Classical Gentrification in a Formerly Working-Class Neighbourhood: Karlín as a Forerunner of Inner-City Migration Trends in Prague

During the transformation period, working-class neighbourhoods in the inner city of Prague have demonstrated a growing dynamism and attractiveness, as reflected in the recurrent changes in the socio-demographic composition of these neighbourhoods. This study investigates the changes in socio-demographic characteristics of people moving in and out of one of the most dynamic inner-city neighbourhoods in Prague – Karlín. The main objective of the paper is to understand and explain the impact of migration and quantify the characteristics of gentrification migration streams in this neighbourhood within the period 2010–2020. The migration data contains information regarding gender, age, marital status, state citizenship, and place of in- and out-migration. We demonstrate migration behaviour within the transforming housing estate from the 1960s, the new-built gentrification in New Karlín, and the classical gentrification in Old Karlín. The main outcomes of the analyses confirm that Karlín is going through an intense wave of classical gentrification, which is primarily driven by the influx of foreign migration and the displacement of the domestic population to other parts of the city. We argue that Karlín is a precursor of inner-city development in Prague and other Central and Eastern European cities, and gentrification has become the most important urban transformation process in contemporary Central and Eastern European cities.