Residential Mobility Within the Italian Metropolitan Areas in the 2000s. A Territorial Focus on Rome and Milan

Until the economic crisis of 2008, the major Italian metropolitan areas attracted significant international migration flows and underwent an intense process of residential expansion from the city centres to the surrounding rings. Over the last decade, labour migration from other countries has decreased sharply, and there have been initial indications of a resurgence in urbanisation of the inner city areas. Based on a large and original population register dataset on internal migration and intra-urban residential mobility in the 2000s, this chapter aims to examine how spatial patterns of urban mobility have changed the distribution of national and foreign residents within the main Italian metropolitan areas. A comparative analysis is carried out on the residential dynamics in the cores and hinterlands of Rome, Milan, Naples, and Turin, followed by a specific territorial focus by urban belts, municipalities and neighbourhoods on the areas of Rome and Milan. The results show that both cities, for different reasons, are experiencing re-urbanisation by Italians in affluent neighbourhoods and the replacement of Italians by foreigners in peripheral and degraded districts.