View source for White flight

{{Short description|Mass exodus of white people from areas becoming more diverse}}
{{About|the social phenomenon|other uses|White flight (disambiguation)}}
{{pp-semi-indef}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2022}}

{{Discrimination sidebar}}

The '''white flight''', also known as '''white exodus''',<ref>{{cite book|editor1=Barry C. Feld|editor2=Donna M. Bishop|title=The Oxford Handbook of Juvenile Crime and Juvenile Justice|date=2013|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0199338276|quote=The [[Kerner Commission]] report ... concluded that "Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white" ... Black urban in-migration and White exodus had developed concentrations of impoverished persons.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Robert W. Kweit|title=People and Politics in Urban America, Second Edition|date=2015|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-1138012028|quote=The U.S. court of Appeals ruled that Norfolk was rightly concerned with the white exodus from public schools and that the decision to end mandatory busing was not based on discriminatory intent, but on the desire to keep enough whites in the school system to prevent resegregation.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Timothy J. Minchin|author2=John A. Salmond|title=After the Dream: Black and White Southerners since 1965 (Civil Rights and Struggle)|date=2011|publisher=[[University Press of Kentucky]]|chapter=Chapter 8 'Mixed Outcomes'|isbn=978-0813129785|quote=Even success in desegregating downtown stores and buses was now undercut by the white exodus. As they fled the cities, many whites lost interest in the civil rights issue.}}</ref> is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of [[white people]] from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://time.com/5714285/michelle-obama-white-flight/ |title=Michelle Obama Opens Up About the Pain of Witnessing 'White Flight' as a Child in Chicago |author=Josiah Bates|quote=“White flight” — a phenomenon in which white people leave areas that are becoming more diverse.|date=October 30, 2019 |magazine=[[TIME]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/30/michelle-obama-white-flight-chicago-yall-were-running-us/ |title=Michelle Obama on white flight in Chicago: 'Y'all were running from us' |author=Lateshia Beachum |quote=“White flight” is when white people leave increasingly diverse areas in large numbers.|date=October 30, 2019 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref> Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the [[Racism in the United States|United States]]. They referred to the large-scale migration of [[European American|people of European ancestry]] from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous [[suburb]]an or [[exurban]] regions. The term has more recently been applied to other migrations by [[white American|whites]] from older, inner suburbs to rural areas, as well as from the American [[Northeastern United States|Northeast]] and [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]] to the milder climate in the [[Southern United States|South]] and [[Western United States|West]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society |editor-first=Richard T.|editor-last=Schaefer |year=2008 |publisher= SAGE publications}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia= Merriam-Webster Dictionary |url= http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/white%20flight |title= white flight}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author= Armor, David J. |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BJuAZpULzAsC&q=%22causes+white+flight%22+armor&pg=PA177 |title=Forced Justice: School Desegregation and the Law |publisher= Oxford University Press US |year=1986 |isbn= 978-0-1953-58179}}</ref> The term 'white flight' has also been used for large-scale [[Decolonization|post-colonial]] emigration of [[White Africans of European ancestry|whites from Africa]], or parts of that continent,<ref name=Hammer2010>{{cite news |title=(Almost) Out of Africa: The White Tribes |work=World Affairs Journal |author=Joshua Hammer |date=May–June 2010 |url= http://worldaffairsjournal.org/article/almost-out-africa-white-tribes|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120114034302/http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/almost-out-africa-white-tribes|url-status= usurped|archive-date= January 14, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title= Mosiuoa 'Terror' Lekota threatens to topple the ANC |author=Johnson, RW |date= October 19, 2008 |work=The Times |url= http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article4969026.ece |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110430101911/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article4969026.ece |url-status= dead |archive-date= April 30, 2011 |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= The atlas of changing South Africa |edition= 2nd |author= Christopher, A.J. |year=2000 |publisher= Routledge |page=213 |isbn= 978-0-2031-85902}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The uncertain promise of Southern Africa |editor1-first=York W. |editor1-last=Bradshaw |editor2-first= Stephen N. |editor2-last=Ndegwa |year=2001 |publisher= Indiana Univ. Press |page=6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Reinhardt |editor1-first=Steven G. |editor2-first=Dennis P. |editor2-last=Reinhartz |title=Transatlantic history |year=2006 |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |isbn=978-1-5854-44861 |edition=1st |pages=[https://archive.org/details/transatlantichis0000unse/page/149 149–150] |url=https://archive.org/details/transatlantichis0000unse/page/149 }}</ref> driven by levels of violent crime and anti-colonial or anti-white state policies.<ref name="Economist 12295535">{{cite news |date=September 25, 2008 |title=White flight from South Africa: Between staying and going |url=http://www.economist.com/node/12295535 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180716082317/https://www.economist.com/briefing/2008/09/25/between-staying-and-going |archive-date=16 July 2018 |newspaper=The Economist}}</ref>

Migration of middle-class white populations was observed during the [[civil rights movement]] in the 1950s and 1960s out of cities such as [[Baltimore]], [[Cleveland]], [[Detroit]], [[Kansas City]] and [[Oakland]], although [[School segregation in the United States|racial segregation of public schools]] had ended there long before the [[Supreme Court of the United States]]' decision ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' in 1954. In the 1970s, attempts to achieve effective [[desegregation]] (or "integration") by means of [[Desegregation busing in the United States|busing]] in some areas led to more families' moving out of former areas.<ref>{{cite book |author=Clotfelter, Charles T. |title=After Brown: The Rise and Retreat of School Desegregation |url=https://archive.org/details/afterbrownrisere00clot |url-access=registration |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2004|isbn=9780691119113 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ravitch |first=Diane |title=[[The Troubled Crusade: American Education, 1945–1980]] |year=1983 |publisher=Basic Books |place= New York City |isbn= 978-0-4650-87570 |page=[https://archive.org/details/troubledcrusadea00ravi/page/177 177] |quote=School desegregation and White Flight }}</ref> More generally, some historians suggest that white flight occurred in response to population pressures, both from the large migration of blacks from the rural [[Southern United States]] to urban cities of the [[Northeastern United States]], [[Midwestern United States]] and the [[Western United States]] in the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] and the waves of new immigrants from around the world.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1= Boustan |first1= L. P. |doi= 10.1162/qjec.2010.125.1.417 |title= Was Postwar Suburbanization "White Flight"? Evidence from the Black Migration* |journal= Quarterly Journal of Economics |volume= 125 | pages = 417–443 |year= 2010 |citeseerx= 10.1.1.595.5072 |s2cid= 2975073 }}</ref> Some historians have challenged the phrase "white flight" as a misnomer whose use should be reconsidered. In her study of [[West Side, Chicago|West Side]] in [[Chicago]] during the [[post-war]] era, historian Amanda Seligman argues that the phrase misleadingly suggests that whites immediately departed when blacks moved into the neighborhood, when in fact, many whites defended their space with violence, intimidation, or legal tactics.<ref>{{cite book |last=Seligman |first=Amanda |title=Block by block: neighborhoods and public policy on Chicago's West Side |year=2005 |publisher= University of Chicago Press |location= Chicago |isbn=978-0-226-74663-0 |pages=213–14}}</ref> [[Leah Boustan]], Professor of Economics at Princeton, attributes white flight both to racism and economic reasons.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/15/opinion/white-flight.html |title= The Culprits behind White Flight |last=Boustan |first=Leah |date=May 15, 2017 |work=The New York Times |access-date=May 15, 2017 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> [[Urban decay]] and crime have also been cited as one of the reasons.<ref name=":1" />

The business practices of [[redlining]], [[mortgage discrimination]], and racially [[restrictive covenants]] contributed to the overcrowding and physical deterioration of areas with large minority populations. Such conditions are considered to have contributed to the emigration of other populations. The limited facilities for banking and insurance, due to a perceived lack of profitability, and other social services, and extra fees meant to hedge against perceived profit issues, increased their cost to residents in predominantly non-white suburbs and city neighborhoods.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kruse |first=Kevin M. |title=White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism |year=2007 |publisher= Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, N.J. |isbn=978-0-691-13386-7 |url= http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i8043.html|access-date= February 5, 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070610090055/http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i8043.html |archive-date=June 10, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author= Thabit, Walter |title=How East New York Became a Ghetto |url= https://archive.org/details/howeastnewyorkbe00thab |url-access= limited |year=2003 |publisher=New York University Press |location= New York |isbn=978-0-8147-8267-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/howeastnewyorkbe00thab/page/n58 42]}}</ref> According to the environmental geographer Laura Pulido, the historical processes of suburbanization and urban decentralization contribute to contemporary [[environmental racism]].<ref>{{cite journal |author=Pulido, Laura |title= Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |volume=90 |number=1 |date=Mar 2000 |pages=12–40 |url= http://www.geog.umn.edu/faculty/squires/courses/BSE3001/PulioEnvironmentalRacismWhitePrivilege.pdf |doi= 10.1111/0004-5608.00182|hdl= 10214/1833 |s2cid= 38036883 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

==History==
{{Segregation}}
In 1870, ''[[The Nation]]'' covered the large-scale migrations of [[white Americans]]; "The report of the Emigration Commissioners of Louisiana, for the past year, estimates the white exodus from the Southern Atlantic States, Alabama, and Mississippi, to the trans-Mississippi regions, at scores of thousands".<ref>{{Cite news |page=233 |title=The Week, New York, Thursday |date=April 14, 1870 |work=[[The Nation]]}}</ref> By 1888, with rhetoric typical of the time, [[Walter Thomas Mills]]'s ''The Statesman'' publication predicted:
<blockquote>Social and political equality and the political supremacy of the negro element in any southern state must lead to one of three things: A white exodus, a [[race war|war of races]], or the destruction of representative institutions, as in the [[District of Columbia]].<ref>{{Cite news |page=147 |title=The Statesman |author-link=Walter Thomas Mills|author=Walter Thomas Mills |date=1888 |publisher=Statesman Publishing Company|edition=Volume 5}}</ref></blockquote>

An 1894 biography of [[William Lloyd Garrison]] reveals the abolitionist's perception of the pre-[[American Civil War|Civil War]] tension and how "the shadows of the impending civil disruption, had brought about a white exodus" of Northerners to Southern states such as Georgia.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Wendell Phillips Garrison|author2=Francis Jackson Garrison|title=William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879: The Story of His Life Told by His Children|url=https://archive.org/details/wlgstoryoflife03garrrich|date=1894|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/wlgstoryoflife03garrrich/page/494 494]}}</ref>

In the years leading up to [[World War I]], the newspapers in the [[Union of South Africa]] were reporting on the "spectre of white flight", in particular due to [[Afrikaners]] travelling to the [[Port of Durban]] in search of ships for Britain and Australia.<ref>{{citation|author1=Timothy Keegan|title=[[Journal of Southern African Studies]]|chapter=Gender, Degeneration and Sexual Danger: Imagining Race and Class in South Africa, ca.1912|date=2001|edition=Volume 27, Number 3|publisher=[[Routledge]]|quote=Newspaper reports in the years before World War I dwelt on the spectre of white flight, of farewells at Park Station as men stricken with disease entrained for the coast, and of men arriving in Durban in search of billets on ships leaving for Britain or Australia. At the outbreak of war there were still nearly 50,000 more white men on the Rand than white women, many with families still living in Cornwall or Lancashire to whom they sent remittances.|isbn=|page=}}</ref>

==Academic research==
In 1958, political scientist [[Morton Grodzins]] identified that "once the proportion of non-whites exceeds the limits of the neighborhood's tolerance for interracial living, whites move out." Grodzins termed this phenomenon the [[Tipping point (sociology)|tipping point]] in the study of white flight.<ref>{{cite book|author=Lindsey Haines|title=White Flight and Urban Decay in Suburban Chicago|date=2010|publisher=[[Illinois Wesleyan University]]|edition=Paper 112}}</ref>

In 2004, a study of UK census figures at the [[London School of Economics]] demonstrated evidence of white flight, resulting in [[ethnic minorities]] in inner-city areas becoming increasingly isolated from the ethnic [[White British]] population.<ref name="thetelegraph2005" /> The study, which examined the white population in London, the [[West Midlands (region)|West Midlands]], [[West Yorkshire]], and [[Greater Manchester]] between 1991 and 2001, also concluded that white population losses were largest in areas with the highest ethnic minority populations.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/england/london-travel/race-divide-in-big-cities-widens-as-whites-move-out-vknzr9d70s2 |title=Race divide in big cities widens as whites move out |author=Richard Ford|date=December 8, 2004 |work=[[The Times]]}}</ref>

In 2018, research at [[Indiana University]] showed that between 2000 and 2010 in the US, of a sample size of 27,891 Census tracts, 3,252 experienced "white flight".<ref>{{cite book|author=Samuel H.Kye|title=The persistence of white flight in middle-class suburbia|date=2018|publisher=[[Social Science Research]]|location=[[Indiana University]]|pages=38–52|edition=Volume 72}}</ref> The examined areas had "an average magnitude loss of 40 percent of the original white population." Published in ''[[Social Science Research]]'', the study found "relative to poorer neighborhoods, white flight becomes systematically more likely in middle-class neighborhoods at higher thresholds of [[black people|black]], Hispanic, and Asian population presence."<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://psmag.com/social-justice/white-flight-remains-a-reality |title='White Flight' Remains a Reality |author=Tom Jacobs|date=March 6, 2018 |work=[[Pacific Standard]]}}</ref>

===Checkerboard and tipping models===
In studies in the 1980s and 1990s, blacks said they were willing to live in neighborhoods with 50/50 ethnic composition. Whites were also willing to live in integrated neighborhoods, but preferred proportions of more whites. Despite this willingness to live in integrated neighborhoods, the majority still live in largely segregated neighborhoods, which have continued to form.<ref name=Zhang>{{cite journal|last1=Zhang|first1=J.|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9787.2010.00671.x|title=Tipping and Residential Segregation: A Unified Schelling Model|journal=Journal of Regional Science|volume=51|pages=167–193|year=2011|issue=1 |bibcode=2011JRegS..51..167Z |citeseerx=10.1.1.564.9435|s2cid=17624822}}</ref>

In 1969, Nobel Prize-winning economist [[Thomas Schelling]] published "Models of Segregation", a paper in which he demonstrated through a "checkerboard model" and mathematical analysis, that even when every agent prefers to live in a mixed-race neighborhood, almost complete segregation of neighborhoods emerges as individual decisions accumulate. In his "tipping model", he showed that members of an ethnic group do not move out of a neighborhood as long as the proportion of other ethnic groups is relatively low, but if a critical level of other ethnicities is exceeded, the original residents may make rapid decisions and take action to leave. This tipping point is viewed as simply the end-result of a [[domino effect]] originating when the threshold of the majority ethnicity members with the highest sensitivity to sameness is exceeded. If these people leave and are either not replaced or replaced by other ethnicities, then this in turn raises the level of mixing of neighbors, exceeding the departure threshold for additional people.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Schelling, T.|year=1969|title=Models of segregation|journal=The American Economic Review|volume=59|issue=2|pages=488–493}}</ref>

==Africa==

===South Africa===
About 800,000 out of an earlier total population of 5.2 million whites left post-[[apartheid]] [[South Africa]] after 1995, according to a 2009 report in ''[[Newsweek]]''.<ref name="newsweekFleeing2009"/> The country has suffered a high rate of violent crime, a primary stated reason for emigration.<ref name="news24RunnningOut"/> Other causes cited in the Newsweek report include [[South African farm attacks|attacks against white farmers]], concern about being excluded by [[affirmative action]] programmes, political instability  and worries about corruption.<ref name="newsweekFleeing2009"/> Many of those who leave are highly [[Education in South Africa|educated]], resulting in skills shortages.<ref name="news24RunnningOut">{{cite web|title=We're running out of whites|first1=Zinhle|last1=Mapumulo|first2=Johan|last2=Eybers|website=[[News24 (website)|News 24]]|url=https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/were-running-out-of-whites-20170806-2|quote=We are quickly losing all our skilled workers. One option for South Africa is to employ a foreign workforce to continue growing our economy and we all know how many South Africans feel about that.}}</ref> Some observers fear the long-term consequences, as South Africa's labour policies make it difficult to attract skilled immigrants. In the global economy, some professionals and skilled people have been attracted to work in the U.S. and European nations.<ref name="Economist 12295535"/><ref name="newsweekFleeing2009">{{cite news|url=http://www.newsweek.com/2009/02/13/fleeing-from-south-africa.html |author=Johnson, Scott|title=Fleeing From South Africa|work=Newsweek|date=February 14, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728021207/http://www.newsweek.com/2009/02/13/fleeing-from-south-africa.html|archive-date=July 28, 2011}}</ref>

===Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia)===

Until 1980, the unrecognised [[Rhodesia|Republic of Rhodesia]] held a well-publicised image as being one of two nations in [[sub-Saharan Africa]] where a white minority of European descent and culture held political, economic, and social control over a preponderantly black African majority.<ref name="Nelson">{{cite book|title=Zimbabwe, a Country Study|series=Area Handbook Series|editor-last=Nelson|editor-first=Harold D|year=1983|location=Washington, D.C.|publisher=Department of the Army, [[American University]]|edition=Second|oclc=227599708}}</ref> Nevertheless, unlike white South Africans, a significant percentage of [[White Zimbabweans|white Rhodesians]] represented recent immigrants from Europe.<ref name="Nelson"/> After [[World War II]], there was a substantial influx of Europeans migrating into the region (formerly known as [[Southern Rhodesia]]), including former residents of [[India]], [[Pakistan]], and other parts of Africa. Also represented were working-class emigrants responding to economic opportunities.<ref name="Nelson"/> In 1969, only 41% of Rhodesia's white community were natural-born citizens, or 93,600 people.<ref name="Nelson"/> The remainder were naturalised European and South African citizens or expatriates, with many holding dual citizenship.<ref name="Nelson"/>

During the [[Rhodesian Bush War]], almost the entire white male population between eighteen and fifty-eight was affected by various military commitments, and individuals spent up to five or six months of the year on combat duty away from their normal occupations in the civil service, commerce, industry, or agriculture.<ref name="blackfire">{{cite book|last=Raeburn|first=Michael|title=We are everywhere: Narratives from Rhodesian guerillas|pages=200–209}}</ref> These long periods of service in the field led to an increased emigration of men of military age. In November 1963, state media cited the chief reasons for emigration as uncertainty about the future, economic decline due to embargo and war, and the heavy commitments of national service, which was described as "the overriding factor causing people to leave".<ref name="blackfire"/> Of the male emigrants in 1976 about half fell into the 15 to 39 age bracket. Between 1960 and 1976 160,182 whites immigrated, while 157,724 departed. This dynamic turnover rate led to depressions in the property market, a slump in the construction industry, and a decline in retail sales.<ref name="blackfire"/> The number of white Rhodesians peaked in 1975 at 278,000, and rapidly declined as the bush war intensified. In 1976, around 14,000 whites left the country, marking the first year since [[Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence]] in 1965 that more whites had left the country than arrived,<ref name=MT>M. Tamarkin (2012) ''The Making of Zimbabwe: Decolonization in Regional and International Politics'', Routledge, p122</ref> with most leaving for South Africa.<ref>Olga Sicilia (2010) ''There Is No Such Thing As a Spirit in the Stone! Misrepresentations of Zimbabwean Stone Sculpture: An Anthropological Approach'' Universal-Publishers, p25</ref> This became known as the 'chicken run', the earliest use of which was recorded the following year,<ref name=EP>Eric Partridge (2006) ''The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English: A-I'', Taylor & Francis, p389</ref>  often by Rhodesians who remained to contemptuously describe those who had left.<ref>Tony Ballinger (2015) ''A Walk Against The Stream: A Rhodesian National Service Officer's Story of the Bush War'', Helion and Company, p335</ref><ref>U.S. News & World Report, Volume 87,  pxlvi</ref> Other phrases such as 'taking the gap' or 'gapping it' were also used.<ref>Daniel Schreier, Peter Trudgill, Edgar W. Schneider, Jeffrey P. Williams (2010) ''The Lesser-Known Varieties of English: An Introduction'', Cambridge University Press, p271</ref> As the outward flow increased, the phrase 'owl run' also came into use, as leaving the country was deemed by many to be a wise choice.<ref>Peter J. H. Petter-Bowyer (2005) ''Winds of Destruction: The Autobiography of a Rhodesian Combat Pilot'', 30° South Publishers, p359</ref> Disfavour with the biracial [[Zimbabwe Rhodesia]] administration in 1979 also contributed to a mass exodus.<ref name="Nelson"/>

The establishment of the [[Zimbabwe|Republic of Zimbabwe]] in 1980 sounded the death knell for white political power, and ushered in a new era of black majority rule.<ref name="Nelson"/> White emigration peaked between 1980 and 1982 at 53,000 persons, with the breakdown of law and order, an increase in crime in the rural areas, and the provocative attitude of Zimbabwean officials being cited as the main causes.<ref name="SmithGB">{{cite book|author= Smith, Ian|title=The Great Betrayal|pages=368–409|publisher= Blake Publishing Ltd.|location=London|year=1997|isbn= 978-1-85782-176-5}}</ref> Political conditions typically had a greater impact on the decision to migrate among white than black professionals.<ref name="Driouchi">{{cite book|author= Driouchi, Ahmed|title=Labor and Health Economics in the Mediterranean Region: Migration and Mobility of Medical Doctors |pages=340–345|publisher= IGI Global|location=Hershey|year=2014|isbn= 978-1466647237}}</ref> Between 1982 and 2000 Zimbabwe registered a net loss of 100,000 whites, or an average of 5,000 departures per year.<ref name="Marrow">Helen Marrow, The new Americans: a guide to immigration since 1965 // Mary C. Waters, Reed Ueda, Helen B. Marrow (eds.), Harvard University Press, 2007, pp. 309-317</ref> A second wave of white emigration was sparked by President [[Robert Mugabe]]'s violent [[Land reform in Zimbabwe|land reform]] programme after 2000.<ref name="Driouchi"/> Popular destinations included South Africa and [[Australia]], which emigrants perceived to be geographically, culturally, or sociopolitically similar to their home country.<ref name="Marrow"/>

From a strictly economic point of view, the departure figures were not as significant as the loss of the skills of those leaving.<ref name="Nelson"/>  A disproportionate number of white Zimbabwean emigrants were well educated and highly skilled. Among those living in the United States, for example, 53.7% had a bachelor's degree, while only 2% had not completed secondary school.<ref name="Marrow"/> Most (52.4%) had occupied technical or supervisory positions of critical importance to the modern sector of the economy.<ref name="Marrow"/> Inasmuch as black workers did not begin making large inroads into apprenticeships and other training programs until the 1970s, few were in a position to replace their white colleagues in the 1980s.<ref name="Nelson"/>

==Europe==

===Denmark===
A study of school choice in [[Copenhagen]] found that an [[Immigration to Denmark|immigrant]] proportion of below 35% in the local schools did not affect parental choice of schools. If the percentage of immigrant children rose above this level, Danes are far more likely to choose other schools. Immigrants who speak [[Danish language|Danish]] at home also opt out. Other immigrants, often more recent ones, stay with local schools.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Rangvid | first1 = B. S. | title = School Choice, Universal Vouchers and Native Flight from Local Schools | doi = 10.1093/esr/jcp024 | journal = European Sociological Review | volume = 26 | issue = 3 | pages = 319–335 | year = 2009 | s2cid = 52832559 | doi-access = free }}</ref>{{Secondary source needed|date=April 2025}}

===Finland===
In Finland, white flight has been observed in districts where the share of non-Finnish population is 20% or above. In [[Greater Helsinki]] region, there are more than 30 such districts.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.uusisuomi.fi/uutiset/akuutein-kysymys-suomen-turvallisuuden-kannalta-ministeri-varoittaa-kielteisen-turvapaikkapaatoksen-saaneista/5455c5eb-9860-3a09-87d4-9413ca192c0f|title="Akuutein kysymys Suomen turvallisuuden kannalta" - Ministeri varoittaa kielteisen turvapaikkapäätöksen saaneista|date=May 28, 2017 |language=fi}}</ref> Those include e.g. [[Kallahti]] in [[Helsinki]], Suvela in [[Espoo]], and [[Länsimäki]] in [[Vantaa]].<ref>{{cite book |last=|first=|title=Yhteiskuntapolitiikka |publisher= |date=2013 |pages=485–497 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263773408}}</ref> Outside the Greater Helsinki region, the phenomenon has been witnessed at least in [[Varissuo]] district of [[Turku]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.turku.fi/sites/default/files/atoms/files/tutkimuskatsauksia_2014-3.pdf|title=Maahanmuuttajien asumisen keskittyminen Turussa|language=fi}}</ref>

===Ireland===
A 2007 government report stated that immigration in [[Dublin]] has caused "dramatic" white flight from elementary schools in a studied area (Dublin 15). 27% of residents were foreign-born immigrants. The report stated that Dublin was risking creating immigrant-dominated ''[[banlieues]]'', on the outskirts of a city, similar to such areas in France. The immigrants in the area included Eastern Europeans (such as those from [[Poland]]), [[Asians]], and [[Demographics of Africa|Africans]] (mainly from [[Nigeria]]).<ref>{{cite news|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024022221/http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/19/europe/EU-GEN-Ireland-White-Flight.php|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/19/europe/EU-GEN-Ireland-White-Flight.php |title=Report finds evidence of 'white flight' from immigrants in northwest Dublin|work=International Herald Tribune|date=October 19, 2007|archive-date=October 24, 2007 |access-date=April 20, 2011}}</ref>

===Norway===
White flight in [[Norway]] has increased since the 1970s, with the immigration of non-Scandinavians from (in numerical order, starting with the largest): [[Poles in Norway|Poland]], [[Norwegians with Pakistani background|Pakistan]], [[Iraqis in Norway|Iraq]], [[Somalis in Norway|Somalia]], [[Norwegian Vietnamese|Vietnam]], [[Norwegian Iranians|Iran]], [[Turkey]], [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], [[Russians in Norway|Russia]], [[Sri Lanka]], the [[Filipinos in Norway|Philippines]], the former [[Yugoslavia]], [[Thailand]], [[Afghanistan]], and [[Lithuania]]. 

The eastern part of Oslo is more mixed, with some schools up to 97% of immigrant background and in the borough of [[Grorud Valley|Groruddalen]] in 2008, the ethnic Norwegian population decreased by 1,500, while the immigrant population increased by 1,600.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/oslo/article3424942.ece |title=Ola og Kari flytter fra innvandrerne |work=Aftenposten |date=15 December 2009 |last=Slettholm |first=Andreas |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604155245/http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/oslo/article3424942.ece |archive-date=4 June 2011}}</ref>

Schools in Oslo are increasingly divided by ethnicity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dagsavisen.no/samfunn/rommer-til-hvitere-skoler/ |title=Rømmer til hvitere skoler |work=Dagsavisen |date=June 2, 2009 |last=Bredeveien |first=Jo Moen |trans-title=Escaping the whiter schools |language=no |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131031194723/http://www.dagsavisen.no/samfunn/rommer-til-hvitere-skoler/ |archive-date=October 31, 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article3228559.ece|title=Foreldre flytter barna til 'hvitere' skoler|work=Aftenposten|date=August 22, 2009|last=Lundgaard|first=Hilde|trans-title=Parents moving kids to 'whiter' schools|language=no|access-date=March 25, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090826184905/http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article3228559.ece|archive-date=August 26, 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> For instance, in the [[Groruddalen]] (Grorud valley), four boroughs which currently have a population of around 165,000 saw the ethnic Norwegian population decrease by 1,500 in 2008, while the immigrant population increased by 1,600.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.osloby.no/nyheter/Ola-og-Kari-flytter-fra-innvandrerne-5313778.html|title=Ola og Kari flytter fra innvandrerne|work=Aftenposten|date=December 15, 2009|last=Slettholm|first=Andreas|language=no}}</ref> In thirteen years, a total of 18,000 ethnic Norwegians have moved from the borough.<ref name=nett15110>{{cite news|url=http://www.nettavisen.no/nyheter/article2802878.ece|title=Noen barn er brune|work=Nettavisen|date=January 15, 2010|access-date=January 16, 2010|archive-date=January 22, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140122234941/http://www.nettavisen.no/nyheter/article2802878.ece|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In January 2010, a news feature from ''[[Dagsrevyen]]'' on the public [[Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation]] said, "Oslo has become a [[racially]] divided city. In some city districts the [[racial segregation]] starts already in kindergarten." Reporters said, "In the last years the brown schools have become browner, and the white schools whiter," a statement which caused a minor controversy.<ref name=nett15110/><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/01/14/nyheter/dagsrevyen/nrk/tv/tv_og_medier/9914499/|title=Et stort flertall av barna er brune|work=Dagbladet|first1=Gunnar|last1=Ringheim|first2=Line|last2=Fransson|first3=Lars Molteberg|last3=Glomnes|date=January 14, 2010|language=no}}</ref>

===Sweden===
After the [[World War II|Second World War]], immigration into Sweden occurred in three phases. The first was a direct result of the war, with refugees from [[concentration camp]]s and surrounding countries in Scandinavia and Northern Europe. The second, prior to 1970, involved immigrant workers, mainly from [[Finland]], [[Italy]], [[Greece]], and [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]. In the most recent phase, from the 1970s onwards, refugees immigrated from the [[Middle East]], Africa, and [[Latin America]], joined later by their relatives.<ref>{{harvnb|Andersson|2007|p=64}}</ref>

A study which mapped patterns of segregation and congregation of incoming population groups<ref>{{harvnb|Andersson|2007|p=68}}</ref> found that, if a majority group is reluctant to accept a minority influx, they may leave the district, avoid the district, or use tactics to keep the minority out. The minority group in turn react by either dispersing or congregating, avoiding certain districts in turn. Detailed analysis of data from the 1990s onwards indicates that the concentration of immigrants in certain city districts, such as [[Husby, Stockholm|Husby]] in Stockholm and [[Rosengård]] in [[Malmö]], is in part due to an immigration influx, but primarily caused by white flight.<ref>{{harvnb|Andersson|2007|pp=74–75}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Bråmå | first1 = Åsa | title = 'White flight'? The production and reproduction of immigrant concentration areas in Swedish cities, 1990–2000 | doi = 10.1080/00420980500406736 | journal = Urban Studies | volume = 43 | issue = 7 | pages = 1127–1146 | year = 2006 | bibcode = 2006UrbSt..43.1127B | citeseerx = 10.1.1.1004.4968 | s2cid = 154393033 }}</ref>

According to researcher Emma Neuman at [[Linnaeus University]], the white flight phenomenon commences when the fraction of non-European immigrants reaches 3-4%, but European immigration shows no such effect.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=http://fof.se/tidning/2015/7/artikel/segregeringen-okar-i-sverige|title=Segregeringen ökar i Sverige|work=Forskning & Framsteg|access-date=August 16, 2017|language=sv}}</ref> High income earners and the highly educated move out first, so the ethnic segregation also leads to class segregation.<ref name=":0"/>

In a study performed at [[Örebro University]], mothers of young children were interviewed to study attitudes on Swedishness, multiculturalism and segregation. It concluded that while many expressed values such as ethnic diversity being an enriching factor, when, in practice, it came to choosing schools or choosing which district to move to, ensuring the children had access to a school with a robust Swedish majority was also a consideration. This was because they did not want their children to grow up in a school where they were a minority, and wanted them to be in a good environment for learning the Swedish language.<ref name=":0" />

===United Kingdom===
For centuries, [[London]] was the destination for refugees and immigrants from continental Europe. Although all the immigrants were European, neighborhoods showed [[ethnic succession]] over time, as older residents moved out and new immigrants moved in, an early case of white flight (though the majority of London's population was still ethnic British).<ref name="Porter">{{cite book|author=Porter, Roy|author-link=Roy Porter|title=London: A Social History|url=https://archive.org/details/londonsocialhist00port|url-access=registration|location=Cambridge, MA|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1994|pages=[https://archive.org/details/londonsocialhist00port/page/132 132], 140|isbn=9780674538382}}</ref>

In the 2001 [[Census in the United Kingdom|census]], the London boroughs of [[London Borough of Newham|Newham]] and [[London Borough of Brent|Brent]] were found to be the first areas to have non-white majorities.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/uk/03/census_2001/html/ethnicity.stm |work=BBC News|title=Census 2001: Ethnicity}}</ref> The [[United Kingdom Census 2011|2011 census]] found that, for the first time, less than 50% of London's population were white British, and that in some areas of London white British people make up less than 20% of the population. A 2005 report stated that white migration within the UK is mainly from areas with a high ethnic minority population to those with predominantly white populations; white British families have moved out of London, as many immigrants have settled in the capital. The report's writers expressed concern about British social cohesion, and stated that different ethnic groups were living "parallel lives"; they were concerned that lack of contact between the groups could result in fear more readily exploited by extremists. In a study, the [[London School of Economics]] found similar results.<ref name="thetelegraph2005">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1483196/Whites-leaving-cities-as-migrants-move-in.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1483196/Whites-leaving-cities-as-migrants-move-in.html |archive-date=January 12, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|author=Johnston, Philip|title=Whites 'leaving cities as migrants move in'|work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]|date=February 10, 2005}}{{cbignore}}</ref> A 2016 BBC documentary, ''[[Last Whites of the East End]]'', covered the migration of whites from Newham to [[Essex]]. A 2019 ''Guardian'' article stated that "came to represent 'white flight' in the UK",<ref name="Guardian-Essex">{{cite news |title=The invention of Essex: how a county became a caricature |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jun/27/the-invention-of-essex-how-a-county-became-a-caricature |access-date=June 27, 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=June 27, 2019 |language=en}}</ref> and a 2013 ''Prospect'' magazine article gave Essex as an example of white flight.<ref name="Goodhart">{{cite news |last1=Goodhart |first1=David |title=White flight? Britain's new problem—segregation |url=https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/immigration-race-london-white-flight-david-goodhart |access-date=June 27, 2022 |work=Prospect |date=January 23, 2013}}</ref>

Researcher Ludi Simpson has stated that the growth of ethnic minorities in Britain is due mostly to natural population growth (births outnumbering deaths), rather than immigration. Both white and non-white Britons who can do so economically are equally likely to leave mixed-race inner-city areas. In his opinion, these trends indicate [[counter urbanisation]], rather than white flight.<ref>{{cite news|author=Dominic Casciani|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5304276.stm |title=So who's right over segregation?|work=[[BBC News]] Magazine|date=September 4, 2006|access-date=September 21, 2006}}</ref>{{sfn|Finney|Simpson|2009|loc=Myths and counterarguments: a quick reference summary}}

==North America==

===Canada===

====Toronto====
In 2013, the ''[[Toronto Star]]'' examined the "identity crisis" of [[Brampton]] (a suburban city in the [[Greater Toronto Area]]), and referring to [[Ethnic origins of people in Canada|white Canadians]], the "loss of more than 23,000 people, or 12 per cent, in a decade when the city's population rose by 60 per cent". The paper reported [[University of Manitoba]] sociologist Jason Edgerton's analysis that "After you control for retirement, low birth rate, etc. some of the other (shrinkage) could be white flight — former mainstream communities not comfortable being the minority."<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/05/24/brampton_suffers_identity_crisis_as_newcomers_swell_citys_population.html |title=Brampton suffers identity crisis as newcomers swell city's population |author=San Grewal|date=May 24, 2013 |work=[[Toronto Star]]}}</ref>

A 2016 article from ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', addressing the diversity of Brampton, acknowledged that while academics in Canada are sometimes reluctant to use the term of white flight, it reported that:
<blockquote>[...] the Brampton story reveals that we have our own version of white flight, and before we figure out how to manage hyper-diverse and increasingly polarized cities like Greater Toronto, we need to reflect on our own attitudes about race and [[ethnic diversity]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/brampton-a-story-of-political-importance-power-and-ethnic-enclaves/article30273820/ |title=How Brampton, a town in suburban Ontario, was dubbed a ghetto |author=Noreen Ahmed-Ullah|date=June 3, 2016 |work=[[The Globe and Mail]]}}</ref></blockquote>

In 2018, ''[[The Guardian]]'' covered the white flight that had occurred in Brampton, and how the suburban city had been nicknamed "Bramladesh" and "Browntown", due to its "73% visible minority, with its largest [[Ethnic groups in South Asia|ethnic group Indian]]". It was also reported how "the white population fell from 192,400 in 2001 to 169,230 in 2011, and now hovers around 151,000."<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/sep/04/canadian-cities-where-minorities-are-the-majority-markham-brampton |title='Everybody fits in': inside the Canadian cities where minorities are the majority |author=Sadiya Ansari|quote=White flight: Brampton is another majority-minority suburb, west of Toronto.|date=September 4, 2018 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

====Vancouver====
{{see also|Residential segregation in Greater Vancouver}}
In 2014, the Vancouver Sun addressed the issue of white flight across [[Metropolitan Vancouver]]. Detailing the phenomenon of "unconscious segregation", the article points to large [[East Asian Canadians|East Asian]] and [[South Asian Canadians|South Asian]] enclaves within Greater Vancouver such as [[Burnaby, B.C.|Burnaby]], [[East Vancouver]], [[Richmond, British Columbia|Richmond]], [[Vancouver South (federal electoral district)|South Vancouver]] and [[Surrey, BC|Surrey]]. In contrast, other cities and neighbourhoods within the metropolitan region such as [[Tsawwassen, British Columbia|Tsawwassen]], [[South Surrey]], [[White Rock, British Columbia|White Rock]] and [[Langley, British Columbia (district municipality)|Langley]] host equally large [[European Canadians|white]] enclaves.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://vancouversun.com/news/staff-blogs/of-vancouver-london-and-white-avoidance |title=London, Toronto, Vancouver undergoing "unconscious segregation" |author=Douglas Todd|date=November 23, 2014 |work=The Vancouver Sun}}</ref>

===United States===
{{see also|Ghetto riots (1964–1969)|Long, hot summer of 1967|1968 riots (disambiguation){{!}}1968 riots}}
In the United States during the 1940s, the [[Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956]], low-cost [[mortgage]]s through the [[G.I. Bill]], and [[Residential segregation in the United States|residential redlining]] enabled white families to abandon [[Inner city|inner cities]] in favor of suburban living and prevent ethnic minorities from doing the same. The result was severe [[urban decay]] that, by the 1960s, resulted in crumbling "[[ghetto]]s".  Prior to national data available in the 1950 US census, a migration pattern of disproportionate numbers of whites moving from cities to suburban communities was easily dismissed as merely anecdotal. Because American urban populations were still substantially growing, a relative decrease in one racial or ethnic component eluded scientific proof to the satisfaction of policy makers. In essence, data on urban population change had not been separated into what are now familiarly identified its "components." The first data set potentially capable of proving "white flight" was the 1950 census. But original processing of this data, on older-style tabulation machines by the US Census Bureau, failed to attain any approved level of statistical proof. It was rigorous reprocessing of the same raw data on a [[UNIVAC I]], led by [[Donald Bogue|Donald J. Bogue]] of the Scripps Foundation and Emerson Seim of the [[University of Chicago]], that scientifically established the reality of white flight.<ref>Bogue, Donald J. and Emerson Seim (Sept-Dec 1956) ''Components of Population Change in Suburban and Central City Populations of Standard metropolitan Areas: 1940 to 1950'' Rural Sociology.</ref>

It was not simply a more powerful calculating instrument that placed the reality of white flight beyond a high hurdle of proof seemingly required for policy makers to consider taking action. Also instrumental were new statistical methods developed by Emerson Seim for disentangling deceptive counter-effects that had resulted when numerous cities reacted to departures of a wealthier tax base by annexation. In other words, central cities had been bringing back their new suburbs, such that families that had departed from inner cities were not even being counted as having moved from the cities.<ref>Bogue, Donald J. (1957) ''Components of Population Change, 1940–1950'' published jointly by Scripps Foundation for Research in Population Problems: Miami University, and Population Research and Training Center: University of Chicago, esp. p. iv. Reprinted, in part for the value of the statistical methods, in Gibbs, Jack P. (1961) ''Urban Research Methods'' D. Van Norstrand Company: Princeton, NJ.</ref>

During the later 20th century, [[Economic restructuring|industrial restructuring]] led to major losses of jobs, leaving formerly middle-class working populations suffering poverty, with some unable to move away and seek employment elsewhere.  Real estate prices often fall in areas of economic erosion, allowing persons with lower income to establish homes in such areas. Since the 1960s and changed immigration laws, the United States has received immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America, Asia, and Africa. Immigration has changed the [[Demographics of the United States|demographics]] of both cities and suburbs, and the US has become a largely suburban nation, with the suburbs becoming more diverse. In addition, [[Hispanic and Latino Americans|Latinos]], the fastest growing minority group in the US, began to migrate away from traditional entry cities and to cities in the [[Southwestern United States|Southwest]], such as [[Albuquerque, New Mexico|Albuquerque]], [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]] and [[Tucson, Arizona|Tucson]]. In 2006, the increased number of Latinos had made whites a minority group in some western cities.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/20/AR2006082000629.html|first=Anushka|last= Asthana|author-link=Anushka Asthana|title=Changing Face of Western Cities: Migration Within U.S. Makes Whites a Minority in 3 More Areas|newspaper=Washington Post|date=August 21, 2006}}</ref>

====Catalysts====

=====Legal exclusion=====
In the 1930s, states outside the [[Southern United States|South]], where racial segregation was legal, practiced unofficial segregation via [[Covenant (law)#Exclusionary covenants|exclusionary covenants]] in title deeds and real estate neighborhood [[redlining]]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Crossney|first=Kristen|author2=Bartelt, David|title=Residential Security, Risk, and Race: The Home Owners' Loan Corporation and Mortgage Access in Two Cities|journal=Urban Geography|date=December 1, 2005|volume=26|issue=8|pages=707–736|doi=10.2747/0272-3638.26.8.707|s2cid=153649195|url=http://bellwether.metapress.com/content/h128812346540080/|access-date=April 12, 2008|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120709153741/http://bellwether.metapress.com/content/h128812346540080/|archive-date=July 9, 2012|url-status=dead|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mi.vt.edu/data/files/hpd+vol.16+issues+3+and+4/articles/hpd6%283,4%29+crossney.pdf |author1=Crossney |author2=Bartelt |title=2006 Housing Policy Debate |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080414023817/http://www.mi.vt.edu/data/files/hpd%20vol.16%20issues%203%20and%204/articles/hpd6%283%2C4%29%20crossney.pdf |archive-date=April 14, 2008 }}</ref>&nbsp;– explicit, legally sanctioned [[racial discrimination]] in real property ownership and lending practices. Blacks were effectively barred from pursuing homeownership, even when they were able to afford it.<ref name="crabgrass" /> Suburban expansion was reserved for middle-class and [[working-class]] white people, facilitated by their increased wages incurred by the war effort and by subsequent federally guaranteed mortgages (VA, FHA, HOLC) available only to whites to buy new houses, such as those created by the [[Federal Housing Administration]].<ref>''[http://wbhsi.net/~wendyplotkin/DeedsWeb/fha38.html "Racial" Provisions of FHA Underwriting Manual, 1938] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121220101009/http://wbhsi.net/~wendyplotkin/DeedsWeb/fha38.html |date=December 20, 2012 }}'' <br>
:"Recommended restrictions should include provisions for: prohibition of the occupancy of properties except by the race for which they are intended. ... Schools should be appropriate to the needs of the new community, and they should not be attended in large numbers by inharmonious racial groups." —[[Federal Housing Administration]], Underwriting Manual: Underwriting and Valuation Procedure Under Title II of the [[National Housing Act of 1934|National Housing Act]] With Revisions to February 1938 (Washington, D.C.), Part II, Section 9, Rating of Location.</ref> In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled that racially restrictive covenants could not constitutionaly be enforced by the states.<ref>Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948)</ref>

=====Roads=====
After World War II, aided by the construction of the [[Interstate Highway System]], many [[white Americans]] began leaving industrial cities for new housing in suburbs.<ref name=crabgrass>{{cite crabgrass}}</ref> The roads served to transport suburbanites to their city jobs, facilitating the development of suburbs, and shifting the tax base away from the city. This may have exacerbated [[urban decay]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Locational Dimensions of Urban Highway Impact: An Empirical Analysis|author=Wheeler, James O.|journal=Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography|volume=58|number=2|year=1976|pages=67–78|jstor=490613|doi=10.1080/04353684.1976.11879413}}</ref> In some cases, such as in the Southern United States, local governments used highway road constructions to deliberately divide and isolate [[black neighborhood]]s from goods and services, often within industrial corridors. In [[Birmingham, Alabama]], the local government used the highway system to perpetuate the racial residence-boundaries the city established with a 1926 racial zoning law. Constructing interstate highways through majority-black neighborhoods eventually reduced the populations to the poorest proportion of people financially unable to leave their destroyed community.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Connerly|first=C. E.|title=From Racial Zoning to Community Empowerment: The Interstate Highway System and the African American Community in Birmingham, Alabama|journal=Journal of Planning Education and Research|date=December 1, 2002|volume=22|issue=2|pages=99–114|doi=10.1177/0739456X02238441|s2cid=144767245}}</ref>

=====Blockbusting=====
{{Main|Blockbusting}}
The real estate business practice of "blockbusting" was a for-profit catalyst for white flight, and a means to control non-white migration. By subterfuge, real estate agents would facilitate black people buying a house in a white neighborhood, either by buying the house themselves, or via a white proxy buyer, and then re-selling it to the black family. The remaining white inhabitants (alarmed by real estate agents and the local news media),<ref>{{cite book|last=Ford|first=Richard Thompson|title=The Race Card: How Bluffing about Bias Makes Race Relations Worse|year=2008|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|location=New York|isbn=9780374245757|edition=1st|pages=290–291}}</ref> fearing devalued residential property, would quickly sell, usually at a loss. The realtors profited from these ''en masse'' sales and the ability to resell to the incoming black families, through [[arbitrage]] and the sales commissions from both groups. By such tactics, the racial composition of a neighborhood population was often changed completely in a few years.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/147.html|title=Blockbusting|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Chicago History|author=Hirsch, Arnold R.|author-link=Arnold R. Hirsch}}</ref>

=====Association with urban decay=====
{{Main|Urban decay}}
[[File:BrokenPromises JohnFekner.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Urban decay in the US: the South Bronx, New York City, was exemplar of the federal and local government's abandonment of the cities in the 1970s and 1980s; the Spanish sign reads "FALSAS PROMESAS", the English sign reads "BROKEN PROMISES".]]

Urban decay is the sociological process whereby a city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. Its characteristics are [[Population decline|depopulation]], [[economic restructuring]], abandoned buildings, high local unemployment (and thus poverty),<ref name="power" /> fragmented families, political [[disenfranchisement]], crime, and a desolate, inhospitable city landscape. White flight contributed to the draining of cities' tax bases when middle-class people left. Abandoned properties attracted criminals and [[street gangs]], contributing to crime.<ref name="power">{{Cite Power Broker|page=522}}. "The construction of the [[Gowanus Parkway]], laying a concrete slab on top of lively, bustling Third Avenue, buried the avenue in shadow, and when the parkway was completed, the avenue was cast forever into darkness and gloom, and its bustle and life were forever gone. {{ISBN|0-394-72024-5}}</ref>

In the 1970s and 1980s, urban decay was associated with Western cities, especially in North America and parts of Europe. In that time, major structural changes in global economies, transportation, and government policy created the economic, then social, conditions resulting in urban decay.<ref>{{cite book|last=Andersen|first=Hans Skifter|title=Urban Sores: On the Interaction Between Segregation, Urban Decay, and Deprived Neighbourhoods|year=2003|publisher=Ashgate|location=Burlington, VT|isbn=978-0-7546-3305-1}}</ref>

White flight in North America started to reverse in the 1990s, when the rich suburbanites returned to cities, [[Gentrification|gentrifying]] the decayed urban neighborhoods.<ref name="crabgrass"/><ref name=comeback>{{cite book|author=Proscio, Tony|author2=Grogan, Paul S.|title=Comeback Cities: A Blueprint for Urban Neighborhood Revival|url=https://archive.org/details/comebackcitiesbl00grog|url-access=registration|year=2000|publisher=Westview Press|location=Boulder, CO|isbn=978-0-8133-3952-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/comebackcitiesbl00grog/page/139 139–145]|quote=The 1965 law brought an end to the lengthy and destructive&nbsp;– at least for cities&nbsp;– period of tightly restricted immigration a spell born of the [[nationalism]] and [[xenophobia]] of the 1920s. [p.140]}}</ref>

=====Government-aided white flight=====
{{Main|Levittown}}
[[Image:LevittownPA.jpg|thumb|right|Aerial view of [[Levittown, Pennsylvania]] {{Circa|1959}}]]

New municipalities were established beyond the abandoned city's jurisdiction to avoid the [[legacy costs]] of maintaining city infrastructures; instead new governments spent taxes to establish suburban infrastructures. The federal government contributed to white flight and the early decay of non-white city neighborhoods by withholding maintenance capital mortgages, thus making it difficult for the communities to either retain or attract middle-class residents.<ref name=wilson>{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=William Julius|title=When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor|year=1997|publisher=Vintage Books|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-679-72417-9|title-link=When Work Disappears}}</ref>

The new suburban communities limited the emigration of poor and non-white residents from the city by restrictive [[zoning]]; thus, few lower-middle-class people could afford a house in the suburbs. Many all-white suburbs were eventually annexed to the cities their residents had left. For instance, [[Milwaukee|Milwaukee, Wisconsin]] partially annexed towns such as [[Granville, Wisconsin|Granville]]; the then mayor, [[Frank Zeidler]], complained about the socially destructive "Iron Ring" of new municipalities incorporated in the post–World War II decade.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=459264|title=Mayor served 'the public welfare': Longtime city icon known for integrity, energy, principles]|author=Borsuk, by Alan J.|newspaper=Journal Sentinel|date=July 8, 2006|archive-date=July 11, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060711031644/http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=459264}}</ref> Analogously, semi-rural communities, such as [[Oak Creek, Wisconsin|Oak Creek]], [[South Milwaukee, Wisconsin|South Milwaukee]], and [[Franklin, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin|Franklin]], formally incorporated as discrete entities to escape urban annexation. Wisconsin state law had allowed Milwaukee's annexation of such rural and suburban regions that did not qualify for discrete incorporation per the legal incorporation standards.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Rast|first=J.|title=Governing the Regimeless City: The Frank Zeidler Administration in Milwaukee, 1948-1960|journal=Urban Affairs Review|date=September 1, 2006|volume=42|issue=1|pages=81–112|doi=10.1177/1078087406289734|s2cid=154723219}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Curran, Donald J. Curran|title=Infra-Metropolitan Competition|journal=Land Economics|volume=40|number=1|date=February 1964|pages=94–99|doi=10.2307/3144466|jstor=3144466|bibcode=1964LandE..40...94C }}</ref>

=====Desegregation of schools=====
{{Main|Desegregation busing}}
In some areas, the post–World War II racial desegregation of the public schools catalyzed white flight. In 1954, the US Supreme Court case ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' (1954) ordered the ''[[de jure]]'' termination of the "separate, but equal" legal racism established with the ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'' (1896) case in the 19th century. It declared that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. Many southern jurisdictions mounted [[massive resistance]] to the policy. In some cases, white parents withdrew their children from public schools and established private religious schools instead. These schools, termed [[segregation academies]], sprung up in the American South between the late 1950s and mid-1970s and allowed parents to prevent their children from being enrolled in racially mixed schools.<ref>{{Cite book|title=After Brown: The Rise and Retreat of School Desegregation|url=https://archive.org/details/afterbrownrisere00clot|url-access=registration|last=Clotfelter|first=Charles T.|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2004|location=Princeton, NJ|pages=[https://archive.org/details/afterbrownrisere00clot/page/101 101]–109|isbn=9780691119113}}</ref>

Upon desegregation in 1957 in [[Baltimore|Baltimore, Maryland]], the Clifton Park Junior High School had 2,023 white students and 34 black students; ten years later, it had twelve white students and 2,037 black students. In northwest Baltimore, Garrison Junior High School's student body declined from 2,504 whites and twelve blacks to 297 whites and 1,263 blacks in that period.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bcps.k12.md.us/About/History/From_the_Oldorder1.asp|title=From the Old Order to the New Order–Reasons and Results, 1957-1997|publisher=Baltimore City Public School System|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040102085255/http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/About/History/From_the_oldorder1.asp|archive-date=January 2, 2004 }}</ref> At the same time, the city's working class population declined because of the loss of industrial jobs as heavy industry restructured.

In ''[[Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education]]'' (1971), the Supreme Court ordered the [[desegregation busing]] of poor black students to suburban white schools, and suburban white students to the city to try to integrate student populations. In ''[[Milliken v. Bradley]]'' (1974), the dissenting [[Justice William Douglas]] observed, "The inner core of Detroit is now rather solidly black; and the blacks, we know, in many instances are likely to be poorer." Likewise, in 1977, the Federal decision in ''Penick v. The Columbus Board of Education'' (1977) accelerated white flight from [[Columbus, Ohio]]. Although the racial desegregation of schools affected only public school districts, the most vehement opponents of racial desegregation have sometimes been whites whose children attended private schools.<!-- Where? When? This covers more than 20 years and specifics are important. --><ref>{{cite journal|author=Jacobson, Cardell K.|title=Desegregation Rulings and Public Attitude Changes: White Resistance or Resignation?|journal=[[American Journal of Sociology]]|volume=84|number=3|pages=698–705|jstor=2778261|doi=10.1086/226833|year=1978|s2cid=144859897}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/C-W-Nevius-Racism-alive-and-well-in-S-F-2504634.php|author=Nevius, C.W.|title=Racism alive and well in S.F. schools&nbsp;– here's proof|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle|date=September 9, 2007}}</ref>

A secondary, non-geographic consequence of school desegregation and busing was "cultural" white flight: withdrawing white children from the [[multiracial people|mixed-race]] public school system and sending them to private schools unaffected by US federal integration laws. In 1970, when the [[United States District Court for the Central District of California]] ordered the [[Pasadena Unified School District]] desegregated, the proportion of white students (54%) reflected the school district's proportion of whites (53%). Once the federally ordered school desegregation began, whites who could afford private schools withdrew their children from the racially diverse [[Pasadena, California|Pasadena]] public school system. By 2004, Pasadena had 63 private schools educating some 33% of schoolchildren, while white students made up only 16% of the public school populace. The Pasadena Unified School District superintendent characterized public schools as "like the bogey-man" to whites. He implemented policies to attract white parents to the racially diverse Pasadena public school district.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.penfamilies.org/documents/dailyjournal_5_17_04.pdf|author=Ryan, John|title=Tackling Local Resistance to Public Schools|work=Daily Journal|access-date=October 29, 2013|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304032828/http://www.penfamilies.org/documents/dailyjournal_5_17_04.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===== Crime =====
Studies suggest that rising crime rates were one of the reasons that white households left cities for suburbs in the 1960s and 1970s.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Cullen |first1=Julie Berry |last2=Levitt |first2=Steven D. |date=May 1, 1999 |title=Crime, Urban Flight, and the Consequences for Cities |url=https://doi.org/10.1162/003465399558030 |journal=The Review of Economics and Statistics |volume=81 |issue=2 |pages=159–169 |doi=10.1162/003465399558030 |bibcode=1999RvEcS..81..159C |s2cid=5840935 |issn=0034-6535|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boustan |first=Leah Platt |date=February 1, 2010 |title=Was Postwar Suburbanization "White Flight"? Evidence from the Black Migration* |url=https://doi.org/10.1162/qjec.2010.125.1.417 |journal=The Quarterly Journal of Economics |volume=125 |issue=1 |pages=417–443 |doi=10.1162/qjec.2010.125.1.417 |s2cid=2975073 |issn=0033-5533|url-access=subscription }}</ref>  Samuel Kye (2018) cites several studies that identified "factors such as crime and neighborhood deterioration, rather than racial prejudice, as more robust determinants of white flight".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kye |first=Samuel H. |date=May 1, 2018 |title=The persistence of white flight in middle-class suburbia |journal=Social Science Research |language=en |volume=72 |pages=38–52 |doi=10.1016/j.ssresearch.2018.02.005 |pmid=29609744 |issn=0049-089X|doi-access=free }}</ref> Ellen and O'Regan (2010) found that lower crime rates in city centers are associated with less out-migration to suburbs, but they did not find an effect on lower levels of crime attracting new households to the city.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ellen |first1=Ingrid Gould |last2=O’Regan |first2=Katherine |date=November 1, 2010 |title=Crime and urban flight revisited: The effect of the 1990s drop in crime on cities |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009411901000032X |journal=Journal of Urban Economics |language=en |volume=68 |issue=3 |pages=247–259 |doi=10.1016/j.jue.2010.05.002 |issn=0094-1190|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Oceania==

===Australia===
In [[Sydney]], Australian-born minority (white and non-white) people in [[Fairfield, New South Wales|Fairfield]] and [[Canterbury, New South Wales|Canterbury]] fell by three percentage points, six percentage points in [[Auburn, New South Wales|Auburn]], and three percentage points in [[Strathfield]] between 1991 and 1996. Only in [[Liverpool, New South Wales|Liverpool]], one of the more fast growth areas of Sydney, did both the Australia-born and overseas-born male population increase over the 1991-1996 period. However, the rate of growth of the overseas-born was far greater than that of the Australia-born, thus the sharp increase in Liverpool's population share from 43.5 per cent to 49 per cent by 1996. The Australia-born movers from the south-western suburbs relocated to [[Penrith, New South Wales|Penrith]] in the northwest and [[Gosford, New South Wales|Gosford]] and [[Wyong]] in the northeast.<ref>Birrell, Bob, and Seol, Byung-Soo. [http://elecpress.monash.edu.au/pnp/free/pnpv6n3/BirrSeol1.htm "Sydney's Ethnic Underclass"], ''People and Place'', vol. 6, no. 3, September 1998. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061002100113/http://elecpress.monash.edu.au/pnp/free/pnpv6n3/BirrSeol1.htm |date=October 2, 2006 }}</ref>

According to the [[New South Wales]] Secondary Principals Council and the [[University of Western Sydney]], public schools in that state have experienced white flight to private and Catholic schools wherever there is a large presence of [[Australian Aboriginal|Aboriginal]] and Middle Eastern students.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/308634/White-flight-from-Aussie-public-schools|title='White flight' from Aussie public schools|work=Sydney Morning Herald|date=March 10, 2008}}</ref>

In 2018, NSW Labor Opposition leader [[Luke Foley]] talked about White flight in Fairfield, where he stated that [[Iraqi Australians|Iraqi]] and [[Syrian Australians|Syrian]] refugees are replacing the [[Anglo-Australian]]s in the suburb, although he later apologised for the comments.<ref>{{Cite news | url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-24/foley-apologises-for-white-flight-comments/9796548 | title=NSW Labor leader apologises for 'white flight' migration comments| newspaper=ABC News| date=May 24, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/luke-foley-claims-anglo-families-are-fleeing-sydneys-suburbs-due-to-refugee-intake/news-story/6891c109b7cf15817cc6307b0e87432b | title=Luke Foley blasted for 'white flight' comments| date=May 23, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/24/luke-foley-defends-white-flight-comment-but-denies-dog-whistling | title=Luke Foley apologises for 'white flight' comment, saying he now knows it's offensive| newspaper=The Guardian| date=May 24, 2018| last1=Davies| first1=Anne}}</ref>

===New Zealand===
White flight has been observed in low [[Socio-Economic Decile|socioeconomic decile]] schools in New Zealand. Data from the [[Ministry of Education (New Zealand)|Ministry of Education]] found that 60,000 New Zealand European students attended low-decile schools (situated in the poorest areas) in 2000, and had fallen to half that number in 2010. The same data also found that high-decile schools (which are in the wealthiest areas) had a corresponding increase in New Zealand European students.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10813743|title=Claim of 'white flight' from low decile schools|work=The New Zealand Herald|author=Garret-Walker, Hana |date=June 18, 2012}}</ref> The Ministry claimed demographic changes were behind the shifts, but teacher and principal associations have attributed white flight to racial and class stigmas of low-decile schools, which commonly have majority Maori and Pacific Islander rolls.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/108575/some-pakeha-parents-stereotyping-maori-pupils-principals|title=Some {{As written|Pakeha}} parents stereotyping {{As written|Maori}} pupils&nbsp;– principals|publisher=Radio New Zealand|date=June 19, 2012}}</ref>

In one specific case, white flight has significantly affected Sunset Junior High School in a suburb of the city of [[Rotorua]], with the total number of students reduced from 700 to 70 in the early 1980s. All but one of the 70 students are Maori. The area has a concentration of poor, low-skilled people, with struggling families, and many single mothers. Related to the social problems of the families, student educational achievement is low on the standard reading test.<ref name="NZ_Herald_10392647">{{cite news |url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/warriors-still/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501094&objectid=10392647 |title='White flight' threatens school |author=Collins, Simon |date=July 24, 2006 |work=[[The New Zealand Herald]] |access-date=September 22, 2011}}</ref>

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Auto-segregation]]
* [[Black flight]]
* [[Ethnic succession theory]]
* [[Gentrification]]
* [[Levittown]]
* [[Multiculturalism]]
* [[Planned shrinkage]]
* [[Political demography]]
* [[Residential segregation]]
* [[Urban decay]]
* [[White demographic decline]]
* [[White genocide conspiracy theory]]
* [[Xenophobia]]
* [[New Great Migration]]
* [[White ethnostate]]
* {{anl|Racial segregation}}
* [[White separatism]]
* [[Racism against African Americans]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{Reflist|30em}}

'''Bibliography'''
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* {{cite book |author=Avila, Eric |title=Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |location=Berkeley |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-520-24811-3 }}
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* {{cite book|last=Kruse|first=Kevin M.|title=White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism|url=https://archive.org/details/whiteflightatlan0000krus|url-access=registration|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|location=Princeton, N.J.|isbn=978-0691133867|year=2007}}
* {{cite journal|author=Lupton, R.|author2=Power, A.|year=2004|title=Minority Ethnic Groups in Britain|journal=CASE-Brookings Census Brief|number=2|url=http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/CBCB/census2_part1.pdf}}
* {{cite book|last=Pietila|first=Antero|title=Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City|year=2010|publisher=Ivan R. Dee|location=Chicago|isbn=978-1566638432|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/notinmyneighborh0000piet}}
* {{cite journal|last=Schneider|first=J.|title=Escape From Los Angeles: White Flight from Los Angeles and Its Schools, 1960-1980|journal=[[Journal of Urban History]]|date=May 30, 2008|volume=34|issue=6|pages=995–1012|doi=10.1177/0096144208317600|s2cid=144743170}}
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* {{cite book |author=Sugrue, Thomas J. |title=The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |year= 2005 |isbn=978-0-691-12186-4 |title-link=The Origins of the Urban Crisis }}
* {{cite journal|author=Tarasawa, Beth|url=http://southernspaces.org/2009/new-patterns-segregation-latino-and-african-american-students-metro-atlanta-high-schools|title=New Patterns of Segregation: Latino and African American Students in Metro Atlanta High Schools]|journal=Southern Spaces|volume=2009|date=January 19, 2009|doi=10.18737/M7BC8G|doi-access=free}}
* {{cite journal|author=Wiese, Andrew|year=2006|url=http://southernspaces.org/2006/african-american-suburban-development-atlanta |title=African American Suburban Development in Atlanta|journal=Southern Spaces|volume=2006|doi=10.18737/M7CP4C|doi-access=free}}
{{Discrimination}}{{White people}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:White Flight}}
[[Category:Human migration]]
[[Category:Internal migrations in the United States]]
[[Category:Race and crime]]
[[Category:Suburban culture]]
[[Category:Urban decay in the United States]]
[[Category:Urban studies and planning terminology]]
[[Category:White Americans|Flight]]
[[Category:Racism in the United States]]
[[Category:Anti-black racism in the United States]]
[[Category:Racial segregation]]