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<p>Large cities are often segregated by both ethnicity and class, and these dimensions frequently overlap because minorities are over-represented in lower-paid occupations. We examine how these patterns shift during the course of digital-transition-driven professionalization by focusing on tech workers, a fast-growing professional group. Higher earnings and broad scope for remote work expand minority tech workers’ residential options relative to other minorities facing tighter housing constraints. What remains unclear is whether their residential sorting is driven primarily by ethnicity or by class. Our empirical evidence comes from Tallinn, the capital of Estonia—a country known for its digital advancement. On the basis of population-wide register data, we find that the residential outcomes of minority tech workers align with class position, paralleled by the increasing spatial isolation of non-tech minorities as upward occupational mobility draws minority professionals out of lower-income co-ethnic areas. These results underscore the need to design urban policy for digitally transforming and professionalizing cities, with explicit attention to class-based segregation risks among minority communities who gain less from new opportunities.</p>

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The role of tech workers in ethnicity- and class-based urban segregation

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月3日

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  • Jānis Zālīte,
  • Kadi Kalm,
  • Kadri Leetmaa,
  • Tiit Tammaru

摘要

Large cities are often segregated by both ethnicity and class, and these dimensions frequently overlap because minorities are over-represented in lower-paid occupations. We examine how these patterns shift during the course of digital-transition-driven professionalization by focusing on tech workers, a fast-growing professional group. Higher earnings and broad scope for remote work expand minority tech workers’ residential options relative to other minorities facing tighter housing constraints. What remains unclear is whether their residential sorting is driven primarily by ethnicity or by class. Our empirical evidence comes from Tallinn, the capital of Estonia—a country known for its digital advancement. On the basis of population-wide register data, we find that the residential outcomes of minority tech workers align with class position, paralleled by the increasing spatial isolation of non-tech minorities as upward occupational mobility draws minority professionals out of lower-income co-ethnic areas. These results underscore the need to design urban policy for digitally transforming and professionalizing cities, with explicit attention to class-based segregation risks among minority communities who gain less from new opportunities.