On intra-urban differences in the destinations of emigrants from the Municipality of Malaga (Spain): An approximation based on the municipal register of inhabitants 73Batista-Zamora, A.E. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 73 (2024) (1) 73–88.DOI: 10.15201/hungeobull.73.1.5 Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 73 2024 (1) 73–88. Introduction Residential migration processes, defined as changes in residence within the same metro- politan area that do not involve a modifica- tion of individuals’ living spaces (Bayona-i- Carrasco, J. and Pujadas-i-Rúbies, I. 2014), have been the subject of numerous studies applied to the Spanish context. Most of these studies (Susino, J. and Duque-Calvache, R. 2013; De Oliveira Neves, G. et al. 2019; Bayona-i-Carrasco, J. and Pujadas-i-Rúbies, I. 2020; Torrado, J.M. et al. 2021) analyse municipalities as the unit of analysis, using the statistics of residential variations and/ or population censuses as primary sources. The impact of the crisis on these movements has also been examined by Pozo Rivera, E. and Rodríguez Moya, J.M. (2018) for the case of Madrid, as well as intra-metropolitan migrations among specific population groups, such as the foreign population in Madrid and Barcelona (Bayona-i-Carrasco, J. et al. 2013; Thiers-Quintana, J. and Gil Alonso, F. 2020). Previous research treats the municipalities of origin of emigrants as a homogeneous en- tity, failing to identify areas (sets of census tracts or other sub-municipal spatial units) within them, delimited by the municipality mostly chosen by emigrants leaving those areas. In this sense, it is generally agreed that emigration from major Spanish urban centres is largely driven by dissatisfaction with cur- rent housing or the need to acquire housing, issues that, in many cases, can only be ad- 1 Interdisciplinary Group of Rural and Urban Studies, Geography Department, Malaga University, Spain. Depar- tamento de Geografía, Campus de Teatinos, s/n. 29071, Malaga, Spain. E-mails: abz@uma.es, rlarrubia@uma.es, jjnatera@uma.es On intra-urban differences in the destinations of emigrants from the Municipality of Malaga (Spain): An approximation based on the municipal register of inhabitants Ana Ester BATISTA-ZAMORA1, Remedios LARRUBIA-VARGAS1 and Juan José NATERA-RIVAS 1 Abstract Emigrants who left the Municipality of Malaga in the 2017–2021 period went to multiple destinations, mostly municipalities located in the province of Malaga itself, more specifically in its metropolitan area. Average housing prices in these metropolitan municipalities are highly variable, and, in this context, it is reasonable to assume that there will be a relationship between the income levels of emigrants and their destination. Based on a special processing of the Municipal Register of Inhabitants of the Municipality of Malaga, we show how a relationship can effectively be found between the average household income (AHI) of the census tract of origin of the emigrants and the average price of housing in the destination municipality, both for the whole group of emigrants and for selected age groups – children and young adults. A relationship that points to an overrep- resentation of municipalities with high housing prices in the sections with the highest income, and vice versa. Keywords: residential migration, municipal register of inhabitants, average household income, Municipality of Malaga Received November 2023, accepted January 2024. mailto:abz@uma.es Batista-Zamora, A.E. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 73 (2024) (1) 73–88.74 dressed by moving to peripheral municipali- ties. Indeed, referring to the early 21st cen- tury situation, Nel-Lo, O. (2004) stated that the significant differences in housing prices between the cores of metropolitan areas (in- cluding Malaga) and their peripheries were fundamental to explaining centre-periphery migration, along with accessibility, which ul- timately also influences housing prices. On the other hand, income largely de- termines the type and location of housing that can be accessed. In the Spanish context, within a free-market framework with lim- ited policies addressing socio-residential dis- parities, access to housing is highly unequal among different social groups. As indicated by Andújar Llosa, A. et al. (2015), the char- acteristics of the housing that the population can afford and its suitability for household needs are closely related to available resourc- es and the household’s position in the social structure. The existing residential stock in the municipalities forming Spanish metropoli- tan areas is diverse in terms of characteristics and quality, leading to segmented offerings. Therefore, we can argue that the purchasing or rental capacity of the migrant determines their destination municipality based on the average housing price in that municipal- ity. Duque-Calvache, R. et al. (2017) further suggest that when there is a greater range of available housing in the metropolitan pe- riphery, mobility diversifies. This diversity can be understood through different average housing prices, which are not homogeneous among metropolitan municipalities. Given that income is also not uniformly distributed within central municipalities, it is reasonable to assume a relationship between household income level and destination municipality. This reality should have spatial representa- tion at the census tract level. In Spain, the available body of knowledge regarding the relationship between income and the destination of emigrants from large urban centers is very limited. Contributions in this direction include those of Bayona-i- Carrasco, J. and Pujadas-i-Rúbies, I. (2010), who use microdata from the Municipal Register of Inhabitants of Barcelona, and Salom-Carrasco, J. (2018), who uses micro- data on residential variations obtained from the Valencia City Council. The originality of our research lies in intending to relate the average household income (AHI) by census tract that left the Municipality of Malaga and the destination municipality of that emigra- tion, grouped according to the average price per m2 of housing for purchase. Specifically, our objective is to relate the AHI levels of census tracts from which emi- grants left the Municipality of Malaga in the period 2017–2021 to the major destination municipalities, grouped according to the price per m2 of existing housing. Located in the south of Spain, in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, the Municipality of Malaga is the one with the largest population in the province of the same name (578,061 inhabitants in 2021), and is among the 10 with the largest population in Spain (Figure 1). It is, furthermore, the nu- cleus of one of the most dynamic metropoli- tan areas in the country, and presents certain particularities: it coincides with the presence of a municipality greater than 500,000 inhab- itants – Malaga, object of our study –, which acts as a metropolitan nucleus, together to a set of cities that should be considered aver- age, developed under the shelter of tourist activity and that today make up a continuum built in the western coastal portion of the province: the Costa del Sol. This issue is im- portant, since, although in They are currently part of the Malaga metropolitan area (Feria Toribio, J.M. 2015), part of their dynamism is due to tourism, not metropolitan overflow. As indicated by Gil Alonso, F. and Bayona-i-carrasco, J. (2012), Malaga was in the group of urban areas that were systemat- ically experiencing, since the end of the last century, greater population increases in their peripheries than in their centres, increasing the rate of population increase in the lat- ter in the first decade of this century. As a consequence of this, the turn of the century would find this space in the phase of abso- lute de-concentration – following the well- 75Batista-Zamora, A.E. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 73 (2024) (1) 73–88. known model of Hall, P. (1984) –, according to Nel-Lo, O. (2004), which meant the over- flow of the metropolitan fact beyond from the Municipality of Malaga to those closest to it, towards the Guadalhorce Valley (munici- palities of Alhaurín de la Torre or Cártama, in which this process of residential de-con- centration has been especially relevant). The large increases in the population of these metropolitan municipalities occurred in short intervals of time, hand in hand with a continuous increase in the urbanized area dedicated to residential use, which has pro- gressively spread to municipalities further away from the metropolitan core. As we have just indicated, the overflow of the residential function has taken place in the valley of the Guadalhorce river, munic- ipalities of Alhaurín de la Torre, Cártama, Alhaurín el Grande and Coín at first (de- cade of the 1980s), continuing later on Álora, Pizarra, Almogía and Casabermeja, progressively further north and away from the Municipality of Malaga. And it will be from the end of the 1990s, with the improve- ment of communications, when the eastern municipalities of Rincón de la Victoria, and, to a lesser extent, Vélez Malaga, join this dynamic. Currently (2021), the population of these municipalities is disparate, ranging between 82,971 inhabitants in Vélez Malaga and 3,738 in Casabermeja. The number of those registered in the western municipalities is also uneven, among which Marbella is the largest (149,031 residents) and Torremolinos, with 67,878, the one with the smallest pop- ulation. Let us remember that these west- ern municipalities owe their dynamism to tourist activity – hence their comparatively high population volumes – but, like those Fig. 1. Location of the study area. Source: Authors’ own elaboration on Google Maps images. Batista-Zamora, A.E. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 73 (2024) (1) 73–88.76 located in the Guadalhorce Valley, they are a place of reception for emigrants from the Municipality of Malaga and are functionally linked to it. Sources and methodology In the Spanish context, the main sources commonly used to obtain information about migratory movements are two: the statistics of residential variations and population cen- suses. The former contains information on migratory movements at the municipal level, available for an extensive period. The latter allows obtaining the same information from a set of questions, grouped into two categories in the latest population census (2021) under the headings: “places of residence” and “years of arrival and places of origin”, but the infor- mation about the municipality of destination is rather scarce (the concrete destination is not available) and not useful in our context. A third source that can be used for mi- gratory studies is the municipal register of inhabitants; it is a counting source, so there are no sample problems, and the first hand accessible information allows us to know, at the level of census tract, the relationship be- tween place of birth and residence. The util- ity of all these sources is considerable, and a detailed description of their advantages and disadvantages applied to migratory stud- ies can be found in Palomares-Linares, I. et al. (2017). However, these sources cannot reveal the specific census tract of origin and the destination municipality of emigrants (statistical confidentiality affects the afore- mentioned sources) unless special processing is requested from those administrations or bodies that have that information. In our case, we have had special process- ing of the municipal registers of inhabitants from 2017 to 2021 requested from the city of Malaga; from this, we have obtained resi- dential departures and arrivals at the scale of urban census tract, and the municipalities – and, where applicable, countries – to which departures were directed. With this informa- tion, combined with population volumes ob- tained from the continuous register statistics, it is possible to know the migratory balances and migration rates of each tract, identifying differences between census tracts regarding the destination municipalities of their emi- grants. An issue of some importance is relat- ed to the confinement that the Spanish popu- lation suffered between March and June 2020, which, as has been revealed in other areas of the province of Malaga (Larrubia-Vargas, R. et al. 2023), influenced residential mobility patterns. However, in our case the influence is subsumed in the study period itself, five years from 2017. In this sense, it is possible to assume that the migrations that were inter- rupted by confinement took place in the years immediately following, so in any case, are in- cluded in the time frame of our research. To complement all this, we have also used the AHI at the urban census tract level, from the Household Income Atlas (INE, 2022a), for the year 2020, the latest available at the time of writing these paragraphs. As we will see later, another variable that we have used in our research is the price of housing in the destination municipali- ties of the emigrants. We have two options: rental price and purchase price. For the first option, we have information derived from the rental price index, prepared by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda (Ministerio de Vivienda y Agenda Urbana, 2024). However, the fact that it does not offer information on some of the municipalities under study has led us to reject it. On the other hand, it is convenient to indicate that the option of purchasing a habitual residence is more profitable in the long term than rent- ing (Domínguez Martínez, J.M. and López del Paso, R. 2006), while, for young people, renting does not represent a great advantage over property (Echaves García, A. 2017). So, the second option, the sale price of the home in the destination municipalities, seems ap- propriate. We have obtained the information from the housing price report prepared by the website “Idealista”, and accessible, at a municipal level, on its website, and their 77Batista-Zamora, A.E. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 73 (2024) (1) 73–88. methodology for obtaining prices can be con- sulted at https://bitly.ws/3aLIo. In any case, we must indicate that the values are average prices, that is, the source does not differenti- ate between prices according to the type of housing, location, or state of conservation: characteristics that are highly variable not only between the different municipalities, but also inside these. However, despite all this, we believe that its use has more advan- tages than disadvantages. Finally, we will note that the statistical treatment to which we have subjected the in- formation has been straightforward but con- sistent and, in our understanding, sufficient for the purpose of our research. We have cal- culated emigration and immigration rates, used the Pearson correlation coefficient, and the location quotient (LQ), the latter with the aim of identifying the “specialization” of Malaga census tracts according to the des- tination municipality of their emigrants. Results Emigration and immigration rates and migratory balances In the 2017–2021 five-year period, a total of 94,311 residential arrivals and 74,929 depar- tures were recorded in the Municipality of Malaga, resulting in a positive migratory balance of 19,382. In this general context, the values corresponding to different census tracts were highly disparate. Referring to the migratory balance, in the negative spec- trum, they oscillated between -64 and -1 for the entire period, while in the positive spec- trum, they ranged from 1 to 401. However, as depicted in Figure 2, most census tracts experienced positive balances. The spatial distribution of those that did not forms a dis- continuous border starting from the eastern end of the municipality and, after affecting a set of non-contiguous tracts not bordering the coastline – roughly around Miraflores del Palo – undergoes significant development north of the city centre and on both banks of the Guadalmedina river (Figure 3 highlights the landmarks mentioned in the text). The border continues through those outlined in the neighbourhoods at the western end of the Bailén Miraflores district, and from here, it extends mostly through sparsely populated areas in the west of the capital, except for a set of small census tracts in the western area of the built fabric around the Puerta Blanca neighbourhood. There was also a significant variability in the figures corresponding to emigration and immigration rates; therefore, and to facili- tate readability, we have grouped the census tracts into two categories: those with values lower than those of the municipality, and those with higher values. The spatial distribu- tions of both are presented in figures 4 and 5, respectively. The basic characteristics of those corresponding to areas with higher emigra- tion rates, than the municipality (Figure 4) are relatively straightforward: they are distrib- uted almost continuously along the east and west coastlines, with a greater penetration towards the interior in the former. Additionally, there is a compact cluster of neighbourhoods encompassing the cen- tral and northern pericentral areas, includ- ing neighbourhoods such as La Victoria, El Ejido, and Capuchinos, all east of the Guadalmedina river. On the opposite bank, this cluster continues, composed of neighbourhoods articulated by three major communication axes: from north to south, Martínez Maldonado/Carlos de Haya Avenue, Andalucía Avenue, and Heroes de Sostoa Street. As we move westward, its spatial continuity progressively dissolves, with the approximate western limit being the current Juan XXIII Avenue. It is, there- fore, a cluster of neighbourhoods that en- compasses the bulk of the expansion of the Malaga urban fabric to the west, which took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s, in which both private and public initiatives played a fundamental role; this built fabric is supplemented by a series of self-sufficient neighbourhoods in the interior areas of this conglomerate. On the other hand, the spatial https://bitly.ws/3aLIo Batista-Zamora, A.E. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 73 (2024) (1) 73–88.78 Fig. 2. Migration balances of census tracts for the Municipality of Malaga, 2017–2021. Source: Authors’ own elaboration on the municipal population registers, 2017–2021. Fig. 3. Location of landmarks mentioned in the text. Source: Authors’ own elaboration. 79Batista-Zamora, A.E. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 73 (2024) (1) 73–88. distribution of neighbourhoods with immi- gration rates higher than those of the munici- pal aggregate (184 in total) is very similar to the former, with only detailed differences, such as greater fragmentation on the east- ern coastal strip or greater continuity in the western strip, reflecting the new real estate developments located there (Figure 5). The spatial distributions of both rates being similar would indicate the most dynamic areas of the municipality concerning migratory move- ments. Census tracts where comparatively high values of departures are combined with simi- larly high values of arrivals; a comparison with the migration balance map (see Figure 1) shows that the result is positive balances, albeit mea- gerly positive. The sections with the highest bal- ances are located along the Antonio Banderas Promenade – the site of significant real estate developments in recent years – or the neigh- bourhoods adjacent to the centre in its northern portion, which experienced an increase in the number of dwellings within the context of the so-called Special Plan for Protection and Interior Reform of the Centre. However, even in these cases, the maximum value of the migration bal- ance is 401 people over 5 years. Destinations of emigrants Having established this general framework, it is time to investigate the destinations of emi- grants from Malaga in the period 2017–2021. Table 1 displays them, grouped into broad categories. It can be observed that over half of the departures had the province of Malaga as their destination, specifically 53.12 percent. The rest of Spain absorbed 26.95 percent of the movements (primarily directed to Madrid, with 5,504 movements), followed at a distance by those directed to the rest of Andalusia (12.76%), and foreign destinations, constitut- ing the remaining 7.17 percent. Fig. 4. Emigration rates in the Municipality of Malaga for the period 2017–2021 (emigrants per one million person). Source: Authors’ own elaboration on the municipal population registers, 2017–2021. Batista-Zamora, A.E. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 73 (2024) (1) 73–88.80 Once we have established that the prov- ince of Malaga was the primary destination, in order to identify the specific municipalities to which emigrants predominantly headed, we first calculated the percentage of the total each municipality has accommodated. While nearly all municipalities in Malaga have been a destination for some emigrants from the capital, significant differences in numbers exist. For instance, 7,425 individuals, consti- tuting 18.65 percent of the total, migrated to Rincón de la Victoria, contrasting with mini- mal figures such as 2 for Genalguacil, or 4 for Benalauría. Therefore, we have focused solely on those municipalities to which at least 1 per- cent of the total emigrants recorded between 2017 and 2021 have headed towards the prov- ince, and their list is provided in Table 2. As evident in Table 2, 16 out of the 101 mu- nicipalities comprising the province were the destination for more than four out of five emigrants from the city of Malaga (specifi- cally 85.74%), indicating a concentration in this flow. Given the size of the destination Fig. 5. Immigration rates in the Municipality of Malaga for the period 2017–2021 (immigrants per one million person). Source: Authors’ own elaboration on the municipal population registers, 2017–2021. Table 1. Volume and destination of emigrants* Indicator Malaga Rest of Andalusia Rest of Spain Foreign Total Numbers 39,799 9,564 20,197 5,369 74,929 Proportion, % 53.12 12.76 26.95 7.17 100.00 *Absolute values and percentages for period 2017–2021. Source: Municipal population registers, 2017–2021. 81Batista-Zamora, A.E. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 73 (2024) (1) 73–88. municipalities, and their affiliation with the Malaga metropolitan area, these migratory movements cannot be considered as ur- ban-rural migration in the sense described by Rivera Escribano, M.J. (2007) for movements detected from Pamplona (Autonomous Community of Navarre) to small settlements. Instead, they are part of a population reloca- tion process within an extensive urban area. This concentration is indicative of residen- tial migration, as the list of municipalities is included in those that, according to Feria Toribio, J.M. (2015), are part of the Malaga- Marbella Metropolitan Area. Studies on daily mobility based on mobile phone data (INE, 2022b) highlight the significant flows direct- ed from these municipalities to specific mo- bility areas in the capital and its surround- ings, where a substantial number of job op- portunities are concentrated. Therefore, this is indeed a residential mobility that, while changing the individual’s actual residence, does not necessarily imply a change in their workplace or even consumption patterns. Nevertheless, it is also apparent that the attractiveness is not uniform across all mu- nicipalities. Rincón de la Victoria attracted nearly 1 in 5 emigrants, while, at the other extreme, Álora only attracted 1.14 percent, which still amounts to 453 movements. On another note, housing prices in these municipalities are far from homogeneous. On average, prices in, for example, Marbella are higher than those in Almogía. In this re- gard, there is no doubt that a critical variable regarding access to housing is the household income. Income facilitates both initial access to housing – whether through purchase or rental – and the maintenance of it – in rental or mortgage situations. Additionally, income enables a change of residence if the current housing does not meet the household’s needs or expectations, or if they have had to leave it due to a forced situation – such as non-re- newal of the lease or an inability to meet mortgage payments, etc. Therefore, it is appropriate to correlate the AHI of the census tract from which the urban emigrants originated (Figure 6) with the price (in EUR per m2) of housing for sale in the destination municipality, considering only the 16 municipalities listed in Table 2. This price per m2 was obtained from the website “Idealista” (2023), representing averages of housing costs per m2 for sale. While corre- sponding rental prices for all relevant mu- nicipalities are not available, at least for the period 2001–2011, 85 percent of the popula- tion moving towards the Malaga–Marbella Metropolitan Area chose homeownership, whether fully paid or with a mortgage (Duque-Calvache, R. 2015). These depar- tures were also driven by individuals from the lower-middle social class who sold their homes in the capital and, with the capital gains obtained, acquired property on the outskirts (Montosa Muñoz, J.C. 2012). The values are presented in Table 3, with the corresponding data for the Municipality of Malaga included for comparison. Table 2. Number of emigrants from the Municipality of Malaga by destination municipality, and percentage of the total emigrants for the period 2017–2021 Municipality Numbers % Municipality Numbers % Alhaurín de la Torre Alhaurín el Grande Almogía Álora Benalmádena Cártama Casabermeja Coín Estepona 3,946 901 458 453 3,315 3,497 479 672 631 9.91 2.26 1.15 1.14 8.33 8.79 1.20 1.69 1.59 Fuengirola Marbella Mijas Pizarra Rincón de la Victoria Vélez Malaga Torremolinos 1,488 1,389 1,778 623 7,425 2,747 4,322 3.74 3.49 4.47 1.57 18.66 6.90 10.86 Total 34,124 85.74 Source: Municipal population registers, 2017–2021. Batista-Zamora, A.E. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 73 (2024) (1) 73–88.82 Based on these values, we have categorized the municipalities into four groups according to price range: from 1,000 to 1,500 EUR per m2 (Almogía, Álora, Casabermeja, and Pizarra), from 1,500 to 2,000 EUR per m2 (Alhaurín de la Torre, Alhaurín el Grande, Cártama, and Coín), from 2,000 to 2,500 EUR per m2 (Mijas, Rincón de la Victoria, and Vélez Malaga/Torre del Mar), and over 2,500 EUR per m2 (Benalmádena, Estepona, Fuengirola, Marbella, and Torremolinos). The number of residential departures in each census tract varies widely, ranging from 56 to 417, and in most of them, the popula- tion has moved to municipalities in all four price groups. Therefore, in correlating the Fig. 6. Average household income in the Municipality of Malaga, 2020. Source: Authors’ own elaboration on database of INE, 2022. Table 3. Average price per m2 of housing for sale, 2023 Municipality Price, EUR per m2 Municipality Price, EUR per m2 Alhaurín de la Torre Alhaurín el Grande Almogía Álora Benalmádena Cártama Casabermeja Coín Estepona 1,905 1,449 1,022 1,044 2,673 1,661 1,330 1,533 2,944 Fuengirola Marbella Mijas Pizarra Rincón de la Victoria Vélez Málaga Torremolinos 2,892 4,121 2,440 1,076 2,179 2,291 2,499 Malaga capital 2,365 Source: Idealista, 2023. 83Batista-Zamora, A.E. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 73 (2024) (1) 73–88. census tracts with the destination of their emigrants, rather than working with abso- lute numbers, we have opted for the use of a simple statistical tool, the LQ. Through its values, we can identify which census tracts exhibit an over-representation of emigrants for each group of destination municipalities – values that are comparable across tracts, irrespective of the volume of emigrants from each section. With this information, we con- ducted a correlation analysis between the LQ values and the AHI of each census tract, using the correlation coefficient. The results are presented in Table 4. As evident in the table, there is a statistically significant correlation between the AHI and the LQ values in three of the housing price ranges, with the exception being municipalities with values exceeding 2,500 EUR per m2. The contrast sign is also as anticipated: negative in the first two ranges and positive in the third. Consequently, there is a negative correlation between income and high LQ values in munic- ipalities with lower housing prices, becoming more significant with lower prices. Conversely, the correlation is positive when considering the group of municipalities with housing prices ranging from 2,000 to 2,500 EUR per m2, and notably, this correlation is the strongest. In other words, higher income is associated with a lower emigration rate to municipalities with low housing prices, and vice versa. For the cartographic representation of LQ values and to simplify interpretation, we opt- ed to group values into two main categories. Values below 1 represent sections where the number of departures is lower than expected compared to the municipal total, labelled as “under-representation” in the legend. Values above 1 correspond to sections that have pro- duced emigrants to the studied municipality group in a higher proportion than expected, identified as “over-representation” in the legend. Additionally, a third category, with a value of 0, groups sections from which no registered individuals moved to the corre- sponding municipality group, labelled as “no emigrants” in the legend. In Figure 7, we present the spatial distribu- tion of values corresponding to departures to municipalities with lower housing prices for sale (1,000 to 1,500 EUR per m2; destinations including Almogía, Álora, Casabermeja, and Pizarra). In Figure 8, the destination munic- ipalities have housing prices between 1,500 and 2,000 EUR per m2 (Alhaurín de la Torre, Alhaurín el Grande, Cártama, and Coín). Figure 9 depicts values of housing prices be- tween 2,000 and 2,500 EUR per m2 for sale in the destination municipality (Mijas, Rincón de la Victoria, and Vélez Malaga/Torre del Mar). We note that we will not delve into the last group of destination municipalities, as there is no correlation between the AHI per census tract and this group of destination municipalities. The interpretations of the distributions are clear. Census tracts with over-represen- tation in departures to municipalities in the first group are predominantly located to the west of the continuous urban fabric, form- ing a fringe with notable spatial contiguity extending through various neighbourhoods where households with low to very low av- erage incomes reside. The correlation with income values provided by the INE (2022), presented in Figure 6, is noteworthy, not only in the western fringe we referred to but also in the grouping around Ciudad Jardín. Furthermore, neighbourhoods with under- representation are situated in the eastern portion of the municipality, over the higher income range of the capital. In this regard, it is interesting to note the existence of two clusters of sections in this eastern area that not only exhibit under-representation but, Table 4. Values of the correlation coefficients between the AHI and LQ, by groups of municipalities according to the price of housing* Price, EUR per m2 Correlation coefficient 1,000–1,500 -0.337 1,500–2,000 -0.290 2,000–2,500 0.423 over 2,500 -0.155 *AHI = Average household income, LC = Location quotient. Source: Authors’ own elaboration. Batista-Zamora, A.E. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 73 (2024) (1) 73–88.84 Fig. 7. Location quotients (LQ) of emigrants directed towards municipalities with housing prices between 1,000 and 1,500 EUR per m2 in the Municipality of Malaga. Source: Authors’ own elaboration. Fig. 8. Location quotients (LQ) of emigrants directed towards municipalities with housing prices between 1,500 and 2,000 EUR per m2 in the Municipality of Malaga. Source: Authors’ own elaboration. 85Batista-Zamora, A.E. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 73 (2024) (1) 73–88. Fig. 9. Location quotients (LQ) of emigrants directed towards municipalities with housing prices between 2,000 and 2,500 EUR per m2 in the Municipality of Malaga. Source: Authors’ own elaboration. during our study period, did not send any emigrants to municipalities with lower hous- ing prices. These clusters largely correspond to sections with high AHIs. Regarding the analysis of the distributions of emigrants heading towards the two sub- sequent groups of municipalities, it is highly convenient to conduct this analysis simul- taneously. Indeed, it can be observed that both distributions are specular: sections with over-representation in emigration to munici- palities with housing prices between 1,500 and 2,000 EUR per m2 (see Figure 8) exhibit under-representation in emigration to the group with prices from 2,000 to 2,500 EUR per m2 (see Figure 9), and vice versa. In other words, all urban sections have experienced population outflows, primarily directed to- wards the province of Malaga. However, those sections with the highest AHI have directed these flows towards municipalities with higher housing prices, whereas those with lower incomes have directed them to- wards places where housing prices are some- what more affordable. Conclusions The destinations of emigrants leaving a mu- nicipality are diverse, given variations in motivations, preferences for location, char- acteristics of the intended housing, and avail- able income for acquisition. However, most sources provide aggregated flows at the mu- nicipal level, and those offering some intra- municipal information are either affected by statistical secrecy – pertaining not only to the volume of departures but also to specific destinations – or by rounding resulting from sampling methods. Nevertheless, the exist- ence of a wide variety of destinations reflects Batista-Zamora, A.E. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 73 (2024) (1) 73–88.86 the internal heterogeneity of the originating municipality. In our case, we identified this heterogeneity based on the AHI, which is not evenly distributed within the municipal urban fabric. In the context of residential mi- grations, where obtaining housing is the pri- mary objective, income can be presumed as one of the key factors underlying the choice of the destination municipality. By utilizing population registry information at the urban census tract level, we have demonstrated a relationship between income level and des- tination municipality – specifically, housing prices – for emigrants. Consequently, we are faced with what Mitchell, C.J.A. (2004) terms displaced ur- banization, migration primarily motivated by the search for improved housing condi- tions at the destination; in this type of mi- gration, the specific destination is not cru- cial for migrants, as they head to any area where they can meet their housing demands. Furthermore, as Aner, L.G. (2016) indicat- ed for Copenhagen, income and housing influence migration patterns, with available income correlating with the destination, es- tablishing a direct relationship. This relationship is inverse for municipali- ties with more affordable housing prices – up to 2,000 EUR per m2 – and direct for those with prices up to 2,500 EUR per m2. These findings align with the segmentation of the Dutch rural space based on housing prices by Bijker, R.A. et al. (2013), who found that in less popular rural areas, the average in- come of residents is lower than in the other two types. Migrants heading to more pop- ular rural areas had higher incomes and were more highly educated. Moreover, as Branden, M. (2013) suggests, income de- termines whether a person who wants to move has the means to do so. In our case, it determines the destination of migration, i.e., the AHI determines whether a person who wants to move to a municipality with high housing values can do so. Of course, the distance between municipalities of origin and destination is a variable that influence on the destination (Farkas, R. and Klobucnik, M. 2021; Kolcsár, R.A. et al. 2022). But in a context, as ours, in which, in general terms, the farther is the dwelling, the cheaper is, the relation between available income and price of the new house includes, implicitly, the distance. Nevertheless, we must not lose sight of the fact that the housing offer in destination municipalities is not homogeneous; differ- ent price ranges can be found in all of them. However, the fact that we first obtained statistical correlations between income and housing price per m2, and second, that the trend indeed indicates that sections with higher average household income send em- igrants “in excess” to municipalities with higher prices, and vice versa, highlights the significance of this variable. One might question whether this type of movement will ultimately result in maintain- ing levels of residential segregation based on income, albeit on a larger scale. In other words, the reality present in the Municipality of Malaga would extend to the entire metro- politan area. In this regard, Torrado, J.M. et al. (2021) have raised this possibility at a metropolitan scale in five major Spanish metropolitan areas. According to the authors, wealth is being centralized, and poverty is being suburbanized, increasing the tenden- cy toward the emergence of a dual city. In our case, the polarization would not be so much spatial – since the movements we have analysed are centrifugal in all cases – as it would be related to the quality of housing. Examining destinations at a finer scale than the municipal level, specifically at the census tract level for arrival municipalities, could allow us to delve deeper into this issue. To conclude, we will indicate that there remain issues that, based on the research we present, can be addressed: the presence of an immigrant population, basically of a la- bour nature, is a fact in the Municipality of Malaga, and we can consider not only the participation they have in the emigration flows, but also whether their destination pat- terns are similar, or not, to the general situa- tion that we have just described. Another as- 87Batista-Zamora, A.E. et al. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 73 (2024) (1) 73–88. pect of interest is to investigate the migratory flows of households in relation to the desti- nation municipalities, since we can assume that the physical characteristics of the home vary according to its composition. Elements of great interest that can be addressed taking our results as context. REFERENCES Andújar Llosa, A., Feria Toribio, J.M., Iglesias Pascual, R. and Granados Budiño, M.A. 2015. Áreas Metropolitanas Andaluzas. 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