ALANA SMITH, POSTGRADUATE RESEARCHER TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

1. The Nexus of Housing Issues and Migratory Paths in Dublin’s City-Region: Challenges and Opportunities for the Celtic Kitten ALANA SMITH, POSTGRADUATE RESEARCHER TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN PRESENTED TO HOUSING STUDIES ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE YORK, ENGLAND 2010

2. For discussion today: • What is the context for uneven development in Dublin city region? • What is the National Spatial Strategy? • What about positing Dublin as a place of territorial belonging and the sense of identity and place transnational migrants experience? Hypothesis By exploring postmodern concepts of new regionalism, spatial economics and transnational migration, three key concepts supporting the importance and significance of place, I argue that factors and issues arising from these concepts have created opportunities and constraints for Polish labour migrants in Dublin, influencing a household’s mobility and housing consumption and (in)directly impacting the dynamic nature of the Irish housing system.

5. Dublin is the single most productive geographic area and the main engine for growth in Ireland. • The city region has the most concentrated number of high value jobs in the country and the highest per capita income and disposable income as a result. • Dublin demonstrates striking wealth disparities, persistent poverty and relative disadvantage. • The level of transient inward mobility and migration are consistently higher in Dublin than elsewhere in Ireland.

8. Key Concepts of the National Spatial Strategy • ➔ Potential is the capacity that an area possesses, or could in future possess, for development, arising from its endowment of natural resources, population, labour, its economic and social capital, infrastructure and its location relative to markets • ➔ Critical mass relates to size and concentration of population that enables a range of services and facilities to be supported • ➔ Gateways have a strategic location, nationally and relative to their surrounding areas, and provide national scale social, economic infrastructure and support services • ➔ Linkages in terms of good transport, communications and energy networks are vitally important to enable places and areas to play to their strengths.

9. Evolution of New Regionalism Krugman looked to …imperfect competition and increasing returns to scale (this is the key distinction), thereby giving status to geographical advantage in economic analysis. MYRDAL, 1957 - historical accident HIRSCHMAN, 1958 – backward and forward linkages FRIEDMANN, 1966 – core/periphery MARSHALL 1920 – early studies of spatial analysis KRUGMAN, 1993, 1996 - influence of transportation and the ‘hub effect’ on urban concentration

10. Due to the repetitive nature of transnational migration’s circular patterns, we see in the movements of people over time and their successive life course transitions that they not only build ties to their country of origin, but their geographical configurations - such as distance travelled, length of time apart, repetitive cycles, space-time life-worlds and local activity fields and experiences in both country of origin and destination - condition the transnational ties, social fields and networks, (Conway, Phillips and Potter, 2005:8).

11. “To enable every household to have available an affordable dwelling of good quality, suited to its needs, in a good environment, and, as far as possible, at the tenure of its choice.” Delivering Homes: Sustaining Communities, 2007 Irish Housing Policy Objective

12. Concluding Remarks • I welcome insight from projects completed or underway that have applied concepts of urban planning and economic geography into their discussions. • I am also interested in investigating best practices of these practices in similarly smaller sized countries, regardless of variances in the state intervention in the provision of housing, and how to draft policy papers using these concepts.

13. THANK YOU!