Vol 39

This study is in two parts: the first and larger part is entirely empirical and consists of detailed analyses of migration flows to and from South East England over the 1970s and 1980s. It draws upon two Office of Population Censuses and Surveys' data sources: the National Health Service Central Register; and the Longitudinal Study. The first is used to monitor the year-on-year changes in migration flows between South East England and the counties of England and Wales, and includes some analyses of age-specific migration streams. The second is used to examine the social composition of the migration flows to and from the South East, and includes analyses of the effects of these migrations on the social class structure of the region. The second part of the study is more theoretical and speculative. It interprets these migration flows in terms of the effects of the housing-market-related business cycle: the effects of labour market restructuring; and the role that the South East plays as an 'escalator region' within the British "space-economy".