Migració i segregació residencial a la Regió Metropolitana de Barcelona: Sant Cugat del Vallès com a elecció residencial per a les categories professionals altes

Abstract

In this paper the singularity of Sant Cugat del Vallès, a municipality from the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona will be analyzed. Sant Cugat del Vallès shows a pronounced urban expansion together with the maximum absolute values in its population growth rate compared with the remaining municipalities of the Area. Additionally it has attracted a great proportion of the emigration of Barcelona, especially people belonging to the high professional category or people with a high degree of education. Therefore this municipality shows two particularities that motivate its study: a high population growth and a very selective migration characterized by the high professional level of the migrants. The paper has been structured into three clearly differentiated parts. In the first part the new demographic and migratory dynamics from the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona will be presented, with the purpose to compare the emigratory and the immigratory areas between them and to evidence the relevance of Sant Cugat del Vallès in this period of redistribution of the population towards low-density municipalities. In the second part the migratory relations between Sant Cugat del Vallès and the remaining municipalities of the Metropolitan Area will be described. In the last part of this paper, several migratory behaviours will be distinguished, according to the socio-professional categories and their territorial implications, in order to study the processes of residential choice and which is the impact of these processes in the new metropolitan zones. The migratory fluxes will be analyzed basing on the different professional levels, distinguishing immigration from emigration in order to evidence how the arrival of the new residents, having in general a high socioprofessional category, is accompanied by the emigration of a great number of the former inhabitants of Sant Cugat del Vallès towards new residential destinations with more reasonable prices.