It is true that selective mobility into and out of neighborhoods is one of the driving forces of ethnic and socioeconomic segregation. This segregation  interrelatedness of neighborhood characteristics and residential mobility and selective residential mobility will affect neighborhood characteristics and this  neighborhood characteristics can be a trigger to move. It is important to  ethnic or racial differences in residential outcomes because of the strong effects residential location can have on social opportunities. We create a link between the segregation  and the residential mobility. We study who is successful in realizing their desire to leave the neighborhood and thereby focus on differences between ethnic groups. Hence the focus in this paper is on individuals who expressed a desire to leave their neighborhood.

However, we do neither know who actually succeed in leaving their neighborhood if they express a desire to leave, nor what neighborhoods they move to. More insight in this matter is important to better understand segregation, especially in the context of the scientific debate on voluntary and involuntary segregation. Not only the desire to leave the neighborhood may be selective, but also the probability of success. If there are differences between ethnic or racial groups in the wish to leave certain neighborhoods, segregation might be voluntary. However, if they want to leave, but are less successful than others in leaving, this may indicate that segregation is involuntary. So far, segregation literature has devoted little attention to the relationship between moving desires and actual mobility.