in terms of two indices: a labor-balance index (relating resident population and employment opportunities) and a commuting intensity index (relating the number of commuters to resident population).     

Book Review

In the absence of Soviet statistics on commuting it is estimated that, as of the late 1960's, at least 10 million people commuted to work or study in the Soviet Union, or about 12 percent of the number of public-sector workers and students. Sample surveys have shown that commuting is found not only in the suburban zones of large cities, but also around small towns, and that it involves as many as 3 million residents of rural areas who travel to work in urban places. The maximum commuting radius in the Soviet Union appears to be about 50 km, with the number of commuters dropping off sharply beyond that limit. In terms of social composition, commuters tend to be mainly young men of relatively low skills. An assessment of commuting, from the Soviet point of view, lists both positive features, such as the fuller use of labor resources around a large urban center, and negative features, such as the unproductive loss of time involved in commuting over long distances.     

The use of Savings-Bank Statistics in Economic Geography

Soviet savings-bank statistics are examined as a potential source of data in economic-geographic research, with particular reference to four distinctive areas of Donetsk Oblast (Yenakiyevo, a large coal-steel city; Debal'tsevo, a middle-size railroad town; a suburban rural area; and a purely rural area). The average deposit balance in rural areas tends to be larger and more stable than in cities. City dwellers view savings banks as a place for keeping temporarily available money while rural residents use the banks for savings for particular purposes (home building, automobile purchase, etc.). The coefficient of territorial concentration (the ratio of the mean deposit in the local area to the mean deposit in the oblast as a whole) reflects differences in income levels. The mean deposit tends to be highest in suburban rural areas, where employment in the central city is supplemented by the sale of produce from private garden plots. Income levels in Yenakiyevo, with its high-paid labor force in the coal and steel industries, are higher than among the railroad workers of Debal'tsevo. Changes in deposit balances through the year also reflect urban and rural peculiarities in family incomes and expenditures.     

DOES AGGLOMERATION MATTER EVERYWHERE?: NEW FIRM LOCATION DECISIONS IN RURAL AND URBAN MARKETS*

We test whether commonly used measures of agglomeration economies encourage new firm entry in both urban and rural markets. Using new firm location decisions in Iowa and North Carolina, we find that measured agglomeration economies increase the probability of new firm entry in both urban and rural areas. Firms are more likely to locate in markets with an existing cluster of firms in the same industry, with greater concentrations of upstream suppliers or downstream customers, and with a larger proportion of college‐educated workers in the local labor supply. Firms are less likely to enter markets with no incumbent firms in the sector or where production is concentrated in relatively few sectors. The same factors encourage both stand‐alone start‐ups and establishments built by multiplant firms. Commuting decisions exhibit the same pattern as new firm entry with workers commuting from low to high agglomeration markets. Because agglomeration economies are important for rural firm entry also, policies encouraging new firm entry should focus on relatively few job centers rather than encouraging new firm entry in every small town.     

Delayed Underurbanization and the Closed-City Effect: The Case of Ust'-Kamenogorsk

A field study conducted by the author based on a 2001 survey (N = 3,136) compares data on population change at the individual settlement level from the 1999 census of Kazakhstan with unpublished data from the 1989 census. The author documents the unique phenomenon of "delayed underurbanization" in the formerly closed East Kazakh city of Ust'- Kamenogorsk (ca. 300,000 inhabitants in 2002), arguing that the limited financial resources of rural migrants to that city (recently accessible to residents of its rural hinterland) have created spatial patterns of residence and commuting similar to those under the Soviet underurbanization model for open cities. The study, covering an area dominated by militaryindustrial and/or mining-metallurgical economies, is relevant to research focused on other formerly closed cities throughout the Soviet Union. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: J61, O15, O18. 5 figures, 25 references.     

Determinants of Net Migration to Rural Areas,and the Impacts of Migration on Rural Labour Markets and Self-Employment in Rural Sweden

Abstract

Across most of Europe, the countryside seems to show a polarized development in which large districts are depopulating, while certain areas, mainly around big- and mid-sized cities, are increasing in population. The latter development is often described in concepts of “rural gentrification” and “rurbanization”, symbolizing a transformation of rural communities to communities with urban values and lifestyles. Most studies of the effects of these processes have focused on social and cultural consequences, as e.g. the displacements of lower-income households with higher-income residents and of rural culture and values with urban ones. This paper examines the phenomenon from another perspective, namely the effects of the “rurbanization” processes on countryside's labour markets and economic life. This paper aims at analysing the determinants of net migration to rural areas in general and to different types of regions, and the impacts of in-migration on rural labour markets, self-employment and other socio-economic conditions in Sweden for the period of 2003–2005. We find that net migration into rural areas increases with the size of adjacent local and regional centres, whereas net migration decreases with the average commuting distance of workers in the rural areas. When comparing in-migrants to rural areas with rural area stayers, our results indicate that the former has lower incomes, a lower employment ratio and a lower degree of entrepreneurial activities. These differences could—at least partly—be explained by the fact that rural area stayers were on average 6 years older than rural area in-migrants, i.e. the two groups were in different stages of their life cycles.     

大都市区居民对新兴边缘城市的认知与迁居意向——以天津大都市区为例

目前天津经济技术开发区(TEDA)已发展成为天津大都市区的新兴边缘城市。本文以居民问卷调查的第一手资料为基础,分析天津大都市区内各地区居民对TEDA的认知程度与迁居意向以及地域选择性特征,为以TEDA为核心的人口反磁力中心建设为主导的天津大都市区人口调整对策提供科学依据。     

大连市民通勤特征研究

以大连市民日常生活行为调查的结果为基础,根据就业人口及就业岗位的分布信息等进行通勤工具、通勤时间、通勤距离等通勤基本特征的分析,并着重从通勤发生的角度,研究通勤现象的距离衰减规律及其空间结构模式。     

COMMUTER MOVEMENT IN BELORUSSIA

A Belorussian Gosplan study of Minsk shows 26,044 commuters (1970 data from the Soviet census), of which 92 percent came from rural areas. Statistics on location of commuter residence, mode of transportation and time consumed show the importance of rail, up to 90 percent from satellite cities, and travel mainly within 41–90 minute isochrones, but extending to more than 120 minutes. Data for cities of the Poles'ye region of Belorussia shows a higher level of commuting, 65–80 percent occurring by road, with rail fulfilling a limited function. Details of socio-economic and demographic characteristics of commuter from 11 Belorussian industrial plants outline the general pattern of young, unskilled or semi-skilled sections of the population forming the bulk of in-commuters. The conclusion is that rural-urban migration in Belorussia in the last 15 years has to a large extent replaced a more developed pattern of commuter movement.     

Commuter lives: a review symposium on David Bissell's Transit Life

This article presents a series of commentaries on Transit Life: How Commuting is Transforming Our Cities, published by MIT Press in 2018. Centring on an in—depth case study of Sydney, the book argues the need to attend carefully to the fine—grained detail of the commuting experience. In all sorts of ways, Transit Life presents a way of thinking about urban transportation radically different from that used by mainstream transport planners and geographers. Geographical Research asked six researchers—Tim Edensor, Michele Lobo, Debbie Hopkins, Helen Fitt, Juliana Mansvelt, and Donald McNeill—to reflect on what kind of research vistas might be opened up bring the tools of cultural geography and mobility research to the world of commuting. Here are their responses, rounded out by a reply by David Bissell, Transit Life's author.     

The Formation of Leningrad's Satellite Places

The development of Leningrad's suburban zone began mainly in the Soviet period with the growth of “dormitory” satellites of the central city. Many of the city's satellites perform the same industrial and cultural functions as Leningrad itself. The distribution of commuter areas is analyzed on the basis of winter commutation tickets. In addition to satellites, Leningrad has “associate” cities and towns that supply the central city with electric power and fuels but lack the commuting ties that differentiate true satellites. Further planning of the Leningrad suburban zone should take care not to saturate the suburbs with industry. It is more desirable to locate new plants in small and medium-size cities outside the suburban zone.     

COMMUTING TO WORK IN THE IRON-MINING AREAS OF THE KURSK MAGNETIC ANOMALY

The rapid development of iron mining in the Gubkin–Staryy Oskol and Zheleznogorsk areas and a lag in the construction of urban housing account for a high level of commuting to the cities from surrounding villages. There are 6,000 daily commuters within the Gubkin–Staryy Oskol node and 3,300 in Zheleznogorsk. Commuters represent 10 percent of the work force in Gubkin and Zheleznogorsk and 7 percent in Staryy Oskol. The construction of a large direct-conversion steel plant at Staryy Oskol is likely to introduce further changes into the area's commuting patterns.     

DEFINITION OF THE BOUNDARY OF MOSCOW'S ACTIVE ZONE OF INFLUENCE

The present boundaries of Moscow's suburban zone are tested by delineating a so-called zone of active influence of Moscow city based on demographic structure and the significance of commuting to work in the city. The most favorable age-sex structure, with a high percentage of population in the working age groups and a relatively high percentage of children, is found in a zone within 50 to 60 kilometers from the city limits. This zone generates a daily flow of more than 500,000 commuters to places of employment in Moscow, 90 percent of whom spend less than 110 to 120 minutes traveling each way. These commuters represent about 2 percent of the total working-age population in the suburban zone. On the basis of the demographic structure and commuting linkages, Moscow's zone of active influence is therefore defined as the zone within which 90 percent of the commuters reside, or within 52 kilometers of the city limits. This conforms roughly to the present definition of the suburban zone.     

The Rayon Seats of the USSR in the System of Services

The administrative centers of rayons (county-type civil divisions) are viewed as key elements in the provision of services in the USSR. The effectiveness of rayon seats as service centers is analyzed in terms of the category of places serving as rayon seats (small cities; urban-type settlements [towns]; rural places), mean rayon population, area and radius, and the mean transport accessibility of the rayon center. The existence of a small city with a high level of services in a small rayon, as in the Baltic region, Belorussia, Moldavia and parts of the Ukraine, is viewed as optimal. Particular problems arise in Siberia and Kazakhstan, where the large size of rayons, low mean rayon population, big rayon radius and low transport accessibility combine to produce a low level of services. In such regions, a system of local service centers is advocated, with rayon seats performing the role of major regional centers.     

西部大城市居民通勤特征及其与城市空间结构的关系研究——以成都市为例

以成都市为实证研究对象,在大规模问卷调查的基础上,对西部大城市居民通勤基本特征进行了研究。分析发现,西部大城市居民通勤方式以公共交通为主,选择私家车作为通勤工具的比例较高;大部分居民的通勤时间在30分钟以内,通勤距离小于5km。和北京、广州等东部大城市相比,西部大城市职住分离现象还不是非常严重;不同属性居民的通勤时间存在差异,西方空间错位假说反映的城市社会空间不平等现象在中国西部大城市同样存在并逐步显化;通勤空间组织特征与城市结构以及城市功能分区存在密切的关系;西部大城市的快速发展对居民日常通勤影响较大。     

Rural Youth Migration Trends in Australia: an Overview of Recent Trends and Two Inland Case Studies

Much of what has been written on the topic of Australian rural youth migration trends and processes has often proceeded from data‐free, or data‐poor grounds. In this context, this paper analyses recent trends in youth (15 to 24 years of age) migration for a temporally‐consistent set of Statistical Divisions (SDs) in inland rural Australia, and for local government areas within the Northern Tablelands and Slopes and Ranges of northern New South Wales and the Western Australian Central Wheatbelt. The paper finds that rates of youth loss from rural regions have increased over the past twenty years. Yet the patterns, processes, causes and impacts of rural youth migration are distributed in a spatially‐uneven fashion. Some remote areas are receiving net migration gains while booming ‘sea change’ coastal regions have experienced heavy losses. While the ‘flight to the bright city lights’ syndrome is evident, relatively high proportions of young people in the Northern SD of NSW move within their immediate region. Nevertheless, some common understandings concerning youth mobility were also confirmed. Gender differentials in migration propensity between women and men are evident even at quite local scales. Young people are also more likely to search out capital cities than the rest of the population. Most inland areas still continue to experience heavy losses of local youth. A more precise understanding of rural youth migration trends is an important stepping stone in the establishment of a reinvigorated research effort into young rural people's perspectives of their changing life chances in their home communities.     

Smart growth strategies,transportation and urban sprawl: simulated futures for Hamilton,Ontario

North American cities have undergone dramatic changes over the last century. Locations that were once inconvenient have become accessible through extensive road networks leading to population decentralization from the traditional urban centre to suburbia, creating polycentric sprawls from once monocentric communities. Hamilton, Ontario is one such city. The decentralization and urban decline of the city is widely attributed to sprawling development. This change in the sociospatial structure creates challenges for transportation planners as we see greater automobile dependency, greater commuting distances and increased congestion. Smart growth policies such as urban residential intensification (URI) aim to increase population densities in the urban core. This exploratory study estimates the benefits of such policies from a transportation aspect. It is predicted that the City of Hamilton will experience household growth of approximately 80,000 households over the period 2005–2031. Using IMULATE, an integrated urban transportation and land‐use model, a variety of development scenarios model this anticipated growth. Changes in vehicular emissions, traffic congestion and energy consumption as a result of URI are examined. Models of the land‐use/transportation relationship demonstrate how increasing population densities within a city's urban centre drastically reduce congestion, emissions and gasoline consumption.     

COMPENSATION FOR COMMUTES IN THE LAND AND LABOR MARKETS: SOME EVIDENCE FROM THE TOKYO METROPOLITAN AREA*

ABSTRACT. Recent research suggests that in nonmonocentric cities compensation for commutes takes the form of both lower housing prices and higher wages. This paper develops a random utility model that predicts the probability of an actor choosing to commute between each residence and job in a metropolitan area conditional on the observed location of housing units and job sites. The model allows commuting time, origin-specific amenities, land prices, destination-specific amenities and wages to influence actors' choices. We estimate the model using maximum likelihood and generalized least squares techniques and data on commuting between each of 38 origin and 15 destination jurisdictions in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The empirical results show that, all else equal, a one percent increase in commuting time reduces the probability that a route (origin-destination combination) will be chosen by almost five percent. Origin-specific amenities are not completely capitalized into land prices and destination-specific amenities are not completely capitalized into wages. Desirable residential amenities include school quality and a low ratio of day to night population. Desirable workplace amenities include a large share of white collar jobs and a high density of employment.     

The urbanisation of Java, 2000–2010: towards ‘the island of mega-urban regions’

The mega-urbanisation process in Java is reflected in the spatial patterns of urban population growth between 2000 and 2010, although there has been a small deceleration in the rate of growth recently. This process is also clearly indicated in the significant increase in the number of urban localities, which reflects in situ urbanisation and rural–urban transformation in Java. Most districts and cities located adjacent to large cities experienced much higher population growth rates, compared to the core areas in cities. The formation of urban belts with a mix of economic activities connecting large cities is greatly expanding, while the small and medium cities, those with population sizes between 100,000 to one million, have tended to stagnate as their role and functions as centres of socio-economic activities are taken over by the large cities. Java’s mega-urbanisation appears unstoppable, and is largely uncontrolled at the present time. It is a daunting challenge for the central and local governments to manage the spatial urban growth in Java in the near future.