A study of residential mobility patterns : a case study of Żabbar

Abstract

Migration is a broad concept and it is considered to be the movement of people from one place to another. One of the aspects of migration is residential mobility. This dissertation will examine the residential mobility patterns of the town of Zabbar. It will also examine the reasons and the motivation of why the people chose to live in Zabbar. It will investigate the localities from which the residents of Zabbar are coming from and if they are coming from the surrounding areas, such as Fgura, Marsascala, Żejtun and the Three Cities. These different aspects were examined through a questionnaire carried out to the residents to gauge the perception of the residents from the five different zones of this locality. The questionnaires were given to 150 respondents that live in this area, and they were only applicable to the head of households. Through the data analysis and results one can see the different aspects of residential mobility and how the respondents had different perceptions with regards to the reasons for living in Zabbar. These can be seen especially in education and the health and safety issues as the different zones had a lot of variations between them. One will also see how most respondents came from the Southern harbour as well as in the South Eastern region of the Maltese Island and the different facilities that the respondents are satisfied with.