ABSTRACT
Cities are known for their continuously changing groups of residents. Some people spend their entire lives in the same neighborhood. Others settle there, relocate within the neighborhood and then move away. All of the residents are deeply concerned with their residential environment to match their social careers with respect to both economic and cultural characteristics, which are closely related to the origins of the residents. This established ecological vision underlies the present study about the mobility of eight population categories in the Amsterdam region between 1988 and 2000. The results correspond largely with the ideas of Burgess et al, although Amsterdam is neither a classic example of a liberal capitalist city nor is it in a period of industrialization. The study also demonstrates that examining only the central city (without the suburbs) and comparing distribution patterns over time leads upward mobility to be seriously underestimated.
